Here we have "Chocolate Salty BBLs", an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels, featuring vanilla beans, cacao nibs, and salt. Sounds like a lot of beers, frankly, but this one has a key difference: it's 18.67% ABV! Perhaps one of the strongest beers I have ever tried.
Notice the disclaimer: "Contains Alcohol." No kidding.
The Bruery has a reputation for making off-the-wall beers, specifically with "dessert" flavors like white chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, and jams of all sorts. They don't make anything half-assed, either, so I didn't mind spending $30 on this 750mL for a special occasion.
And what occasion is that? I'm at the monthly beer-and-booze meetup called "Hopluck", hosted by former D'Vines colleague Nate and his partner Rachel. Aside from the hosts, reviewing today are part of our extended crew - Adam, Jake, Taylor, and Abbey. I'm not fighting this dire beast alone: we're going to do a group review!
OK, we had to pour out small servings since we had so many people tasting. Oddly, it's way lighter in color than I was expecting. Something like this should be jet black, but no, this is reddish-brown. It's even able to be candled.
Aroma is kinda mild, presents a bit of caramel but nothing major.
Oh, wow, OK. It's actually MUCH lighter than any of us were expecting, and Adam exclaimed "WOW!" after his first sip; and both Jake and Nate reacted similarly. There's a silky, full flavor of salted caramel, which hits right up front as the beer hits your tongue - but it's a bit like cooked caramel, like the top layer of creme brulee...crusty, a touch of roastiness. Rachel feels it lacks the burnt tang of caramelized sugar, which makes sense since we're talking about flavor notes, not actual ingredients in beer. But we all agree that it shares the same profile. We swished and let it warm up; the caramel flavors take on a sweeter tone and we're detecting some oak (finally the barrels coming through!) and some vanilla, kinda like the overly-sweet vanilla sugar topping at Starbucks. I'm searching for the right word to describe the texture. Opposite of puckery? It's savory, in a way, but isn't necessarily oily. I was searching for the opposite of "puckery", and Taylor came up with "unctuous." Works for me!
I'm glad I tried this - I appreciate how well the brewers hid the alcohol, and we felt the flavors weren't overly sweet (sometimes a concern with The Bruery's dessert beers.) So not cheap for sure, but it's one of those cool special occasion beers that's best enjoyed with friends! We went into this review expecting a palate-wrecking bourbon bomb but came out surprisingly unscathed. The bourbon adds some sweetness there, for sure, but the alcohol is as hidden as it can be for being, in Taylor's words, "basically as strong as a mixed drink."
If you want this, or one of their other secret offerings, visit their bottle shop near Union Market and ask about their Society club membership. It's a subscription service that gives you access to all these limited-edition beers not normally available to the public, and worth checking out if you're a beer hound.
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