The Bruery (2025)

Opened a 2025 Crumbfather today. It wasn't as good as I recall from a few years ago. It was medium, muddy brown in color with a mild cinnamon nose. Overall I enjoyed it but I'm not sure I would buy it again.

 

Huh, what is up with UPS? Same thing happened to me. I work from home often enough and usually try to time it better, but I was going to be at work when the package was coming, so I tried to hold it at a UPS store, but that failed for some reason that no one could explain.

The tracking page said they contacted the recipient to reschedule, but they clearly didn't, so I called them. It took 4 separate phone calls, each with a rep that had a completely different story. One said it would be delivered the day I called and that I should wait (obviously no dice). Another said I needed to wait for the status/scan to update, which would happen on the second day (nothing updated). The third tried to tell me to just wait again, but when I told them the rest of the story, they eventually said it was probably on its way back to the sender (but I'm pretty sure he was just making stuff up at that point).

And finally the fourth told me that I needed to contact the sender and have them redirect/reschedule the package. So I emailed the Bruery, and they responded right away. They also said that they might remove the "hold at location" option on their packages because UPS charges them when we do that (which is nuts because they also charge us! Double dippers!) Anyway, nothing happened over the weekend, but the package got rescheduled on Tuesday and showed up on Wednesday.

So weird that this seemingly happened everywhere and wasn't just a fluke of my particular hub/UPS store (I know it's a busy time for them, but this seems like something is broken in their logistics). I used to be able to have it held at the hub, which is actually the closest location to me, but they don't do that anymore. If this sort of thing ever happens again, I might just drive over there (might not get as warm of a reception as Hoppedelic, but seems worth a try). I understand the whole "must sign for packages" thing for alcohol, but man, there has to be a better way to do this. Very rarely, but on occasion I've been able to pre-sign online for a package that requires a signature, but that option is rarely available.

 

@mciocco Man that sucks. If they remove that option how would we get our packages? I’m at work when ups delivers as many of us are I’m sure. And yeah if you show up at the hub you likely won’t get the great service that I did. The guy who helped me grew up in Placentia and was a beer drinker. He literally told me if it wasn’t beer in the package he would of told me to leave lol! I kicked him down a can of Mischief.

 

Hi all, I'm curious if anyone can tell me what the included Hoarders Society beers are for December? I'm keeping an eye on my cellar to clear it all out in one shot since I still have to arrange for shipping to an out-of-state friend in order to pick it up. It's a bummer Michigan still hasn't figured this out after that brief window of deliverability a couple years ago.

 

Should be 1 Cookie Barrel and 2 The Dips

 

I emailed them.

 

Weird but good was my take as well ha.

 

A 12 days of christmas sale? I spent way too much on Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale. I'm starting to think joining the reserve was a bad idea for my wallet and liver.

 

After the UPS fiasco, I did wind up getting my beers, so here's the first few I've had:

Crafted By Society: Cherry Grateful - Crowdsourcing was a mistake? The kitchen sink’s worth of ingredients don’t exactly clash, but they don’t really go together either. Light on the cherry, heavy on hoppy bitterness (is this a new-formula Mash base?), moderate cacao, and the salt and vanilla get lost in the shuffle. Not terrible, but I don't love it. Maybe barrels would help. Not exactly looking forward to the other included bottle...

The Pact - Rock solid, basic BBA stout. I'm not familiar with Henna, but I think I detect the Monster base lurking around there. Pretty simple, definitely gets better as it warms, could probably benefit from more advanced barreling (i.e. double barrel, extra age, fancier barrels, etc..), but I'm glad I have another of these sitting around.

Black Tuesday Blender's Choice - It’s Black Tuesday with added complexity from the barrel variety. The balance is pretty good, with the Port and Zin barrels adding a slightly tangy vinous note that doesn’t overwhelm the bourbon and rye (and vice versa). A nice variant on an old favorite. Not rushing out for more (I don't love the red wine character in BT), but I really quite enjoyed this... I think I'm just a sucker for almost anything with a BT base.

 

Welcome to the party pal! My liver can commiserate, though he really appreciates the 375 ml bottles.

On a completely different note, is there included glassware this year? Or next year? I didn't notice that they don't seem to mention it anymore. It's not as if I need more glassware at this point, but still, it's always kinda fun to see what they come up with.

 

I've been enjoying the beer alot so far. And I agree with you on 375ml bottles, much better than the 750's especially considering I'll be solo drinking many of these bottles.

When I signed up in October it did mention glassware and in an email from Bruery support they told me to expect the glassware later in the year next year and it would show up in my cellar allocations (I signed up for reserve 2026).

I was a bit of a glassware hoarder for a few years, not really a collector as I never paid any crazy prices for anything and I don't have anything that was considered rare. I have put together a decent collection of Teku glasses over the years, including a couple from The Bruery.

 

For whatever it's worth I solo the 750s over the course of two nights by pouring half into a 12 oz swing top bottle (doing it over a bowl to catch any spillage). Surprisingly I tend to enjoy the beer more on Day 2 so it usually holds up really well over night. Sounds like you used to be a member so maybe you already have your own technique ha.

 

lol, yeah, I've had my share of Bruery 750's. I usually just use a cheap wine stopper. They work pretty well and I agree, in some cases the beer is actually better on day 2.

 

I skipped Cherry Grateful after I started seeing the reviews here and on untappd. I'm also primarily only drinking barrel aged beer these days.

I agree with you on The Pact, it was a solid BA, no adjunct stout.

I also opened a BT Blenders Choice this past weekend. It reminded me of the red wine BA BT from a few years ago. It gave me notes of dark chocolate along with the tangy vinous notes. A very good BT variant for sure.