Black Tuesday - Sweet Magnolias
The Bruery

Bottled on 9/22/2020; consumed on 8/19/2025

Pours an inky, jet-black body capped with a short-lived finger and a half of soapy, dark khaki foam, receding with immediacy to a blank void and no collar or lacing whatsoever around the walls of the glass.

Aroma features initial impressions of banana pudding and vanilla creme, a one-track exposition with a lurking whiskey heat and subtle touches of char and dark cacao throughout.

Taste brings mushy, ripe banana grazed by touches of vanilla throughout; backing notes of charry caramel, dark cacao, and slick bourbon ease tense booziness as dark fruit undertones finish.

Mouthfeel presents a medium body, dense and oily in texture, along with a minimal carbonation; slickness glides over the mid-palate, with a back end both effortlessly boozy and warm.

Impresses an adjuncted edict through powerfully boozy threads; these playfully exploratory iterations on the Black Tuesday series remain relentlessly consistent.

Review: 2466
Name: Black Tuesday - Sweet Magnolias
Brewer: The Bruery
Location: Placentia, CA
Style: Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
ABV: 18.1%
Canned: 22 Sept 2020
Date: 28 July 2025
I am heading back to the cellar for another Bruery beer. It is too hot for an imperial stout, but oh well. I am using a tulip glass and serving the beer at a temperature of 50 degrees. The hard pour created a frothy, foamy, half-fingered light tan head with no retention. The quick dissipation left no lacing on the glass. The pitch-black beer has dark mahogany hues, it is opaque, and charts at SRM 34. I was hoping for some head retention, but this is a high ABV beer.
Nosing the beer, I detect notes of dark chocolate, vanilla, bananas, raisins, bourbon, char, wood, and graham crackers. Smelling the beer again, I notice caramel, molasses, dark roasted malts, bread, malty sweetness, a hint of fire, coffee, and earthiness.
The first sip revealed notes of dark chocolate, bananas, wood, vanilla, medium-roasted coffee, caramel, and char, finishing with a hint of bourbon heat. Sipping the beer again, I taste bread, molasses, graham crackers, dark-roasted malts, malty sweetness, earthiness, and leather.
The mouthfeel is coating and chewy, finishing a bit hot. The body is medium-plus and has a hint of carbonation.
Final Thought: Another Black Tuesday variation from the COVID days. This version is not my favorite; it is too sweet and has a bourbon heat that is not pleasant. Considering that I have consumed several Black Tuesday Variants and the original Black Tuesday in various forms, Sweet Magnolias is average compared to what I have tried.

Sweet bananas foster drizzled in caramel and chocolate, vanilla wafer cookies, and a prominent bourbon barrel boozy nose on this one! Taste follows with a chocolate covered banana, floral vanilla, vanilla cookies, and a prominent bourbon barrel finish. Even though this is from 2020, the additions are all in play here. The only issue is that, at 18.1% ABV, the bourbon booziness starts to dominate the backend as it warms. The mouthfeel is pretty nice, however. This is definitely a sipper to be enjoyed over a length of time. Good!

 

 

Bottle at share. Black pour, minimal brown head . Sweet, roasty, aroma, nutty. Taste continues, sweet, roasty, strong. Nice slick feel and lingering ABV

 

A solid 4 across the board, but not what I was hoping for from this one. Being a 2020 release, it may be that the additives have quieted down a fair bit. Still fairly sweet, with very noticeable banana and vanilla wafer notes, but not very prominent notes compared to the base beer, boozy barrel, and overall alcoholic heat. The nose also smells more like the astringent bitterness of green bananas than the sweetness of riper fruits.

This one pours a syrupy looking dark black color, with a small head, and a little bit of lacing.

This smells quite sugary and quite syrupy, with caramel, syrupy milk chocolate, cake frosting, and sweet banana.

There’s some fun flavors in here, but it’s overall just way too sweet, with the nilla wafers being the thing that just pushes it over the edge. This is syrupy and cake-like, and that’s probably from that. The banana is an interesting note, but it’s just awash in so many other powerfully sweet flavors.

This is certainly a slow sipper, and just way too intense and sweet overall.

This isn’t one of the best Black Tuesday variants, unfortunately.

A: Poured into a snifter to a black beer which is topped by a finger of dense and slightly rocky tan head which fades quickly to a collar around the edge of the glass with minimal lacing
S: Smells of bananas and vanilla with some bourbon barrels, molasses, roasted malts, chocolate, and coffee
T: Taste is bananas and vanilla up front with some bourbon barrel character, molasses, hints of nilla wafers, chocolate and slight coffee with some roasted malts. On the swallow there's more bananas and vanilla, nilla wafers, bourbon barrels, roasted malts and coffee.
M: This beer has a body which is around the middle of the road in heft. Carbonation is low and this one flirts with being flat while the beer has a drying finish due to the ABV.
O: Overall this one is pretty tasty. Good banana and vanilla flavor without totally overwhelming the base beer. I'm happy that I got to try this one.

 

 

 

 

VB

 

 

 

Look: deep dark brown, nearly opaque. No highlights even when held to light. Mocha head on the pour that quickly dissipates. Thick, oily sheen on the inside of the glass that lingers a crazy amount o time.
Smell: banana pudding with bourbon sauce!
Taste:: banana pudding with Black Tuesday, I.e. freakin awesome.