The Bruery 3 French Hens

3 French Hens
The Bruery
Placentia, California
10.00% ABV
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale

C: Murky
H: Brown
N: Dark malts, a bit of ... oak maybe? Shit ton of spices and bready yeastiness. A hint of fruit to the nose. Raisins or Plums are my guess

The Ferm: Ahh it's that time of the year again; the weather is cooling down, the days seem shorter, and those horrific October Beers are coming off the shelf. GOOOODBYE Shitty Beer and HELLOOOOO WINTER BEERS! Last year I dreaded this season which is filled with stouts, porters, and heavy malt based beers. Ohh how the palate can change in a year!
I figured 3 French Hens is a great way to kick off this season. Since after all it is the 3rd day of Christmas and all. This is the seasonal release from the Bruery, which as you can tell is named after the song 12 Days of Christmas.
3 French Hens poured a cloudy brown color making me re-think that excitement of winter beers. The nose is chalk full of Belgium Yeast, Fruit, and Bread Qualities. There may be some Oak floating around in there too. The taste...well it was pretty good. I will say that I liked this beer off first try more than 2 Turtle Doves, but when I revisited 2 Turtle Doves I was in love. The body is very thick, and the French Oak comes across ever so slightly in the taste. The rest of the flavors are just a cluster of bread, dark fruit, brown sugar, and molasses (but they work well together).
WELCOME BACK WINTER BEERS!
Score: 3.40

The Bruery Black Tuesday

Black Tuesday
The Bruery
Placentia, CA
19.50% ABV
Style: Imperial Stout

C: WAYY TO DARK TO TELL
H: Honestly The Darkest Beer I Have Ever Had.....PITCH BLACK
N: Bourbon, Chocolate Malt, Caramel, Toffee

KirkDiggler:
-Cue up the music from Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey- Or at least that's what I imagine the EPICNESS surrounding this beer would be. So much hype, mystique, rarity, aggravation, and emotional appeal surrounding this beer. Not to mention this years tickets for this beer sold out in 6 minutes (myself included did not get a ticket - yeah I was one of "those" unfortunate few). So thanks to the Ferm for breaking this one out for GABF war planning party.
A: Poured black w/ a ruby colored bubbly head w/ quick dissipation. Ruby color retains around the edges of the beer.
A: Boozy bourbon, toffee, and caramel. No hop aromatics. No diacetyl or esthers.
F: Sweet Maple syrup, caramel, toffee, and warming to light chocolate notes. Light bourbon flavor in the finish.
M: Heavy body and mouth feel, low carbonation, w/ slight alcohol warmth. Not necessarily "burning" Drinks smooth and viscous - syrup like.
O: Really? That's It? You just reviewed one of the most EPIC beers ever in ~ 63 words? Yes I did and here is why. This beer tasted pretty straightforward to me: It's sweet and rightfully so for an 19% beer. Comparable to Dark Lord, if you removed the fruit and complex notes, I believe you would have Black Tuesday. Black Tuesday is boozy and sweet. Did the beer hype around this one blow my mind? Yes...The beer itself? Not so much. Tasty yes, drinkable yes, would I give my first born? No. I'm glad I can put to rest the aggravating ambitions of trying to secure one of these bottles for myself.
Score 4.40


The Ferm: Big Beer for a Big Day, this is the day before the Great American Beer Festival....or atleast for me it is. So how did I celebrate this years trip with some of the Beerigos? I broke out a bottle of Black Tuesday that was so graciously traded to me. Excited damn right I am, and not just for the trip....I have looked forward to opening this beer for the few weeks that it has been in my possession. On BeerAdvocate.com alone it has over 1,000 wants and only 80 gots! Rare....yep!
So how about the beer? Damn its dark! Honestly the darkest beer I have ever had, it is sooo dark it reflected my image taking the picture with NO FLASH! Needless to say I was ready for something big taste wise....well it was there but not anything that knocked my socks off. The Bourbon was up front and center....it was pleasant and not over powering. Had a good amount of syrup flavors to it....honestly some pancakes with Black Tuesday would be magical but a waste of beer. This was a real treat, but there are soo many other Imperial Stouts that I would rank higher. Dark Lord seems to be more complex, Marshall Zhukov Barrel Treatments are always amazing, and Hunahpu. Overall very solid though.
Score: 4.79

Overall: 4.595

The Bruery Black Tuesday

Mainly the webservers for the Bruery Shop was crashed by the volume of traffic that was known as "Black Tuesday Ticket Sales". The servers crashed before the tickets went on sale, but have no fear the crew has fixed the problem and tickets will go on sale for the event tomorrow 09/2/2010 at 9am PST.



So this will give everyone else one more day to find a mule to pick up bottles for them at the release.