How do you catch a blind pirate? It’s not as easy it sounds. Or at least, it wasn’t so easy for me to catch a taste of Monday Night Blind Pirate, a double India Pale Ale from Georgia’s own Monday Night Brewing Company. You see, I’ve seen this beer on tap at Taco Mac in the past, but when I got around to ordering it up, the keg had kicked and that was that.

Luckily, that wasn’t the case on a recent Sunday afternoon spent watching football at my local Canton Taco Mac, and I did get to order the stuff and have a mug (a full mug mind you, not one of those piddly little 11-ounce glasses) brought before me. As I am normally wont to do, I posted a picture to that most august body of beer aficionados, Honest Craft Beer Reviews on facebook, and scribbled some notes on what I thought of the beer. During commercials of course; I was there to watch football after all.

Anyway, when I searched the group later for my post, I got another hit I had posted, which was some beers I had bought in February of 2014. And sure enough, one of them was Monday Night Blind Pirate in a bomber bottle, which I had placed in my stash and somehow lost. Imagine that. Anyway, the post prompted me to search for that bottle, which I have indeed now located, and will get back to you with details on that in an update sometime soon. It will be interesting to try the Blind Pirate with a bit of age, but first let’s see how it was fresh on tap at Taco Mac, shall we?

Here’s what Monday Night says about their beer on the label:

A surprisingly balanced double IPA. A pirate without the use of his eyes is a bitter man indeed. And this Blind Pirate’s bitterness is only matched by his boldness. He doesn’t care if you enjoy the citrusy, spicy combination of hops on your tongue, the faint herbal notes in your nose, or the exquisite balance of caramel malts looting your senses. The Blind Pirate is a bold, bitter ale not for the weak in spirit. Just don’t ask him if you can borrow his sight glass. He gets offended.

Ingredients from the website:

Hops: Simcoe, Willamette, Columbus, and Cascade

Malts: Marris Otter as a base malt, with Munich, caramel, and a smidge of wheat

Monday Night Blind Pirate has an alcohol content of 8.2% by volume and a whopping 85 IBUs. The brewery says it was rolled out in May of 2013, but it has now become one of their mainstay products. I paid $7 for my draft mug at Taco Mac, but again that was a full 20 ounces of beer so I think that was fair. I paid $8.99 for my bomber bottle.

My mug of Monday Night Blind Pirate arrived a very dark amber color with a thick, full and foamy head formation and an absolutely sinful big resiny pine nose. Taking a sip, I got thick chewy caramel maltiness up front, and that made me so happy indeed. Fear not, as hops abound here too, massive sticky pine tar resin aroma and flavor, and to top all of that off a very massive bitter finish. Indeed, this beer had so much resin about it that my hands were sticking to the glass as I drank.

I was extremely impressed with Monday Night Blind Pirate. I was reminded of it a few weeks later while taking out the Christmas tree with all that sticky pine sap on my hands. I smelled them and thought, “Monday Night Blind Pirate!”. But this one is commendable for the solid malt backbone as well. It’s a beer that I really enjoyed, and absolutely a beer I will enjoy again.

Update 1/15/2015: I'm back! Did you miss me? I found my bottle of Blind Pirate from almost a year ago, and I popped it tonight. It's pretty amazing folks, and another example of how nonsensical this business is of having to drink IPAs 5 minutes after you leave the parking lot of the liquor store. It's as amazing as it was fresh on tap, thick and chewy malty, sticky pine tar resiny, and massively bitter. Have the hops mellowed at all? A tad perhaps, but this one is still a hop bomb and I am loving the hell out of it, and the way the malt is a bit more prominent.

From the label:

"Heaven, you fool? Did you ever hear of any pirates going thither?"-Thomas Sutton, Pirate.

Thomas Sutton might have changed his tune had he a bottle of Monday Night Blind Pirate.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

(G)=Growler