Rock Art Brewery - Vermontster

Rock Art Brewery is one that I discovered in my travels to Vermont and Keene, NH. I still can't get any of their brews out in the seacoast area, and I've made a mental note, again, to ask some of my distributor friends about the reason why.

The Vermonster was brewed as a 10th anniversary ale, and unlike the rather weak barleywine that I tried from Rock Art before (see my Ridge Runner Review), this one is all guns blazing. It is made with 110 pounds of malt per barrel! The smell gives some of this away as well, with a nice deep citrus and almost roasty aroma.

The color is a dark walnut or cherry brown, and looks beautiful when held up to the light. It has a very bitter, syrupy and thick mouthfeel.

Its described as a barleywine style ale. It comes on with some hops but the malts to a great job of giving it some depth. It is certainly not a sweet barleywine, but is instead a maltier one.

The taste is of alcohol with a little bitterness that adds some intrigue, and I'd go as far to say that I might like this one even better than I like the Portsmouth Brewery's barleywine. (Though, of course, I'd have to taste both side by side to be sure).

I'm sorry I don't have a picture of this, so I hope you will accept in its place a short video of the head brewer at Rock Art explaining the beer and their label. Enjoy!

Vermonster from Matt and Renee on Vimeo.