Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale

North Coast Brewing Co.

In the back yard of the house in which I grew up was a little plum tree. Before the bears and racoons moved into the neighbourhood, the tree would bear more fruit than our family could harvest and consume, and plums would fall off the branches and pepper the grass around the tree. In the late days of summer, a younger me would play soccer in that back yard and the sweet smell of the fallen plums would be my constant companion.

There is a deep, sweet, over-ripe plum smell in North Coast Brewing Co.’s Brother Thelonious, named after jazz great Thelonious Monk, that takes me pleasantly back to this memory. It is complemented by roasted malt, burnt sugar and subtly spicy aromas. It pours a dark mahogany colour, with a smallish head and thick lacing.

The taste is deep, deep, deep—chocolate, burnt sugar, a teasing spiciness (not as strong and yeasty as in many Belgian-style ales) and, of course, those late summer plums. A rising alcohol warms and the finish is very sweet and very long for a beer with no strong hop taste.

Like all of the NCBC beers that I have reviewed, Brother Thelonious is complex and wonderful and masterfully created. Actually, I am getting tired of hearing myself gush over them but I think that they are really great beers. Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale is no exception.

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Pranqster

North Coast Brewing Co.

To be perfectly honest, I picked up this Belgian-style ale based entirely on the revelatory goodness of the brewery’s amazing Ruedrich’s Red Seal Ale.

This beer is to orange what RRSA is to red—it is a gorgeous amber-orange colour, foggy for having not been filtered. I leave about a ¼ inch of sediment on the bottom of the bottle when I pour. It was a rough pour, but even this couldn’t manage to create a proper head. Nevertheless, what little head there is leaves thin laces on the sides of my glass as I drink.

Maybe I have orange on the brain or something, but Pranqster even smells vaguely of oranges, together with a spicy, Belgian-style yeast aroma.

The taste is subtle. Where other Belgian-style beers can be very strong (I’m thinking Unibroue here), Pranqster is relatively soft and light. Sweet malt turns gently to citrus and spices which fade slowly as the alcohol taste rises.

Because of its gentleness, I think Pranqster would be a good transition into Belgian-style ales for someone looking to explore that wonderful world for the first time. I served it a little too cold, and, as it warmed up a little, it got even more enjoyable.

While I generally prefer the stronger Belgian-style ales, Pranqster is really very good at what it does. Really, what more can we ask of a beer?

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