Black Tuesday - Reserve
The Bruery

 

2020 version poured from a 750ml bottle into a snifter. Bottle #1041 dated 2/11/2020. An absolute beast. Boozy, thick and mildly sweet.

2021 vintage bottle share at a bottle share on 12/3/22. Amazing beer; drank fairly easily and just a ton of flavour and barrel in the taste. It was a little on the boozy side, not terrible, but I'd expect that from a 21% ABV beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2020 vintage

Oh man, we have quite the big boy here. A 21% on a Tuesday afternoon? What the hell am I doing? Well, I’m on vacation this week and today turned out to be a stormy day, so I figured it’s the perfect time to crack this beer I received in a BIF from the legendary @Eziel. I’m getting close to the end of what he sent me, and they’re all heavy hitters. Let’s see what this one is all about

Pours a very dark brown with a finger of light beige head that fades to a ring and leaves minimal lacing

There’s a definite sweetness in the nose, but it’s wonderfully balanced given its size. I’m picking up on aromas of chocolate fudge, earthy bourbon, toasted oak, nougat, black cherry, sweet caramel, molasses, toasted hazelnut, and light vanilla

This one really packs a punch in taste, heavy booze and char fight for attention while a huge sweetness backs it all up. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting charred oak, cacao, sweet bourbon, red grape, marshmallow, sweet vanilla, molasses, toffee, light nutty malt, and black cherry. The swallow brings notes of hot bourbon, charred oak, nougat, cacao, black cherry, molasses, apple brandy, vanilla, sweet caramel, and nougat

A full body pairs with gentle carbonation, resulting in a silky and slightly thick beer. Finishes mostly dry but boozy as all hell

There’s no 2 ways about it; this beer is incredible. So complex and hitting all the right notes. Perfect for a quiet day to myself hanging out outside while it rains

 

2021 batch. Most of the BT Reserve years is two sets of bourbon barrels, but this one is grape brandy and then bourbon.

This one pours a very dark black color, with a small head, and no lacing.

This smells like charred oak, lots of bourbon, lots of vinous grape character, brandy, roasted malt, dark fruit.

This is a nice bridge between some of overtly wine based Black Tuesday variants, and the regular bourbon Black Tuesday. The grape brandy adds a pleasantly oaky vinous character, sweet, but finishes dry, with oaky char, marshmallow, dark chocolate, caramel, roast, and bourbon.

This is medium bodied, slightly thin as most Black Tuesday variants tend to be, with a lots of concentrated booziness. It’s not overwhelmingly boozy, but it really kind of does drink like a distilled stout liqueur.

I haven’t had much Bruery in a while, but this was definitely a fun beer to revisit this brewery with. It’s definitely something to share with a bunch of people, like 10 people, maybe, but it’s well done.

750 ml wax capped bottle, 2021 edition (aged in Copper & Kings grape brandy barrels for a year, then aged an additional year in bourbon barrels), 21.8% ABV, bottled 01/19/21. Served in a Black Tuesday chalice, the beer pours dark brown/black with not quite an inch tan head that fizzled away somewhat quickly. I like the aroma a lot, the brew smells like dark fruit, brandy, bourbon, vanilla, molasses, dark chocolate and roasted malt. I like the taste a lot too, it's similar to the aroma but with the addition of some dark bread, burnt/charred malt, coffee, licorice and earthy flavors. There's a lot going on here, but all of the flavors mesh well together with no one flavor overpowering the others. Mouthfeel/body is full, it's coating and a bit syrupy with a moderate amount of carbonation. Nowhere near as boozy as I was expecting considering how strong this brew is! Certainly worth trying if you get the chance to!

 

 

I believe this was a 2018 bottle (4 years aged). Leaned towards a more licorice flavor. Didn’t pick up much bourbon. Solid beer/liquor drink (20% it’s hard to still consider this a beer). My guess is that perhaps it’s a little better if it were fresher, maybe 6-12mo age which is generally where I like my BA stouts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015 vintage
Look: very dark. Some cola highlights when held to light. Sparse head of course.
Smell: mellow Black Tuesday underneath. Vanilla, bourbon fudge.
Taste: like the nose. Unbelievably mellow for such a monster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review #8000, 2015 vintage. This will be a very emotional review. Normally for big milestones like this, rudzud would have some crazy beer to share, but that can't happen now. Instead this was one from our share box that we got from Hoarders, saving for a special day. He might not be here physically to share it with me, but he's here in spirit.

Pours basically with no head, whisp of fizzy bubbles disappears almost instantly, dark murky molasses brown color with no real light coming through, and legs for days

Nose brings lots of barrel and bourbon, lots of vanilla oak, a bit buttery oak, fresh bourbon barrel juice, a bit like my nose in a Glencairn glass with some decent bourbon, lots of dark malts under that, some roast and coffee, no char, loads of cocoa, dark chocolate, a little nougat candy bar, fudge, a bit of a chocolate syrup as well, a little alcohol

Taste super rich heavy malts and barrel, dark chocolate, raw cocoa, chocolate syrupy again, a bit of a candy bar with light nougat and caramel notes, some roast and coffee as well, more like a coffee syrup, barrel brings lots of vanilla again and fresh bourbon barrel juice, a little generic whiskey character but some raw sweet bourbon as well, getting fudgey in the middle, some toasted oak character and layers of vanilla, a touch of baking spice, med lighter bitterness mostly from the roasted malts, some hot alcohol not quite fusel but almost there, finishes sticky and coats the mouth, never really goes away, lingering cocoa, fudge, vanilla and generic whiskey

Mouth is full bod, rich syrupy and really coats the mouth, some hot tingly alcohol, med-light foamy carb

Overall quite nice, there have been better Bruery beers, but for a Black Tuesday variant adding the extra bourbon and barrel was nice, although I think it has dropped a bit from what it probably was fresh, but alcohol didn't destroy either as the age probably helped there.

I swear I heard a pop sound from my glass while it was resting and I was typing. Matt must have taken his sip, and I hope he enjoyed it. Miss the great bottle shares and fun times. This was just one more milestone in my reviews. I know rudzud always joked about how he would never catch me in reviews, and I guess he was right. I'll keep drinking beers, but I'll always have that hole that will never be filled. Cheers Matt!