Black Tuesday - Red Wine Barrel-Aged
The Bruery

On the nose, this just smells like sweet oak and stout. Not bourbon or wine, but just bright sweet oak.

On the taste, there is a slight tart note accompanying the stout. It's mostly oak aged stout.

Now the amazing is that there is no alcohol on the taste or mouthfeel. This drinks like a 10% which is astounding considering it actually clocks in at 18% ABV.

This is a really great brew, and my first Black Tuesday. But I'm not really getting any red wine. Oh well. Still, drinking a monstrous stout that didn't feel like one is always a treat.

 

Bottled on 6/6/2018; consumed on 9/18/2025

Pours a silky black hue sporting deep red accents and topped with a finger and a half of sickly, beige-tinted foam; decent head retention leaves minimal cap, a slim collar, and minimal lacing holding to the walls of the glass.

Aromas of immense Cabernet and red currant open, accented by dark cocoa undertones and a distinctly Merlot aspect in-development as a juicy, tannic grape underscore persists throughout.

Taste offers dark cocoa meeting charry barrel upfront; flaky roast underscores softer Cabernet tannins through the mid-palate, leaving touches of cherry tobacco and Dr. Pepper in the backdrop.

Mouthfeel features a body on the lighter side of medium and sports a mild carbonation overtaken by a weighty slickness and soft, charry prickle, leaving a tannic twang sneaking through on the swallow.

Red wine soaks the base Black Tuesday to its core, yielding silky tannins in an umami-adjacent counterbalance to the typically boozy char.

Black color. One finger thick, beige head. Chocolate, roasted malt, oak, dark fruits, and red wine in the aroma. Complexand rich taste. Moderately sweet, warming, and boozy. I was impressed by how nicely red wine barrels worked with a stout.

Taking beer to the winey side, The Bruery isn’t treating their stout with kid gloves. They’re putting their famed Black Tuesday over a barrel. -a wine barrel.

Strikingly oak-bleached in its blackness, Wine Barrel Aged Black Tuesday gives of dark wine impressions with burgundy and mauve. No bubbles and no head reinforces the winey appearances while the scent is a slightly more toasty and roasty version of cabernet sauvignon. Extending into the wine world even more, the beer sets a vinous aroma with tart and tannic grape, oak and toasted fruitiness. A sense of grilled or smoked grape extends into blackberry, plum, blueberry and blackcurrant flavors with a complement of espresso, smoke and roast. Heated with a near brandy-like warmth, there’s a grappa sensation that comes with the beer for a balance that’s equal parts stout and wine.

The wine influence is heavy as the beer steps into the vinous world to a great degree. The Bruery really oversteps their beer boundaries here.

 

 

Review: 2041
Beer Name: Black Tuesday - Red Wine Barrel
Brewery: The Bruery
Location: Placentia, CA
Style: Barrel-aged Imperial Stout
ABV: 18%
Date: 04/2018

I served BT Red Wine in a Tulip glass at 50 degrees. The pour created an airy dark brown one-fingered head with poor retention. The beer is dark brown, nearly black, and opaque, measuring around 38 on the color chart. The quick dissipation left no lacing on the glass. The beer's appearance is average for its style.
Nosing the glass, I smell dark roasted malts, cherries, bourbon, oak, and chocolate. I also smell caramel, bready, and earthiness. The aromas are not as intense as I thought they could have been. The aging of the beer has created a unique aroma of wine and beer that melded together in harmony.
Interestingly, the wine barrel mixed with imperial stout created this unusual combination of flavors. The wine aromas are jammy, with plum and vineyard notes. The imperial stout is dark roasted malts, caramel, chocolate, char, lightly smoky, figs, molasses, and earthiness. Oak flavors permeated throughout the stout.
The mouthfeel is warm and chewy, and the finish is tannic. The body is heavy with medium-low carbonation.
I am still determining what I think of this variant. I love the distinctive combination of red wine barrels and imperial stout. The beer's body could be thicker, but I wonder if the barrel aging made a difference. This is a tasty beer from The Bruery to enjoy on a chilly spring night in Idaho.

 

 

12.7 ounce bottle, 2022 edition, bottled on 05/10/22. Served in a Black Tuesday chalice, the beer pours dark brown/black with an inch tan head that stayed around a little while. Small amount of lacing. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like red wine/dark fruit, roasted malt, dark chocolate, oak, and some earthiness. The taste is pretty much just like the aroma, but there's the addition of some coffee, dark bread and burnt/charred malt flavors. I think the red wine/dark fruit flavors stand out here, but without overpowering the other flavors. Mouthfeel/body is full, it's coating, rich and smooth with a good amount of soft carbonation. I liked this brew a lot, certainly worth trying if you like any big imperial stouts or red wine barrel aged brews in general. One of the better Black Tuesday variants I've tried, but then they're all good!

