We are now almost 24 hours away from The Bruery’s Black Tuesday Release Event.  The 1.5 year old brewery from Placentia, CA has stepped up to the plate with their heaviest hitter to date, Black Tuesday, a 19.5% abv. Imperial Stout.  Folks from Southern California will be lining up for a chance to buy 3 bottles of this beer, which has been produced in very small quantities.

What amazes me is, I would not have been able to predict this a year ago, when I first started sampling the beers made by The Bruery.  At my local Whole Foods, Randy “The Beer Man” Clemens sold me a bottle of The Bruery’s Saison Rue.  I was mighty impressed with it and wondered what else they had to offer.  Months later, I joined Randy and the Rue family for a tasting at Whole Foods, and sampled the rest of their year ’round line up.  I wasn’t quite sure after tasting Black Orchard, Tradewinds Tripel, and Orchard White, that people would enjoy this beer enough to keep buying it, and at $8-12 a bottle.  The Bruery is making beers off the beaten path, using crazy ingredients in the herb and spice family, Belgian candi sugar, and other malts not commonly used in beer.  I personally wasn’t a fan of any of the beers except Saison Rue.  My biggest question was “How can a start up brewery come to the dance so quick, with so much flare?”

Fast forward to late spring/ early summer 2009, and all of my concerns were stifled.  The Bruery hit a home run with their first anniversary ale, Papier.  Papier is a high gravity barrel aged beer, that was also released to locals in Rye, Bourbon and Brandy Barrels.  They also knocked my socks off with Melange #3, a beer that I would say is more bold than Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.  Once summer hit, I fell in love with The Bruery’s sour offerings. Cuvee Jeune, White Zin, and Hottenroth Berliner Weiss have been the best domestic sours I have tried, giving Russian River and Lost Abbey a great run for their money.  Holy crap I thought, is this the company that had me scratching my head not that long ago?

So years after people have questioned the sanity of people taking off work to buy Barrel Aged Alesmith in San Diego, folks clunking down $30.00 at Lost Abbey ( to much controversy), all while more and more people have lost their jobs, was The Bruery releasing a $30.00 bottle of 19.5% abv Impy Stout a good idea? I will tell you right now, that answer is yes.  They have proved that A) They know what the premium craft beer lover wants and that they B) Can deliver it.

While my prediction from last year was off the mark, I will be so bold as to make my predictions for next year about the Bruery:  Out of necessity, they will find a larger facility, and they will continue to wow the craft beer world with their unique style of premium craft beer.  I will add my wish to this, and say that I wish their production grows to a point to where their price point could drop a tad.

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To find out all the details of October 27′s Black Tuesday Release, follow this link.

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