Brooklyn Monster Ale

Yesterday, I did my first local purchase of this beer, and sat down to glass of it. Today, I look back on my first taste of it, from eight years ago, October, 2003, where I blathered on and on. Observe:

I loves me a nice barleywine, and Brooklyn calls theirs a "monster", do they? Well, let's have at it, already! 

Appearance: coppery color, with a short-lived head...so far, "eh"... 

Aroma: now, we're cookin'! Sweetness incarnate, redolent of a full orchard of fruits, burnished and converted to a proper cognac-y character. Alcohol is huge here, with cherries, brandy, leather, fire, tobacco, smoke, all pitching suggestions into this bonfire...this is the type of beer that makes me pity wine drinkers...is there an aroma as rich and full and fine as this to be found in a bottle of vino? A very bewitching aroma! 

Thick texture, syrupy mouthfeel, lip-smackin', delicious, and packin' heat! Lush, full malt, low hops, but thoroughly intoxicating...screw your Manhattans, your Hennessys, your Flavor-of-the-Month-Martinis, put your lips to a barleywine such as this for a full, boozy sensation! 

A benign Monster, this, powerful, but not vicious, stinging, but without malice, prodigious, but never punishing, with a long, near-lethal finsh.... 
A damned fine barleywine.