Small Batch Hoarders: Baklava Tart
The Bruery Terreux

1944
Name: Baklava Tart
Brewery: The Bruery Terreux
Location: Placentia, CA
Style: Double Barrel-Aged Wild Ale
ABV: 12.2%
Date: 2021
Baklava Tart is next on the review table. I served it at 48 degrees. I used tulip glass; the pour created a frothy, airy, tan two-fingered head with okay retention. The dissipation left no lacing on the glass. The color is charting around SRM 34, dark amber brown, with reddish hues. The appearance is average, with no clarity, and looks muddy in the glass.
Nosing the glass, I smell bourbon, maple, vanilla, bread, farmyard, cinnamon, and a nuttiness. Smelling the glass a few more times, I detect some dark roasted malts, caramel, anise, oak, char, acidic acid, light smoke, and a slight alcohol burn. I was expecting this to be an imperial stout, but I am getting a sourness with the imperial stout. I cannot definitively say this smells like baklava; I wanted the cooked puff pastry aromas.
Oh wow, I was not anticipating the flavors to hinge heavily on the Flanders style. The sourness is more apparent in the taste; I was getting all those lovely nutty, maple, burnt sugar vibes in the nose. Yet I get cherries, oranges, acidic acid, plums, and candied sugar upfront. Followed by maple, nuttiness, caramel, anise, oak, bourbon, farmyard, dark roasted malts, char, cinnamon, and vanilla. Identifying the various nuts in the beer is complex and comes across as a nuttiness.
The mouthfeel is warming and carbonated, finishing puckeringly smooth. The mouthfeel is medium-light and has a medium plus carbonation.
The double barrel and cellaring created layers of flavors. The two beer styles blended seamlessly with near-perfect harmony and balance. I was taken aback by how yin and yang the flavors and aromas are; however, balance was achieved. Mind blown. Beers like this give me pause and time to wonder how they did it. I understand this is not for everyone, but for me, it was enjoyable.

375ml bottle poured into a tulip

A- pours deep brown in color with a one finger foamy off white head that has short retention

S- aroma is predominately Flanders red up front, with aromas of juicy cherry and red wine vinegar. Undertones of chocolate, cinnamon, roasted nuts and a hint of vanilla and maple sweetness

T- acidic vinegar like tartness takes over up front from the Flanders, adding juicy cherries, even some strawberry and raspberry. Mid palate gives some sweet notes of chocolate and vanilla, before notes of cinnamon emerge. The finish gives more acidic juicy cherry notes, with some oak and chocolate sticking around on the linger

M- medium body with low carbonation leads to a slightly foamy mouthfeel and a warming finish

I'm reviewing this as a wild ale since it's a blend of two beers.

A: Poured into a tulip glass to a deep mahogany beer which had minimal light tan head development before fading into nothing.
S: Smells of cinnamon, sourness, hints of nuts and a touch of oak. As the beer warms some hints of leather and sour cherries comes out.
T: Taste is fairly nut heavy up front with some leather and cinnamon. Nice tartness and sour cherries in the middle with some slight maple sweetness along with more cinnamon. On the finish there's more sour cherries, leather, cinnamon and nuts with some oak at the back end with a hint of some roasted malts.
M: This beer has a body which is on the lighter side of medium which is surprising given the ABV. Carbonation is a little higher than expected and is slightly effervescent while the beer has a drying finish due to the acidity.
O: Overall this is a pretty interesting beer. It has some nice tartness as a baseline and the adjuncts definitely remind you of Baklava. The sour cherry notes are kind of an outlier though. This one probably would have been more interesting as a twist on an imperial stout rather than a blend with some Flanders red.