2018 Vintage
750ml bottle poured into a teku

A- pours black in color with a one-finger foamy khaki head that reduces to leave nothing behind

S- plenty of red wine on the nose giving vinous dark grape, blackberries, raspberries, figs, raisins and chocolate covered cherries. Undertones of oak, light char, licorice & dark chocolate

T- the red wine barrel takes first notice with some tannic dark grapes, jammy raspberry and blackberry, figs & raisins. Mid-palate brings out notes of chocolate and light charred malt, as well as black licorice, oak and a hint of vanilla cream. The finish gives more jammy red wine notes that continues into a boozy linger

M- medium body with low carbonation leads to a slightly foamy mouthfeel that continues into a warming, boozy, slightly syrupy finish

Received a bomber in NBW BIF 15 from @Colts9016; enjoyed 2/5/2023.
The appearance was really quite nice with the silky looking stout black pouring from the bomber into my snifter, culminating with a beige head that left little lacing, but the fact that it had a head at all rather impressed me.
The aroma isn't one of my abilities to describe as my nose is rather messed up, but I did get the *sense* of a dry red wine a couple times when bringing the glass towards my mouth.
The taste - Caveat; I have tried stouts aged in red wine barrels before and not only been underwhelmed but not even able to finish the beer. This one I drank alone because my friends felt the same way and wanted nothing to do with it. Their loss. The base stout was up to the treatment; the red wine barrels didn't overwhelm it but added layers of dark fruit and tannins (I think - what does tannin taste like?) Figs, red grapes, chocolate, plums maybe, this is a dark fruit palooza.
The feel was fine, a little thinner than I like my 18% stouts (Something to slow me down, ya know?) but well within any specs.
Glad to have tried this! I think if it were available in smaller containers I might even but them occasionally. Thanks Jammin!

chocolate!

From the 12.7 fl oz bottle in a snifter via Bluejacket74! This exceptional
brew pours a dark blackish brown with a modest head of khaki foam
that fizzles to a thin ring, but with a light swirl she's got some fine legs.
Nose of red wine, oak, tobacco, dark roasted malts, dark dried fruit notes
of currants and plum, and earthy malt hints. Flavors hit the WOW factor----
dark red wine, dark sweet cherry, currant, plum, raspberry, oak, tobacco,
hints of dark bakers chocolate, faint touches of coffee, and hints of leather.
Mouth feel is full, faint carbonation, smooth, warming, and finishing dry.

Let this one warm, it gets better and better!

This punches way above it's heft weight in ABV with exceptional balance.
These brewers have a passion for their craft and it shows.

Exceptional. Period.

Cheers

Time to crank out yet another Black Tuesday variant review. This might be my least favorite of them all.

Pours a dark brown/black with extra muddle now available. Fails at head formation more than other Black Tuesdays. The aroma takes on more of a RIS base compared to normal. This is a big hit compared to the luscious bourbon notes of the OG.

Taste also is a significant downward departure from the federal sentencing guidelines for OG Black Tuesday. There is a much more pervasive bitterness and booziness in the taste/mouth feel. Seems like there is a ton more dry dark fruit impact. Most of the dark fruit sensations aren't even red grape, its mostly this bitter fig and prune vibe with some rubbing alcohol. It does have a woodier aspect to it than the regular BT. That doesn't mean its better because of it, its not.

Beaver stands for pussy.

A: Poured into a snifter to a black beer which is topped by a dense and slightly rocky finger of light tan head which fades slowly to a collar around the edge of the glass with minimal lacing
S: Smells of lots of red wine with some red berries and currants along with some chocolate. Roasted malts and coffee is there along with some oak
T: Taste is red berries and currants with some chocolate, coffee, roasted malts, dark fruits, and woodspice. Really complex and quite sweet. On the swallow there's more red wine, berries, currants, chocolate, coffee, and oak with lingering red wine.
M: This beer has a body which is on the heavier side of medium with a slightly syrupy feel. Carbonation is light but it is adequate for the style while the beer has a drying finish due to the high ABV.
O:

From 2017. So far, my favorite version. Almost nothing like the regular Black Tuesday. The barrel aging is evident but not over done. Not hot. A complex beer well worth the pursuit.

 

More like super dark brown Tuesday, am I right? Kind of sludgy looking. Aromas of red wine and oak dancing upon dark chocolate, vanilla, molasses, dark fruit, and mild leather. Tastes like a boozy wine truffle with molasses, oak, raisin, fig, and vanilla starring with, tannins and subtle leathery earth round out. Feel is boozy, viscous, heavy, yet has upward reaching tannins and vinous textures. The wife liked it