Two Brothers Monarch White Beer

Brewed By: Two Brothers Brewing Company in Warrenville, Illinois

Purchased: Single 12oz bottle from a 6-Pack from Jewel-Osco in Chicago, Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: Belgian White/Witbier, 4.5%

 

Today I'm checking out Two Brother's anniversary ale, their Monarch White Beer.

Two Brothers are based out of Warrenville, Illinois, a town not far from Chicago. Two brothers was founded in 1996 by brother Jason and Jim Ebel. Their brewery and Tap House Restaurant are both located in Warrenville. Their distribution and production seems to be increasing with each year, and along with their beer you can buy home brewing equipment and supplies at the Tap House Restaurant.  

According to the Two Brothers' Monarch White Beer page, the Monarch White is an anniversary ale brewed once a year, and in a small batch. The beer is brewed with unmalted wheat and oats for a "light body and crisp, refreshing finish." The beer is also spiced with coriander and orange peel, which gives the beer a traditional citrus aroma and flavor as per the style.

What is a Belgian White or a Witbier? Well, some popular commercial examples include Blue Moon Belgian White and Hoegaarden. If you roll over to BJCP style guidelines, you can get a better sense for what the style is supposed to entail. The aroma is described as being sweet, grainy, tart, and spicy with aromas of coriander or pepper. There can also be some zesty, citrusy orange. The appearance is supposed to be a pale straw color, with a cloudy haze. The flavor is a supposed to follow through with the aroma, with a refreshing, crisp, dry, and often tart finish. Overall, this is a medium-light to medium bodied beer that is refreshingly crisp but dry, effervescent, possibly tart, and full of wheat flavors, coriander, and orange.

With those guidelines taken into consideration, you can have some idea what to expect. Again, this beer is brewed with unmalted wheat and oats. This beer has 13 IBUs and clocks in at 4.5% ABV. Onto the review:  

Two Brothers Monarch White Beer

The appearance on the Monarch is good. The beer pours with 3-fingers of thick, pillowy, white head. The head quickly dissolves from 3-fingers worth to 1-finger worth, but the 1-finger of head is hanging around. The head is leaving some nice lacing, and really is sustaining some good thickness. In low light, this beer is a dark straw/gold color. In bright light, this beer is a pale straw/gold color. The beer is slightly hazy, with some sediment floating around, but you can still see through it. I would say this is transparent, but slightly hazy. There is quite a bit of carbonation in the form of large and small bubbles; this beer is quite effervescent.

The aroma on this beer is quite nice, with some very mild aromas. I'm pulling out aromas of wheat and oats, lots of clove and sugar, hints of banana, hints of a crisp and tart note, and some coriander and lemon. 

The taste is light and refreshing. There is no spice overkill, and in fact you mostly get wheat and oat type flavors. Maybe a touch watery or thin? I taste crisp hints of lemon, light coriander (leaning less on the spicy side), wheat, oats, clove, banana, and some big grainy notes up front and in the back palate. 

The mouthfeel on this is more like light-heavy to medium-light. This is super drinkable, light, crisp, refreshing, and slightly dry on the finish. At 4.5% ABV, you would have no problem knocking 6 of these back in an evening. Complexity is moderate for the style, and palate depth moderate. Up front you get oats, grain, coriander, and some good supporting carbonation; this rolls into some wheat, clove, and hints of banana in the middle; the back end is grain, wheat, and some lingering fruit(orange).

 

Rating: Average

Score: 74%

Overall, I feel like this beer is a great execution of the style. It's not blowing my mind or changing my outlook on life, but it's not offending or upsetting me either. It's maybe a touch thin or watery, but this is a style of beer that is supposed to be light and refreshing. I actually would strongly recommend people drink this beer, especially if it is available to you. If you are in the mood for a Witbier and your choices are Blue Moon or this, I would take this every day of the week. This is just a much, much, better beer.