Chocolate Manifesto - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie)

Chocolate Manifesto - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie) 10.5%

I was amazed by the intensity of the aroma, dark chocolate and milk chocolate primarily but with hints of tobacco, espresso and the slightest hint of dark fruit.

The flavour is of the same forceful character. Strongly chocolatey as designed but also dark fruit, some hints of dark cherry and other dark fruit, as well as a certain nuttiness. There is a cool, creamy, freshness to the flavour and though there is a long chocolate aftertaste and the beer is very sweet I don't find Chocolate Manifesto to be cloying or particularly heavy.

This is an exceptional beer, the kind that makes me happy to be a beer geek and to try new and innovative beers. There are lots of chocolate infused beers out there, I really like this one.

City and Colour - Flying Monkeys Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Barrie)

City and Colour - Flying Monkeys Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Barrie) 11.5%


Cloudy and the colour of maple syrup, not very carbonated but not flat despite having been aged for so long. In fact, the second glass I poured (into a red wine glass, for the record) had just under a finger's width of creamy, toffee coloured foam.

The aroma is strongly maple syrup and barleywine: malty with lots of prunes and other sticky dark fruit tones. Very sweet with maple but also barley candy and dark fruit tones. It has a bit of a syrupy mouthfeel but not more than you'd expect from a barley wine, which is a little less than you might expect considering this is an Imperial Maple Wheat. There is also some alcohol warmth, again as you would expect. This is a very sweet beer but the sweetness really works and City and Colour ends up being a magnificent barleywine-esque, strong maple ale.

Vanilla Barley Wine - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie)

Vanilla Barley Wine - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie) 11.3%

This magnificent barley wine is a dark cloudy brown in a glass (a pint glass!) on the Patio at the Arrow and Loon in Ottawa, with a creamy and resilient head of foam.

The aroma is straight vanilla at first but also toffee, caramel and sticky malt that comes to dominate. Some oaky wood tones, a bit of leather and some sweet espresso/coffee with milk added.

A creamy mouthfeel with caramel, vanilla, leather, smoke and mild wood flavours. Sweet initially with alcohol tones (though not as strong as you might expect from a beer that clocks in at a whopping 11.3% ABV) but the taste shifts (although it does so, so smoothly that it's much more like a glide) to a bitter finish and an aftertaste of barley candy. Overall, this is a really nice barley wine: sweet but balanced, malty, boozy and delicious featuring some very nice vanilla.

Hoptical Illusion - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie)

Hoptical Illusion - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie) 5.0%

Reddish brown gold in a glass. Nice frothy head. Hoppy cedar aroma with some sweet slightly dark and caramelized malt. Interesting deception here in the taste: not as hoppy as it smells. Cedar and resin or sap in the hops, fairly sweet and not very bitter - pretty nice and a mild man's American Pale Ale. Pretty neat concept, an illusion of strong hops in the aroma but actually having a much more mild hops flavour, and it was well executed with a clever name, a cool bottle cap and a cool label.

The Matador Imperial IPA - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie)

The Matador Imperial IPA - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie) 10%


The first thing I smell from the aroma is sweetness, and a hint of citrus or passionfruit and then the strong cedar and resin tones that characterize this Imperial IPA aged on Spanish Cedar. It pours a cloudy orange-gold colour with a lingering white head.

The taste is sweet with almost peachy fruit tones along with lots of malty, nearly caramel tastiness and the lovely balancing bitterness loaded with cedar tones, from the hops as well as from the actual cedar. There's nearly no sign of the high alcohol content either, which is quite surprising for a 10% ABV beer. Lots of resin and a peppery, spicy finish exactly as alluded to on the label. This large bottle of excellent beer is indeed perfect for sharing with beer aficionados.

Antigravity Light Ale - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie)

Antigravity Light Ale - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie) 4.0%

A light ale that promises to have flavour. We shall see.

A slightly pale gold in a glass. A sweet malty aroma with a touch of green hops and a fruit hint. A nicely light malty toasted dinner roll flavour with just a touch of hops that gives some nice, albeit light, balancing bitterness. Not a boatload of flavour but nice flavour indeed. Antigravity Light Ale lives up to its billing.