Right off the hop (pun incidental) the talented primates in Barrie who somehow manage to contain their rampant creativities to occasionally cram some beer into some bottles and put labels on them, impressively manage to do so with exceeding success.
FREE BONUS TIP: If you spot a colorful box that could contain a wine bottle emblazoned with the words "Flying Monkeys", buy it. Don't hesitate. You need the adventure.
This is one of these magical sort of boxed bottles. El Toro Bravo is presented to the consumer housed within a shiny cardboard box flanked by a brilliant reproduction of a "toro" apparently in oil on canvas by artist Bruce Chalmers. As is par for the Monkeys boxed beer offerings there is a goodly amount of reading available should one be so inclined.
The beer itself is typically atypical. A rye brew sporting a 10.1% endowment of yeasty metabolite aged on a bed of spanish cedar. Who comes up with this madness?
It's dark. But not black by any means. More mahogany than brown. The flavors are cataclysmic. Wood, leather, Cuban cigars, poetry, cedar, motorcycles in the rain, evergreen needles, solid brass fixtures, adventure, debauchery, tall tales, toffee and fond memories crowd the palate. If Hemingway himself were reincarnated as a craft beer here he is. Best consumed late in the evening with good friends, lest you become inclined to run with bulls or attempt some equally hazardous game meant for a younger man.
Brilliant execution. Madness or genius?
100/100
