The Bruery Black Tuesday Imperial Stout

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

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: OCT 28, 2009 draft at the release, bottle was a touch better than draft! Just a couple small samples from the Bruery crew themselves at downtown johnny browns 22nd annv. Huge brew, alc and bourbon are not that noticable esp considering the alc level is 18-19%. Great part is if you ever open one of these you will need several people to share 1 bottle with. Dark rich thick sticky bourbon. like sweetened condensed milk but with stout and bourbon. not that sweet i guess. super complex and it opened up and grew bigger with just a couple minutes in a glass. not sure how / if this will age. hoping a long long time but it’s a freak and can’t wait to re-rate from my own bottle and the black rain!

GABF ’09. Pitch black with a very thin, fine brown head. Huge roasted aroma with charred grain, booze, treacle, and dark chocolate. Syrupy sweet and astringent elements with dowrigtht burnt malt flavors. Bourbon barrel characteristics are infused throughout and when combined with the alcohol make for a huge mouthfeel. The beer hold together well for its size, but just barely. It was an interesting experience.

UPDATED: AUG 22, 2011 Sampled a few times at GABF. Black pour with some tan head. Aroma of dark chocolate, bourbon, oak, vanilla. Basically insane aroma. Some sherry. Flavor is sweet with strong chocolate and dark sugars. Thick, slick mouthfeel. I’m shocked to learn how high the ABV is.

2009 GABF Taster 3 days in a row 2 tasters each day. This stuff has lived up to the hype. Pours out a solid jet black like molasses with a brown head. Aroma was over the top. I think I could sniff on this for hours. Rich malts, sweetness like no other, brown sugar, molasses, bourbon, vanilla, along with oak. Taste was just as good. Lots of sweetness pit fruit, brown sugar, milk chocolate, and plenty more. This thing was 20% I would have guessed maybe 10%. Very well done.

UPDATED: SEP 25, 2010 sample from the pitcher poured by Patrick Rue @ the 2010 GABF on 9/17/10. pitch black pour with no head. huge bourbon nose with layers of oak and vanilla.... almost too in your face. thick chewy body with notes of molasses, syrup, huge roasted malts, bourbon, caramel and licorice. smooth, sweet bourbon barrel chocolate finish. there is so much going on with this one.... a true sipper for sure. If you are fortunate enough to get your hands on a bottle - share it w/ a few people.

sample from the pitcher at GABF on 9/26/09... glad I knew this was being poured at 3 pm - got in line and got to try this one... Black Tuesday was a definite stand out for me at the 2009 GABF. This is an incredible extreme Imperial Stout loaded with tons of flavor. pours a deep dark black with a tan head... brilliant bourbon, vanilla nose with some dark fruit, sherry notes, and sweet malts... big body... but very well balanced... the bourbon notes are prevalent but not too strong... the high abv doesn’t really show its face... extremely smooth overall with a big sweet finish. ISO.

2 samples @ GABF 2009. One of the standouts from the festival. A huge imperial stout much like Black Hole, but without a big alcohol burn. Smooth with tons of dark fruit sweetness. Excellent.

UPDATED: JAN 14, 2010 This is a beer for the easily-impressed.

Dense black with a toffee colored head. Burnt plastic/petroleum astringent malts in the nose covered with a overly sweet reduced amaretto and toffee caramel nose. Hot and boozy with cloying and messy sugars. The burnt vanilla bean and overt bourbon notes are extreme but only pretend to add complexity when really they only add to the mess. The bourbon character is cloying and syrupy while the oak is non-existent. So what’s good about it? Hefty structure, low but tight carbonation fits the thickness well, and even though I find the sweetness at times overbearing, this works well as a dessert beer much like their Malange #3. That said, I’m not surprised to find this another overrated bourbon barrel imperial stout. The wow factor is inflating the numbers. I thought people knew better by now.

UPDATED: NOV 14, 2009 #600! (re-rate) Pours a thick oily black with thin dark brown head. Nose is big bourbon, wood, sweet SWEET malt, loads of roast, dark fruits, fig, cocoa, burnt coffee, smoke, vanilla and hints of bourbon. Flavor is SWEET! Holy. Slight sherry notes, bourbon, hints of madiera, tons of roasted malts, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, dry wood, nuts. Mouth feel is huge, almost syrupy, thick and oily.Very VERY warming as you drink it. It hides the near 20% well, but it’s really really, nearly cloyingly sweet. With that said, this beer is something else. What a creation. Can’t wait to try another bottle of this batch in about 5 years to se where it goes. Cheers Bruery!

GABF 2009. Holy bejesus, was this good. Super thick, resiny, oil like pour. Smell is oak, chocolate, fruit, and booze. Smelled like a fine Port, or even a Sherry and the flavor was similar. The oak and Bourbon make their appearance, but it’s not overdone, and only adds to the overall flavor. This is about as good as a stout can get.

UPDATED: NOV 21, 2009 Bottle sampled at the GABF several times over. Huge line every time but I made sure to be there. Think I ended up trying 4-5 ounces of this beer in total. Talked to some guy in line who had bought a case of this stuff. That’s one hell of a market to corner. The last time I had this was right after Sam Adams Utopias ’09, and this was way better than Utopias. Pours viscous and black with a nice lasting tan head and decent lacing. Amazingly, doesn’t appear nearly as motor oil-like as I expected. Final gravity must be a bit lower than something like Dark Lord. The aroma is incredibly complex, with dark fruits and vanilla jumping out at you immediately. Cherry and sweet port in particular, along with oak, bourbon, chocolate, and coffee. The smell is out of this world. As far as flavor goes, where do I start? If you want it in a beer, Black Tuesday probably has it. Of course you get your typical RIS flavors of roasted malt, coffee, and chocolate. Then there’s the dark fruits: black cherries, plums, port wine, and concord grapes, with slight tannins. On top of that you get bourbon, vanilla, oak, molasses, earth, and caramel. The flavor is incredibly complex and perfectly balanced. It’s on the sweet side, but in a way that works very well. Some alcohol warmth, but only very subtle alcohol in the flavor. The palate is thick and viscous with the perfect level of light carbonation - much more than is typical of certain other SoCal brewer(s), but still not higher than what the style warrants. Not too viscous and syrupy either. Let’s just say that for a 19.5% ABV beer, there is almost no sign of alcohol, it does not get too cloying or syrupy, and the second you take a sip, you instantly want another. It’s good that this is rare and carries a significant price tag (although $25 is a steal for this IMO), because it is the absolute most powerful drunk-getting vehicle on the planet. Seriously, I could kill myself drinking this if I didn’t realize it was as strong as it was. Overall, it’s almost unfair to place this in the "beer" category. This is in another league from almost everything else out there, and based on its alcohol content and ridiculously intense flavors, it’s more like a liqueur - only the best liqueur ever made. If I was mentally insane, I’d probably get a bottle of this and covertly drink the whole thing in a bar that serves only BMC, full of people that drink only BMC, laughing maniacally to myself that I was experiencing awesomeness beyond the likes of which they would ever know. Verdict: hype warranted. Patrick Rue has now removed the last shred of doubt that he is one of the absolute best in the industry. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and make arrangements to get more of this beer. EDIT: Tried this again from the bottle, big thanks to largadeer on BA. Falls a bit short on the aroma this time, a little soy saucey and reminiscent of Sam Adams Triple Bock. But yeah, pretty much nails everything else.