The Bruery: As Far As The Rye Can See (USA: Imperial Stout: 18.7% ABV)
Visual: Black. Still. Very short lived head, that vanishes quickly to nothing.
Nose: Rye crackers. Toffee. Treacle. Boozy and thick. Liquorice. Chocolate liqueur. Reisen chocolate chews. Orange crème centred dark chocolate. Honey. Fig rolls. Plum.
Body: Thick. Chocolate cake. Chocolate fondue. Chocolate icing and chocolate crème. Soo, chocolate then. Black cherry. Slight dry alcohol. Brown bread. Fudge. Black pepper.
Finish: Cocoa dust. Bitter chocolate cake. Chocolate crème. Fruitcake. Toffee. Rye crackers. Fudge. Crumpets. Carrot.
Conclusion: Ok. It is hard to try and describe the flavor profile for this in a way that does not make it sound simple. Which it most definitely is not. For the most part the flavor set is a combination of chocolate and fudge, with everything else rounding that – you can see how that sounds simple?
The thing is the chocolate expresses itself in so many ways, and similarly the fudge does so as well, so it feels rounded and rewarding – they really show the quality of the base beer in how well the chocolate shows a depth of character and then, varied barrel aging brings such a lovely depth to the fudge, even if on the surface it is a simple set of notes.
The biggest disappointment I would say is in how the rye aging shows itself, so wonderfully identifiable in the aroma, and reminds me so much of the excellent Rittenhouse rye and there it just feels right …then… Then it feels lacking in the body. It isn’t absent, there are subtle peppery and rye cracker notes as it warms, but when cool it seems mostly absent and it never is a huge part of the deal for a beer that sells itself so much on the rye. You seem to get more from the traditional bourbon aging notes, the fudge sweetness and such.
Now, oft I complain about the barrel aging overwhelming the beer in my notes, here it feels the opposite, like the rye cannot compete with the MASSIVE imperial stout it is facing. Which is a good sign for the base beer, just a disappointment for the aging. So a trade off.
The only other potential downside is the booziness (I personally enjoy this style of thick booziness in a beer but it can be a downside for some), and that also that booziness can show as a dry alcohol character mid body which I am less enamoured with. Not the best element, but then again, at over 18% abv I guess a slight reminder of what you are drinking is not the worst thing.
So, a great imperial stout, dangerous in how, even with the booziness, it manages to hide a lot of the abv, show barrel aging very well, just not the promised rye. For the high cost, prob not worth it, head to head with the similarly priced bottle logic beer I had, that beer wins. However it is still super good, just expensive for what it is
Background: Been wanting to try the Bruery’s Imperial Stouts for, I mean probably a decade at least, had the occasional chance to grab one, and tried a non stout Bruery about a decade ago, but they are so expensive, but also they have a great reputation. So I finally bit the bullet and grabbed one – a double rye barrel aged imperial stout, in this case the 2024 release, drank at the very end of 2024, and yes that means I am sooo behind on actually putting my notes up online. It has a quite scary abv so was my only drink for the night. I am old now. From the bottle this is a mix of their double barrel aged Black Tuesday beer that was aged for a year in bourbon barrels then finished in Rittenhouse rye barrels, and their One and Dunn Reserve that was aged in Heavens Hill barrels and Willet and Peerless rye barrels then finished in Blantons and Four Roses bourbon barrels. That is a LOT of barrels to keep track of but Blantons and Rittenhouse Rye jumped out at me as excellent drams, so I hoped they would contribute some of that to the Imperial Stout. Obviously as this is my first Bruery imperial stout tasting I have not tried either of those base beers. I found this at Left Field Beer, who seem to have quite the range of expensive but highly sought beers. Also I must compliment them on communication when one of the beers I ordered was not available they were great at helping easily fix the replacement. Music wise I wanted something BIG to match the big abv so went with Napalm Death: Apex Predator- Easy Meat. It worked.
