Small Batch Hoarders: Pie Happy
The Bruery

 

Look: darkish copper. Only a splash of light tan head, oily lacing.
Smell: apple pie. Apples, cinnamon, vanilla.
Taste: more the same. Spot on apple pie beer. Big abv wit no discernible alcohol. Killer.

 

 

 

A: Poured into a snifter to a deep brown beer topped by a dense and rocky finger of light tan head which fades quickly to a collar around the edge of the glass with minimal lacing
S: Smells of cinnamon, apples, and vanilla with some underlying oak and bourbon with a touch of caramel
T: Taste is apples, cinnamon, allspice and vanilla, oak, caramel, and some brown sugar with a touch of molasses. On the swallow there's more apples, cinnamon, and allspice with a little more oak, caramel, and vanilla with some lingering sugary sweetness.
M: This beer is fairly thick in body with a slightly creamy feel on the palate. Carbonation is effervescent and slightly prickly while the beer has a drying finish due to the ABV.
O: Overall this is a really nice beer. It has great flavors and some really nice complexity. Everything is fairly well balanced as well which keeps the beer from being super one note. It's definitely on the sweeter side of things so taking down a whole 750 may be a challenge. Worth a try.

So to be clear, my rating is on the batch bottled on 4/17/19. This was a 750ml bottle.

Poured into Tulip. Dark Red, Medium off white frothy head.

Nose: Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate, some barrel notes.

Flavor: Mostly Apple, Cinnamon, and a Bruery old ale base

Medium Body with an olly feel

Overall this beer surprised me. I expected an over the top desert apple pie beer. But found it to be well balanced , not overly sweet, with a nice mouth feel, something would drink and buy again.

 

 

 

500mL bottle acquired through The Bruery’s Society. Released June 2018. Served in a Bruery teku. Enjoyed 11/21/18.

Pours a ruddy, dark ruby with a modest, fast-dissipating frothy manilla cap. There’s some initial surface retention but even that eventually fades completely.

Smells of cinnamon, cloves, apples pie, bourbon, candied fruit and caramel. It’s marvelous.

As in the nose there is a huge spice presence at the forefront of the flavor. Nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, bourbon-doused caramel apple, dark fruit, a little vanilla cream and a healthy dollop of booze.

Soft but full feel with velvety carbonation. The boozey sweet aftertaste is like bourbon glazed spiced caramel apple sauce.

The Bruery has come up with this tasty pie-inspired variant of their anniversary ale. Pie Happy is a bit heavy handed on the spice for my tastes but still outstanding.

Pours a very dark red/almost brown. A finger of off white head recedes very quickly into a thin ring.

Aroma is sweet caramel-y booze. Some dark fruit , caramel, apple and vanilla are also there.

Taste follows nose. Sweet caramel, apple , vanilla and dark fruit (specifically raisin). Some sweetness alongside the nice finish.

Feel is soft and fairly thin. Carb is medium . Finishes slightly warm.

Overall a fantastic beer that threw me for a loop. I drank blindly and guessed it to be a barleywine . Flavors are on point and this beer was very well done.

 

 

375ml bottle poured into a teku

A- pours a deep ruby copper color with a one-finger foamy off-white head that reduces to a ring around the glass

S- baked/stewed apples on the nose, along with plenty of cinnamon & nutmeg. The addition of vanilla definitely adds an ice cream note to the nose, even a bit of pie crust. The base beer adds aromas of caramel, dark fruits, oak, bourbon & booze

T- sweet and malty initially with notes of caramel and dark fruits, mid-palate brings out the cinnamon & nutmeg, along with flavors of stewed cinnamon apples. The vanilla follows, adding a note of vanilla cream on the finish, lingers of cinnamon, nutmeg & boozy malt

M- medium body with moderate carbonation leads to a slightly foamy mouthfeel and a boozy, warming finish

O- a pretty spot-on attempt at the apple pie a la mode, the spicing works well with the base beer