So Happens It's Tuesday-The Bruery
Stunning beer. It's not often I have that reaction to a hand-crafted ale but Thursday night was one of those times. First off, August West deserves an immense amount of credit for seeking this foil-wrapped/capped 750 ml bottle out (Sam's Quick Shop, IIRC) and shelling out $20 (I'm guessing) to purchase this and then deciding to share it with us. Foresight, knowledge, generosity and kindness. Many, many thanks. On to the beer (really difficult to just call this beer.)
Seductive and alluring immediately after opening with bourbon and dark chocolate. We divided this among of us. Pour was onyx and totally opaque as an imperial stout should be. AW held it up to our spotlight and no light was transmitted. Why? The SRM (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Reference_Method) was 100 and imperial stouts are on this scale with a 40+ number. Pour was 10W30. No head. Mouthfeel was incredibly smooth and silky but also thick and chewy. Think
Attachment 6852 and
Attachment 6853. No nuts. Tastes were the expected dark chocolate, bourbon, some dark fruits and black molasses. And a bit more warming bourbon at the end. IBUs of 22 were surprisingly low given the style as most Russian imperial stouts are 50-60 or higher. ABV was a massive 14.7%, just shy of the NC limit for sale in the state. Flavors became even more pronounced and complex as it warmed a bit and we sipped over 15-20 minutes. Forget any pairings (but we just had to try it with some coffee bean-topped espresso fudge cups). Truly amazing concoction. The only other beverage that stands out to me in recent years is the BBA Old Stock Ale 2009 that I brought to the Duke-cheaters tailgate in 2014. August West noted that So Happens It's Tuesday (I'd like to abbreviate it or put it in acronym form but I'm not even gonna try with the board filters (
) has a big brother called Black Tuesday which rolls in at 20% (or more) ABV, so, if someone would like to leave it under our Christmas tree this year, let me know and I'll leave the chimney open
).
We had some excellent beverages Thursday night but this was extraordinary.
I'm almost ready to abandon liquid contributions to our tastings and just bring some currency to each game and ask August West how much I owe him for a place at our tasting table.