The Bruery (2025)

I find it amusing we already know what the 2026 BT box is but haven’t heard a word on the one for next month. Unless I missed something… did I miss something??

 

I was worried they weren't going to bottle this one.

 

I kind of like Smoking Souls as a mixer. lol. Add maybe 25%-30% to some of their heavy stouts like One and Dunn, BT, etc and it adds a touch of smokiness and depth. Of course, that means you're now in for 2 bottles to finish within a day or two...

 

I had to give up sours a long time ago. Too hard on the stomach and life is too short to fight with beer. But Meringue my Bell is an exception. That is an amazing blend. Looking forward to the similar stout treatment that I believe is coming up soon.

 

Straight fire, literally

 

You two are making me want to pull one out of the cellar for the weekend! Will report back if I do.

 

Cracked a 2012 Tart of Darkness this weekend - that was absolutely stellar.

 

Great minds think alike (and, I suppose, so do we). I recently (over the last few weeks) opened a 24 BT (excellent as per usual), a 25 BTGR (better than I remember the first one I had a few months ago, really shaping up nicely in a short amount of time), and a 24 BTIGR (which is also shaping up nicely, and maybe even displaying slightly less in the way of boozy heat - not that I don't like the heat, but still, it's maybe a bit improved over the last time I had one).

I will say, pulling the aforementioned BT, BTGR, and BTIGR out of the cellar the past few weeks has been one of my better decisions of late. Go for it.

I have a package arriving tomorrow with the last few months of included goodies, looking forward to cracking a few of those suckers this weekend...

 

Package arrived last week and it does look like they optimized the packaging for 375 ml bottles (and cans) stored vertically (rather than the old style horizontal, 3 bottles per layer). Looks like they can fit 24 bottles/cans in one box. Since shipping is more of a weight thing, I'm guessing costs won't go down, but it's still neat.

Actually got through a pretty big chunk of the bottles sent too:

Bakery: Rocky Road Brownie - Perfectly cromulent non-BA pastry stout. Plenty of chocolaty cacao notes, vanilla usually falls by the wayside in such beers even if it does accent the other flavors, but I don't get much in the way of walnuts or marshmallow at all. Would certainly be curious how this would fare in barrels...

Morning In Saigon - With the caveat that I'm not a big coffee guy, I thought this was a fine take on the style. The coffee and chicory notes are prominent but relatively mild, not sure if that's the result of the particular Vietnamese coffee they used or if the sweetened condensed milk took the edge off, but whatever. I was sharing with a friend who mostly agreed (on the Bakery beer too), and liked the prominent but not overpowering coffee character...

Mischief (2025) - I had a weird sense memory thing here where this beer kinda transported me back to 2012 days of craft beer, when Belgian styles were a big deal and this sort of hoppy Belgian was relatively unique. I loved it way back then, and still quite enjoy it. Probably didn't need a full 4 pack of it, but I liked revisiting after such a long time.

So Happens It's Tuesday (2025) - Been a while since I had one of these and it seemed like it had a bit of a tang when I first opened it, but it got much better as it warmed up. Still not quite how I remembered it from previous vintages, but enjoyable. I know some of y'all have referenced the "Bruery tang" which I've never been able to place, but maybe this is it? I don't think its infected or anything, and again, much better once it warmed up, but still...

Chère Mardi - Super jammy entry into the Bruery beer/wine hybrids. I don't get much in the way of oak, just lots of sweet, fruity jam. Fine for what it is, but I think I prefer the other beer/wine hybrids I've had from them (maybe I like the non-carbonated versions of this sort of thing better?) Enjoyable enough, for sure...

Honey & Dunn Apis Grand Cru - The best beer in this batch for sure.
Lots of sweet honey and spicy rye with a dollop of rich chocolate, caramel, and oak. The mead barrels add some thiccness to the proceedings and that sticky sweet mead character is there too. This one is better than the last Mead barrel beer they did, and I'm assuming it's the One & Dunn base, which just seems like a general winner, no matter how you age it. Quite good!

Still to try: Coffee is Life and Toasted Delight...