The Bruery Black Tuesday Imperial Stout

Brewed by The Bruery
Style: Imperial Stout
Placentia, California USA

Big thanks to kiefdog for sharing this beauty. Pours glass staining darkness with brown edges and short lived dark tan head. The aroma is pretty insane with rich notes of roast, caramel, Canadian maple syrup, bourbon booze heat and coconut. The taste is silky smooth and yet punishing my palate with pure yum right from the start. I get sweetness from maple syrup, creamy caramel candy and some milk chocolate. It then quickly moves into bourbon, coconut, vanilla and another surge of maple syrup. It ends with lingering blending smooth and silky notes of caramel, coconut, maple syrup and a bit of bourbon. Wow!

I purchsed a couple bottle from the brewery and handed them out as gifts. A great beer to share with friends.

Right up there with the Dark Horizon First Edition as one of my top Imperial Stouts. Very tasty Caramel, Molasses, Brown Sugar, Vanilla, Prune, Plum, and Oak mix. These same ingredients create a top notch and heavy aroma that is noticeable with each sampling. Thick body with slight Head. Overall it’s very good right now and see no reason to age here.

Bottle pours pitch black with tan head. Aroma is amazing. I detect subtle notes of bourbon, slight oxidation, dark roast, coffee, chocoate, and dark grain. This has a really pronounced dark grain aroma that just dominates. If you have ever brewed with dark grains that is what it smells like. Those black grains just stand out the most for me in the nose. Dense and viscous mouthfeel. Flavor has a touch of alcohol, bourbon, coffee, grains, and finishes somewhat chocolate sweet with a slight grain astringency. The sweet chocolate and grain astringency finish knock this beer down a bit for me. I don’t care for the sweetness or astringency. And that is what I’m left with as it finishes. It has all the layers of complexity that make it a remarkable if not one of the best beers on the planet. I just wish it finished better. Still a nice beer to try either way.

Black with brown edges and a small dark brown head that struggles for survival and eventually settles as a everlasting brown ring. Aroma is initally sweet with notes of brown sugar, vanilla, raw woody bourbon, cold coffe, molasses, brownie cookies and alcohol (alcohol in a fine spirit kind of way.) Flavour is big and genereous, takes a few sips to get the hang of it and the whole glass to collect all the flavours which amongst others are milky chocolate and dark chocolate, bourbon, caramell and toffe, a touch of vanilla, wood and dark fruit such as plums and raisins. Its warming as it goes down but still suprisingly balanced with very well integrated alcohol. Mouthfeel is quite chewy, a bit sticky and thick, thick enough to allow one to enjoy small sips without feeling cheated of something. The little carbonation present is perfect for the size of the beer and it would not have been the same without it. Didnt really expect to consider this beer balanced but to my suprise it was with a big sweetness balanced by a extreme amount of woody bourbon flavours. The Bruery really pulls of those big sweet beers, those that I often have a rather hard time with.

On tap @ the release, 10/27/09. Black with a small cinnamon head, fair retention. Lots of roast up front with some soy and chocolate--much roastier with more soy than the Chocolate Rain, which I had first. Oak and bourbon are noticeable, but far from dominating. Flavor is fairly sweet with tons of heat. Roasty soy finish, bitterness peaked at a 4. Light carbonation, very thick, heavy, syrupy, etc. Huge beer--a 750mL could and probably would go through eight people, unless one person wanted to give themselves diabetes. Despite its claims, I can’t see how it is 19.5%--way too much residual sugars. it isn’t ungodly underattenuated, but it is definitely sweeter than Dark Lord--more alcohol burn, too. Overrated and hyped a bit too much, IMO.

41st rating of this big ole impy. So I’ve been excited to try this but, so out of the loop I didn’t get any bottles of my own. I had this tonight at the tasting Joey from South Bay Hosted at La Bella’s Pizza. The brew pours black with a nice light brown head. Nose is sweet, smokey, oaky and smooth with burnt coffee and chocolate. Taste is sweet, choco but very very hot. The mouth feel is kind of overwhelming at first. It kind of fills my mouth. Also its way hot right now in my opinion. Its too much on the throat at first above warming, almost ethcing. I think with a couple more years this will get really excelletn.

Thanks to Greg for the sample at johns. Much appreciated! Pours pitch black with a small tan head. Aroma is up front raisin, vanilla, figs, plums, and brown sugar. Lots of dark fruit along with chocolate are sitting in the background, and the alcohol is really prominent after a good amount of sniffing and swirling. The flavor, unfortunately, is a bit of a mess.

Up front this beer has a great bourbon/vanilla flavor, and quite a bit of chocolatey goodness. Molasses and toffee round out the good parts. Very rich. It all falls apart when the cloying sweetness hits you. All of the great notes of the beer get dominated by the under-attenuation, think amaretto sweetness and you are getting close. After a few sips I’m just overwhelmed. Not enough is going on to offset the cloying aspects of this beer; it doesn’t try to hide it one bit. It also had a bit of over roasted coffee thrown in that I didn’t pick up at all in the nose. I had a rough time getting through my pour and I think if I would have finished it my score would be lower. If ever a beer demanded to be drank in 4oz portions for maximum enjoyment, I’d say this is the one.

The finish is very viscous, almost exactly what you would expect it to be. Carbonation is very soft and works really well. It does have a decent bit of peppery alcohol bite, think tequilla. Being a big spirit drinker I’d certainly question the 19.5% claim on this one though, I’d peg it more in the 15-16% range. If they hit ~20, I’d be impressed with the lack of alcohol presence. Overall this is a very nice imperial stout and I look forward to trying it again. I could see myself drinking this one in place of a nice port after a meal or when I have a craving for sweets.