The Bruery (2024)

Yeah I voted barleywine also

 

What's the deal with buying a bottle or X amount , and your flight is free? I remember seeing that somewhere awhile ago, and saw some comments untapped today.

 

I believe it is 3 bottles for a free flight. Was trying to weigh the cost-benefit on no longer purchasing bottles on the site and just going in to get my "free" flight instead. I like keeping most of my stuff in the cellar for most of the year, so not sure it is worth it for me.

 

It's an amazing deal IF you already were planning to buy 3 bottles and IF you already were planning to get a flight. Then you can combine them for big discount. But if doing one influences you into doing the other, that's how they get you.

Still an amazing deal if done right, and as a taproom frequenter, I've taken advantage a few times

 

Half joking...at what point is it fair to consider contacting the bank about a charge back? I have a bottle outstanding from Jan. 10th that is still "Order Confirmed" and my Feb. allotment that was ordered day 1 is still "Order Confirmed." I have contacted them twice about the January order, and once about the February allotment. I don't want to be out of line and inconsiderate, but seriously....if this was any other business I would be upset without receiving any communication. We are almost to March allotments without any communication about February allotments shipping....

 

When you say you've contacted them twice they didn't respond either time? Not cool... And unusual for them... Except for the handful of times they've done it before... So definitely a bad habit they're prone to that taints the 95% of the time they're great.

I bet they're "this close" to having an answer for the East Coast folks and keep thinking they want to wait until they can share a full plan... But then there's a hiccup, a day turns into a week, and pretty soon "almost there" is a month later. So much better when businesses communicate with more regularity.

Fingers crossed for you all.

 

I have gotten replies, but it is the "we are experiencing slight delays due to the 2023 cellar deadline" excuse. I mean I am fine with a week delay or so because of that. But I used to get orders shipped in a couple days, tops....now suddenly, without any communication why, I am a month and a half out on an order and closing in on a month on another. I am not actually going to issue a charge back at this point, but I am am growing a little frustrated that we haven't heard anything at all about East Coast shipping, considering that was pretty heavily advertised with 2024 Reserve/Hoarders membership. Sorry everyone, just kind of venting...

 

Pass A Good Time is good... above average maybe but not great.

I'm so-so on milk stouts, but it's nice how this blend keeps a BT forward profile while cutting the harshness and delivering a mellow blend. Would like to see them try more blends like this. Maybe BT cut with Bayonet?

The chocolate flavor is great. Maybe it tastes like beignets? I dunno.

Very sweet, but definitely not overdone.

 

https://mybeerbuzz.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-bruery-adding-bruesicle-minty-jules.html?m=1

 

Chocolate Rain grand reserve. Damn.

 

Oh - forgot to mention that when I opened mine it started to foam out of the bottle. Really slow - I was able to pour in time - but I'd be very suspect of this beer cellaring safely. It might just be that they overdid the forced carbonation... and maybe my bottle was an outlier.

 

East Coast Shipping: I shipped some stuff on February 9, which got to me last week on February 22 (just shy of two weeks, a little longer than usual, but nothing unexpected). Due to a weird cellar snafu, I ended up starting another shipment on February 19, and that appears to be arriving February 28 (Wed). Not sure how orders placed in early January wouldn't have made it, hope you get it resolved soon...

Speaking of that order, tried out three of the beers so far:

• Melange a Quad - Complex, interesting, tasty blend, a little more vinous than expected and unsurprisingly hot, I think the Madeira is standing out a bit too much for me, but it's pretty good overall.
• Adíos Martes - This is great, lots of oak and age balances the vinous notes, concentrated, dried fruit adds complexity to the base stout character. Probably my favorite offering so far this year.
• Pass A Good Time - Lots of cocoa, sweeter than what I assume was a BT base, does capture a sorta chocolate donut character reasonably well, a solid offering and better than most of last year's included Reserve Society offerings...

That Chocolate Rain Grand Reserve sounds great. I love the Bruery anniversary ales, one of my favorite things they make and I've had a ton of them over the years, but I am starting to get a little concerned at the escalating ABV - Cire is looking like 18.9, which is BT territory. I assume the solera approach is driving some of that, just curious to see how it proceeds from here...

 

Good to hear on shipping, I cleaned out cellar on Feb 7th, and am still waiting

 

This just makes me even more confused about how shipping works....like are they shipping orders out in random order or something? Lol. Glad some orders are still shipping out in a timely manner at least!

 

If the delayed shipments are all from cleaning out the cellar, I wonder if there are a couple specific beers where they misplaced a few cases and can't fulfill until they find? Or maybe they oversold a couple things and are trying to figure out how to fix?

Were the out of state distributors holding beers that weren't tagged to specific people? Maybe Bruery is waiting to get inventory back from those folks before they can fulfill?