Flying Monkeys - Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale

So, as you'll recall, Jeff and I did the pre-Valentine's Day dinner at the Wooly - and he had this beer on tap. 


He just cracked open a new bottle of this one tonight, so here are his notes:


Flying Monkeys Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale

Flying Monkeys is a brewery based out of Barrie and used to be known as the Robert Simpson Brewing Company. I remember trying their Confederation Ale years ago. I don't so much remember the beer as the bottle - which had a colour changing strip to let you know when the beer was cold - its likely not a great sign that I remember the packaging over the product. 


Since then the brewery rebranded themselves as Flying Monkeys. The first beer I had from them was Hoptical Illusion. That beer is a fridge favourite of mine. I normally always have at least a 6-pack of that in the house. But I'm not going to be talking about Hoptical Illusion today. Instead I'll be talking about Flying Monkeys' Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale.

To start off, this is I think only the second beer in this style that I've had - the other one being Garrison's Black I.P.A. The simplest description I'd say is that it combines the roastiness of a dark beer like a stout with the hoppiness profile of an I.P.A. In this case, the hoppiness of a West coast I.P.A. (so lots of grapefruit). 


When I first heard about this style of beer it didn't really make any sense to me. All I could think of was "coffee meets grapefruit" - and that didn't seem too promising. But hey, I'll try any beer at least once.

The Netherworld pours a dark burnt orange (?) with a nice bubbly head that leaves behind some nice lacing. To me, it smells like an amalgam of coffee and grapefruit. Tasting it, I first taste the coffee/roasted malt flavours that lead into - guess what - the citrusy hop flavour. And yet - it works?!?! Its an interesting beer for sure. I'm not about to start adding fresh grapefruit to my morning coffee but I will be drinking this beer again. In fact the other night I had it on tap (feature tap) at the Wooly with prime rib and it was fantastic. (Wifey edit: For the record, he had two pints and he was giddy at the prospect of having it that night).