The Bruery Black Orchard

Formerly brewed at The Bruery
Style: Belgian Ale
Placentia, California USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

Fruity aroma of cherry and apricot. Extreme carbonation. Nice sour flavor with roasted malts.

75 cl bottle @ O’Hara’s Freehouse. Rated on 09.03.2010
Brown color, looks a bit like cola. Big headAroma is sweetish and stale with spices, some brown sugar and hints of toffee. Flavour is a bit thin with wheat, some licorice and burned sugar. Sour finish. Palate is a bit too high on CO2. Rather typical Belgian dark ale.

Black Orchard pours a very dark brown with ruby red highlights if held up to the light. It pours a huge carbonated head. Like soda. Just like soda the head fizzes away quickly to what you see above. The smell is actually pretty good. Chocolate and caramel malt. Light amount of spice. Pretty decent aroma. But the taste is where the beer just falls apart for me. I understand it’s a wheat beer and a lot of times wheat beers won’t blow you away but the taste in this beer was almost non existent. Everything was faint. Small amount of sweet chocolate and that was about it. Disappointing. Mouthfeel is highly carbonated and medium. I’d say skip this one if you want to get into beers from these guys. They make better.

UPDATED: JUN 9, 2012 A: Dark brown body, tan/khaki head, lots of head, good retention, some lacing S: Wheat, belgian yeast, orange peel, some roasted malt. T: An interesting take... citrus and orange peel, wheat throughout, the roasted malt in the nose isn’t as heavy and leads to a very delicate dark beer... characteristic belgian yeast lingers M: Light-medium body defying the color’s indications... smooth flavor transitions, clean finish. O: Fairly drinkable. A nice complement to the Orchard White. [Old Review]

Tasted on tap at The Bruery. It poured dark brown with a reddish hue. Aroma had roasted malts with spices. The flavor had a cola taste to it, along with some caramel and some yeast.

Pours a nice dark brown. Even with a slow pour I received a massive tan head. Smells strong of yeast, sugar, and malt. A little bit of a roasted sour smell too. Very odd smelling beer. Tastes almost like a sour mixed with a Belgian mixed with some random junk. Very sour almost vinegar-esque up front with a massive amount of carbonation that just rapes your mouth to the point that the beer really has no flavor. There are some slight hints of burnt and some faint wheat flavors but all in all this beer is quite disappointing.

Bottle:   Dirty cola, very heavy and brown, large frothy off-white head, even a little fizzy, sparce lacing.   Soft funky/yeasty nose.   Very soft mustiness.   Has a bit of a roasted malt flair, but its faint.   Reminds me of a Belgian Ale with some roasted malts tossed in.   Slight spices, maybe some muted corriander.   This is an interesting one to day the least.   Fairly spritzy on the tongue.   Yeah, Belgian all, all funky and basement like with a roasted malt background.   Maybe a Single or something?   Anyways, clean, with shrubbish aftertaste, along with the roasted malts.   Tiz okay, but could stand to be a bit sweeter.   Would settle for many of their other offerings before this one.   Not bad, just not all that memorable.

bottle... dark brown beer with a light medium head, good looking... really light nose, chocolate, with a bit of oats... taste is lightly roasted chocolate, not bad but boring and not worth drinking

Dark brown to black in color. Tons of head on pour. Smells dry. Nut shells and baking spices. Tart fruit. Tastes of more fruit. Kind of muddled up. Dull spice as well. OK but boring.

Bottle shared by Stlwill. Thanks a lot Will. Pours dark brown with a white head. Aroma is wheat, roasted malts and a hint of citrus. Flavor is white grapes, apples, wheat and a hint of citrus. Pretty sure this beer was infected.