The Bruery Rye Whiskey Smoking Wood

Let's start with how it's always interesting trying to talk about the brewery named The Bruery. I get that it is partially based on the owner's name, Patrick Rue, but really all it does is cause a Laurel and Hardy Who's on First reaction. Maybe that's the point, I don't know, but it does get confusing at times. With that off my chest, Smoking Wood is a smoked imperial porter aged in Rye Whiskey barrels. I think there are some variants of this which is why the specific type of spirit barrel is named.

I split the bottle with a friend of mine and I'm pretty happy I did. Super smoky nose with some whiskey sweetness in the back. First sip was also ridiculously smoky, more campfire like than bacony. Some nice vanilla and light whiskey tones come out following the smoke but they never overcome it. The smoke is a bit overpowering actually. It was a tasty enough 12 ounces but I think it would have been a bit too much if I drank the whole 750. Honestly, you could say that about a lot of The Bruery beers, but that's because they probably expect you to share them. Considering the ABV, it makes sense to share them. In the end, if you like smoke, this is a good one to try though it's a bit pricey just so you all know.

The Bruery and Hangar 24 Ichigo Highway

Phew, what a week. I thought I was getting back into things last week and then I barely had any time in the morning during this one. But Pax is asleep on me at the moment so lets get something written. Ichigo Highway is a sour aged with strawberries brought to you by the good people from The Bruery and Hangar 24. If you've never heard of the latter, no real surprise as they are a smallish brewery outside San Diego (or that's where I think they are. They could be outside LA too. Somewhere in California at least). I only have this because of my generous friend that lives near there.

I'd actually heard positive and negative things about Ichigo Highway so didn't know what to expect. Honestly, though, I quite enjoyed it. Fruity, candy like nose with quite a bit of strawberry. I was a bit worried as Bottleworks XII was brewed with strawberries and had a big, sulfur like nose but this one didn't have any of those notes. Some funk and a lot of acid also showed up though. Body was crazy sour with a big helping of lactic and acetic acid. Since acetic acid presents as vinegar, it could have easily been the accented by the strawberries. At times, some slightly odd notes showed up but they disappeared quickly as well so whatever. Maybe someone more sensitive would be bothered by those flavors hence the bad reviews. Quite happy to try this and nice to see a fruit different than cherry and raspberry being used.

The Bruery Humulus Lager

Stopped in at Kite & Key this week and decided on a beer from The Bruery that I've seen a couple times but never ordered. I actually was deciding between the Bullfrog Edgar IPA and the Humulus Lager, but decided I liked the latter better after having a small sample of both. Also, note that The Bruery calls this a lager, more specifically a pilsener, but really it's much closer to an IPA if you are looking for a style comparison. At least in my opinion.

Nice tropical nose, a little fruity and a little citrusy. Up front, there was a burst of berry fruit which was followed by some bitterness from the hops. More berry fruitiness came out to finish things off. Pretty good beer regardless of the style. The Bruery once said they'd never brew an IPA and they are still technically correct. And you know how the saying goes, technically correct is the best kind of correct.

The Bruery Five Golden Rings

Last Friday, Kite & Key had a holiday beer spectacular with a thorough list of christmas beers. I saw they put on The Bruery Five Golden Rings, the newest beer in their 12 days of Christmas, and was happy to see it still available yesterday for my weekly visit.

Got nutmeg or cinnamon in the nose without much else. First sip, the major thing I got was a pineapple sweetness, though more like sugary fruit juice than real pineapple, and then a little spice in the middle. As it warmed up and I got used to the fruit sweetness, I started noticing a little of the Belgian yeast strain used to brew it in the form of a little clove and mild banana. Never got much of the spices though other than in the nose. The beer definitely grows on you but for some the pineapple sweetness would probably be a bit much. My friend Craig thought so at least. I mostly liked it and thought it was at least unique for a Christmas beer even if it won't appeal to everyone.

The Bruery Cuir

I've had this bottle for a while (that's a common theme for me) but don't actually remember when I bought it. Eh, no matter. Cuir is a part of The Bruery anniversary series and each beer is french for that year's theme. Year one being Papier, year two Coton, year three Cuir, etc. Cuir is an Old Ale at heart, but is brewed by something called the Solera style. This means The Bruery ages previous years of the beer and then blends portions of them together along with the fresh to add complexity and different flavors. Some of the fresh beer, about 25%, is also aged in bourbon barrels and blended.

The Bruery at Perch Pub

Last week, Perch Pub offered two special sixtels from The Bruery and was cool enough to sell them both as part of their happy hour half-price deal. They turned out to be so popular during that hour that they both kicked before they even had a chance to sell them for a regular price. Pretty impressive for two big sour beers. The first one I ordered was Tart of Darkness, a sour stout.

Giant Beers over the Weekend

This past weekend, I had a bunch of friends over and knew it would be a great time to open some of my bigger beers. And when I say bigger, I mean both were over 18%. Seemed like good choices to split between the six of us rather than trying to drink the bottles by myself.

We started with The Bruery Black Tuesday, an 18.3% Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout.

The Bruery White Oak

Jo and I had dinner with some friends earlier in the week and I brought a bottle of The Bruery White Oak. I'd heard it was a sort of polarizing beer so I figured rather than drinking it by myself and hating it, I'd share it around and make my friends help me drink it. Okay that sounds hilariously selfish, like, I was bringing a beer I thought might be crappy and foisting it upon others, but I thought it had a chance to be good! I swear!

