The Bruery (2025)

Bitching about shipping aside...

2014 BT is drinking flawlessly.
Blueberry Stacks Reserve was fucking delightful.

Wondering about the anniversary party - can Hoarder's buy tickets for friends, and do they get early entrance too?

 

Holding out for total judgement on the changes this year, but I will say it's kinda cool to get more variety for each month, being able to get more different beers because of the smaller formats. I haven't done a cost breakdown or anything, but it's cool seeing 4 new beers ready for pickup rather than two.

That being said, I obviously would have preferred one of the bottles be the Bottle Logic collab rather than the stout or belgian

 

The 2023 Blender's Choice Amburana is drinking real nice a year into its lifetime. I was slightly regretting my decision to commit to 24 of these bad boys when they were fresh but now the Amburana is front and center but still well balanced with the rest of the contributions.

 

December 5 order finally arrived on January 7, so I can finally catch up with the last two included releases of the year:

Midnight Frost - Complex mulling spices on the nose, more cinnamon centric on the palate, overpowering cinnamon, with a hint of licorice lingering in the finish. A tasty wintertime beer, heavy handed on the mulling spices, but pretty good if you like that sort of thing (and I suppose I do, but I tend to prefer more balanced spice levels)…

Luminos - More like an imperial cream ale than a stout (the only other "golden" stouts I've had also had coffee, which meant you still get a roasty character - obviously not the case at all here). Rich and creamy, with a very nice clove and vanilla character that is well balanced. Better than expected, but still quite unusual.

Definitely looking forward to the 375s in 2025, especially for some of the more wacky offerings.

That being said, I think 2024 was maybe my favorite year as a member? On last year's thread, we did a top 5 of 2023 offerings and I had trouble filling it up, but this year, there's a ton of options and I easily got to 10.

My faves of 2024
(In no particular order except that One and Dunn IGR is almost certainly the best Bruery thing I had all year):

One and Dunn Imperial Grand Reserve
Tranquil Moonlight
Black Tuesday Imperial Grand Reserve
Thr3e
Cire Blender's Choice
Mélange No. 3
Chocolate Dynasty
As Far As the Rye Can See
Adíos Martes (* only when fresh - it did not hold up at all when I opened a second bottle)
Mélange à Quad

I could probably throw another 5 really good offerings on that list too (Heavenly Blis! Regular BT always hits, not to mention BT Blender's Choice! Shoot Out the Sun! Hoarder's Cuvee!)

 

Concur that this was a really great year! There were many that I loved and rated pretty high but these are the ones that stood out the most for me:

La Grappe Luxe - my favorite of any of the beer wine hybrids I've had previously - they nailed the beer / wine balance here

Thr3e - I liked the original a lot but for some reason I liked this even more (usually not the case when remaking a well liked original)

Bangkok Noir - I've always been a fan of the Banana beers but there is usually something off (too sweet, not boozy enough, etc.) - this was just right to me!

Cherry Chocolate Reign - this and chocolate dynasty were probably the biggest surprise for me. I'm not a big chocolate guy and rain/reign are usually OK to me.. I loved these two!

Cire Blender’s Choice - not usually a fan of the Anniversary beers unless there is an adjunct added. This was awesome! Glad they made the Blender's Choice available to folks outside of the festival.

Chocolate Dynasty - see above

 

I have not had the December releases yet, but here were my favorites. Some definite overlap with others.
BT IGR
O&D IGR
Stacks Reserve Blueberry
Heavenly Blis
As Far as the Rye Can See
Cire Blenders Choice
Furst (2024)

 

Agree about last year’s offerings—lots of highlights. One and Dunn GR and Orange you…Coconuts (that whole series was on point) certainly at the top of the list.
Tonight I opened rhymes with orange (looking for a light beer!). Even that is pretty solid. Reminds me of one they did a few years ago with a French title (everything but the stick)—like an orange Creamsicle.

 

Ordered the 7 Days of Tuesdays pack. Took a month to arrive and when it finally did a bottle was shattered. Two emails and a phone call with no response.

 

Any comments or thoughts on the upcoming Anniversary Party? Got my ticket, but wondering how others are feeling about it. Only 250 people has its pluses and minuses and nice that it will be indoors. Since it is much smaller this year, wondering if they are going to have HS exclusives since you could argue the smaller event makes it entirely more exclusive. It's still early, so plenty more details to come. Who's in?!

 

Their customer service might just be backed up. I had 2 bottles from my Stacks Reserve box arrive with loose caps and partially leaked out. I think it might have been weather related. I emailed them and heard back after a few days. They replaced those two bottles and shipped them to me at no cost, and the whole thing took just a few weeks.

Good luck!

 

Amburana Noir is wildly good, I understand the amburana flavor wouldn't be for everyone but it really does it for me

 

Update: replacement bottle is on the way. Thank you Jake and the Bruery for making it right.

 

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