Not your father's sixpack...6 rare and sought-after beers from The Bruery in Southern California

Black Tuesday: Released on the final Tuesday of October every year, this beer is our take on a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout. Varying slightly from year to year, the ABV hovers around 19% each year that we release it.  Rich caramel, toasted malt, vanilla, burnt wood and anise are just a few of the many flavors in this rich, decadent imperial stout. This beer is sold online each year at the end of October.

Chocolate Rain: If you aren’t already familiar with Chocolate Rain, it’s time to get to know her, because she’s about to become your best friend. Originally created as a single cask conditioned version of our Black Tuesday imperial stout for one of our release parties several years ago, Chocolate Rain has now taken on a life of her own. The base beer is a select few bourbon barrels of our imperial stout that can range anywhere from 16-21% in alcohol. Once those barrels are chosen, we spend an entire day slicing fresh vanilla beans to add to those barrels along with cacao nibs that are sourced by San Francisco based TCHO chocolatier. After a few months soaking up those rich, dessert-like flavors, the barrels are blended to taste and the result is one of the most decadent beers that we make. Rich in chocolate, vanilla, oak and bourbon, it truly puts the ‘imperial’ in imperial stout.

Sucre: The traditional sixth anniversary gift is candy or sugar, so we’ve named our 6th anniversary ale “Sucré” which is “sugar” in French. Sucré is our sixth anniversary ale, loosely brewed in the English-style Old Ale tradition using our house Belgian yeast strain and then blended using the solera method. A portion of each of our anniversary ales is saved in our barrels and blended in with the next year’s production, providing more complexity and depth of character that comes with age. Layered with complex flavors of dark fruit, vanilla, oak, and burnt sugar, Sucré is a robust ale, surely the perfect beer to mark this major milestone.

Bois: The traditional fifth anniversary gift is something made of wood, or "Bois" in French. Bois is our fifth anniversary ale, loosely brewed in the English-style Old Ale tradition using our house Belgian yeast strain and then blended using the solera method.  A portion of each of our anniversary ales is saved in our barrels and blended in with the next year's production, providing more complexity and depth of character that comes with age. Layered with complex flavors of dark fruit, vanilla, oak, and burnt sugar, Bois is a robust ale, surely the perfect beer to mark this major milestone.

Fruet: Fruet is our fourth anniversary ale. It is the same recipe as Papier, but again created using the Solera method. Each year we will continue to blend old barrels of anniversary ale with a new batch of the same beer, adding an additional layer of complexity that will grow over time as we continue to age and blend with each anniversary, creating an older average age to the ale. Fruet is the first in the series that is 100% barrel aged.

Tart of Darkness: Tart of Darkness is a low-ish abv stout (a far cry from our Black Tuesday) that we aged in used oak barrels that previously housed beers such as Sucré or Black Tuesday. We then added our special blend of souring bacteria and wild yeasts. The result is a perfectly tart yet awesomely dark and roasty sour stout. Not a style you will see very often, and in our opinion, not a style seen often enough. This unique stout has notes of tart plums, roasted coffee, vanilla and oak.