Cuvee Noire (Brooklyn Quarterly Experiment)
Brooklyn Brewery

Once upon a time, we created a beer called “Cuvée Noire”, and this beer lived beyond the strictures of beer styles. It had a stout-like malt structure, Belgian fermentation, and an irresistible personality. We loved Cuvée Noire, but here in Brooklyn our admirations have never been limited to beer. So our brewing team quietly introduced this beer to one of our other enthusiasms – Kentucky bourbon oak. After many months of aging, those six bourbon barrels produced a “Ghost Bottle” nicknamed Cuvée Elijah, some of the tastiest beer we’ve ever made. And then, of course, we drank it all. Ummm…yeah. Sorry about that.

But you will forgive us, because now we’ve made some of this beer for you as well. Brooklyn Cuvée Noire starts with a solid base of German malts, builds color and flavor from British and American roasted malts, gains rum notes from Mauritius raw sugar, grabs a hint of citrus from sweet orange peel, and then ferments under the flag of Belgium. Our Belgian house yeast lends the beer a gentle spiciness on a dry, brisk palate displaying notes of chocolate, coffee and citrus. Then follows six months in oak barrels, which marries all the flavors while adding overtones of vanilla, coconut, and flowers. The beer is bottled completely flat and undergoes a full refermentation in the bottle.