If you can't tell from the picture, it was super carbonated. Sort of smelled oaky with a spicy base that reminded me of a tripel though it's apparently a wheatwine. Light vanilla sweetness along with some bourbon came in the first sip with hints of alcohol in the finish. The flavors were okay and did grow into something interesting as I made my way through the glass, but the carbonation nearly ruined everything. For this style of beer, I just thought it was way too high and killed so much of flavor. Lower carbonation would let the vanilla and bourbon shine through so much more. Worth a try and not awful, but not super either.

Birthday Beers!

My birthday was the other day and instead of hitting a great bar like last year (we went to Farmer's Cabinet), Jo and I decided to go to an awesome BYOB and bring a couple of my many beers to open. And, man, what a great decision. The dinner at Modo Mio was freaking delicious and the beers went perfectly. The first we opened was The Bruery Oude Tart, a Flanders Red Ale.

Pumpkins on Christmas

Yeah, maybe having Pumpkin beers on Christmas seems odd, but we were having a pretty faithful Thanksgiving meal so why not Pumpkins? Besides, the two I decided to open aren't your average pumpkin beers anyway

The first I opened was Midnight Sun Treat, an imperial porter made with cocoa nibs, pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

Labor Day Bar Crawl

It's Saturday, my wife's out of town, I'm alone. So what do I decide to do? What? Not that, sicko. I decide to do a bar crawl going to Farmer's Cabinet -> Varga Bar -> Hawthorne's Cafe -> Devil's Den. Now, I guess it's weird that I decided to bar hop by myself for hours on end, but I really enjoy sitting at bars, talking to bartenders and trying new things. I guess I'm a weird dude and I'm okay with that.

First stop was the Farmer's Cabinet. I haven't been back since my awesome birthday dinner and knew it had been too long. At 11:30am, it wasn't particularly busy which was nice. There was only one other dude at the bar plus the bartender. I started with a glass of De Molen Cease & Desist, also known as Disputin, a Russian Imperial Stout.

Bella Vista takes over Devil's Den

Ahh, Philly Beer Week finally begins. I put up my schedule the other day and so far I've kept to it pretty well. While this post is going to concentrate on the Devil's Den event, my first beer of beer week was actually at the Kite & Key. It was the Troegs Scratch 42, Razzmadizzle, a chocolate raspberry dubbel as far as I know.

Sunday at Capone's

Jo and I went to Capone's and enjoyed some great buffalo wings and beers.  As usual, their draft list was excellent and they have 25 cent wings on Sunday so it's a great place to watch some football.  They are doing some construction on the place, but the back entrance is open so don't think they are closed because of the closed front doors.

I started off with a sampler of 4 beers.

Starting with the front left beer and going clockwise I got: Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela, The Bruery Autumn Maple, Amager Imperial Stout, and Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout. 

The Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela was interesting.  It's supposedly a Pumpkin Ale but I couldn't detect pumpkin in it at all.  It smelled lemony and sort of tart.  Just a little bit of head on the sampler, but I'm guessing there would be a bit more in a full glass.  The first sip was mildly tart as well but not too strong.  Very smooth flavor.  It was similar to Nodding Head's Berliner Weiss but with more body and not quite as tart.  As I drank more of it, the beer got more tart but nothing crazy.

After that was the Bruery Autumn Maple.  Smelled mildly Belgian as it's made with some Belgian yeast.  At first, there was only some yam flavor with a mild sweetness.  Hard to find the Belgian flavors in the beer as a result of the yams and maple.  Nice thick mouth feel to it.  The second full sip I took was just full of yams.  I couldn't believe it and took another sip just to be sure I was sure of the flavor.  Super interesting to be drinking that taste out of a glass.  I liked it but a full glass may have been a bit much.

Following that was the Amager Imperial Stout.  Amager is apparently a brewery in Denmark, who knew.  The Imperial Stout had some slight roasty notes and a little alcohol on the nose.  The taste, however, was full of roasted malt flavor with no alcohol presence.  As it warmed up, the alcohol was slightly noticeable, but not out of place.  Not a bad Imperial Stout but nothing too special to me.

Finally, the Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout.  I talked about the family of Yeti stouts from Great Divide in this post, my first time at Capone's.  This will be the second of the four I've had and hopefully I'll be able to have the other two at some point.  Jo smelled some wood flavors in this but I didn't notice much of anything.  Pretty big espresso flavor in the first sip, but it wasn't crazy.  Nothing like Founders Breakfast Stout for example.  The coffee does sit on the tongue after each sip though.  Nice thick mouth feel to this one.  As it warmed up, the espresso becomes more noticeable but again not bad.

After the sampler, I tried to get a glass of Rodenbach Vintage 2007 but they were out.  Instead, I got a Southern Tier Pumking

There wasn't any head on it but you'll just have to trust me since I forgot to take a picture before drinking a bunch.  It smelled of pumpkin and a lot of spices.  Interesting smell, pretty much what a lot of people think of when they hear of a pumpkin beer.  The Pumking was very sweet with a lot of spices.  Kind of crazy how much pumpkin pie flavor they packed into this beer.  Even with all the spices and the high sweetness, it was still quite drinkable.

Went into the bottle shop before we left and man I love that place.  They have so many good beers.  Even if the prices can be a little high, there's just so much to find.  Every nook and cranny is just jammed with random beers.  I could come out of there with so many if I didn't care about money.  Ended up getting a Hoppin' Frog Boris the Crusher, an Oatmeal Imperial Stout, and a 2008 Rogue Imperial Porter.  The Rogue had an absolutely sweet bottle although it's no real surprise because if there is one thing Rogue does well it's make cool bottles.