Black Tuesday 2014 Sale Details You'll Want to Know

It's that time of year again! Black Tuesday 2014 will soon be ready for sale to the public.

Every year we've worked to make the experience of getting this beer as pleasant as possible, and this year we are proud to announce a new method for those interested in purchasing Black Tuesday 2014. We will first be holding a drawing to determine who may purchase the beer this year, followed by an extended purchase period. There will be plenty of time to get your ticket into our drawing and to then purchase the beer. Here are the details on the Black Tuesday 2014 public sale.

Recipe: Stacey's Bread Pudding with Spiced Black Tuesday Sauce

The first winning recipe from our Holiday Cooking with Beer Recipe contest comes from Stacey Thompson. Her Bread Pudding with Spiced Black Tuesday Sauce is an indulgent holiday twist on a relatively simple holiday classic. We love the idea of having a "bread + liquid bread" dessert to top off an evening of gluttonous holiday dining.



Full recipe after the jump.

Black Tuesday - The technical side of things

Our goal at The Bruery is to create exciting beer and along with that, to share that beer with as many people as we can. It sucks when the plan to share the beer becomes an issue, as it did earlier this week with our Black Tuesday 2013 online sale.

Though our online store website initially failed us, it did eventually start working, and thanks to our amazing and patient fans we were then able to get Black Tuesday into the hands of more people than ever before. We know how frustrating this was, and we are very sorry. We appreciate the flood of comments offering advice and support, so we felt it appropriate to give you guys an outline of what happened.

Meet the Homebruer: Benjamin Weiss

Our third employee ever, Benjamin has worked in just about every role at The Bruery. From brewing, to packaging, to marketing, to arts & crafts, he's worked his way finally to Director of Marketing here. But he wasn't always working such a dreamy job. Ben came from the music industry and followed his passion for homebrew, which lead him to this very blog, before becoming a Bruer.

On a foggy Venice Beach day in late 2006, young Ben decided it was the perfect day to crack open his roommate's homebrew kit and boil some wort. Roughly a year later, he got to know a certain Patrick and Tyler.

What happened that made you start homebrewing? 

Matt Strickland - The Wood Cellarman

I am the Wood Cellarman for The Bruery. What is a “Wood Cellarman”, you ask? Well, going beyond the fifth-grade level innuendo that is giggling through your brain right about now, it means that I take care of The Bruery’s barrel program. Essentially I cellar a lot of wood…There ya go; you can get it all out of your damn system…

OK.

If you’re reading this blog right now it probably means that you’re a fan of The Bruery or that you have some insatiable and disturbing fetish that I promise you, even on my best day I couldn’t satisfy…so move along. However, if you fall into the first camp then you probably already have an idea of what it is I do.

The Bruery currently boasts one of the largest (I believe we’re in second place right now behind Goose Island) barreled beer programs in the country. When I interviewed for this job back in February we were sitting at 1300 barrels filled with another 200-300 waiting to be filled. When I started this gig a month ago we were at 1700 filled with another 300 on the fill list. And in 3 weeks or so we’ll have a total of 2500 barrels in the warehouse with another 500 on the way by the end of the year.

It reminds me of a joke that Jerry Seinfeld once told about painting his apartment every year and the room felt just a little bit smaller as a result. (Except in my case the “paint” is barrels and I don’t have a TV show that will inexplicably turn all my friends’ careers into road kill.) Every day I walk into that enormous warehouse and it feels just a little bit smaller.

In addition to maintaining one of the largest barrel programs in the U.S., I believe we also have one of the most complex programs as well. Between our Bourbon Barrel program and our sour beer program we have nearly 20 different beers sitting in barrel. Within each beer there are often multiple batch types, differing production methods, and barrel selections. Some barrels we age for years and won’t make it into this year’s blends while other barrels will. It’s as much a science as it is a craft - Take that Stephen Hawking!

When I tell people about my job, two questions usually come up: 1. Why would you want to be a Wood Cellarman? And, 2. How did you get the job?

The answer to the second question is that I interviewed with Patrick and Tyler months ago and I imagine most likely they went out that night, drank a bit too much Black Tuesday and one of them dared the other to hire me.

The answer to the first question is a bit more involved.

Barrels have a long history in beer and wine. Millennia have passed with very few changes or advances in the art of coopering. Barrels are still largely put together by hand with rudimentary tools, by skilled craftsmen and artists whose very existence should be celebrated in the form of a national holiday. (Even Beauty Queens get an entire week in August and not a single one of them has come through on their promises for bikini-clad world peace.)

Wood has an amazing impact on beer. It can impart a wide array of flavors and aromas. It can alter the beer’s texture. It can act as a home for microbes looking to get messed up on some beer sugars. Or it can simply act as a container for the beer to slowly mature in. No other material can have the same effects on beer and this is why beer has been sloshing around in barrels for centuries now. It is very much a part of the storied craft beer tradition and I’m very fortunate to play a part in it.

My day to day is rarely routine. Some days I’m racking the contents of puncheon barrels into smaller sized wine barrels, or maybe adding some cocoa nibs and vanilla bean to some bourbon barrels. Other days have me receiving barrel shipments, taking samples, or performing mini-blends. My mop has also become a close friend.

As a fan of The Bruery you may have noticed that we are in the middle of a substantial expansion process right now. As I mentioned above, our barreled beer program is roughly doubling in size this year and it’s not like it was the runt of the litter to begin with. Nearly half our production goes through my warehouse at some point and in the coming months I plan on sharing more about what we do here and about barrels in general. So keep pouring glasses of Oude Tart, Sour in the Rye, Anniversary, and Black Tuesday, because I promise you, we’ve got more on the way. Until then, I swear to keep a watchful eye on them for ya.

It's Tuesday, must be time to blend something

It may not be a black Tuesday here in Orange County, but that's not reason we can't break out some barrel samples of Black Tuesday ale and figure out just exactly how we want to blend it for this year's release.

This will be the third year that we've released the infamous imperial stout that is aged in bourbon barrels and for the third time, it will have subtle differences in it's composition.  With a beer this big that spends so much time in oak barrels, there are many nuances that are hard to control.  Creating a beer of this style is similar in ways to creating a fine bourbon or whiskey.  The reason that companies like Jack Daniels or Maker's Mark can release a very consistent product is that they distill tens of thousands of oak barrels for every release and blend the majority of them together, creating a standard flavor from year to year.  If, however, you've ever had a single barrel varietal or have had bourbon or scotches from one of the smaller producers, you've probably noticed that the flavor and aroma can change ever so slightly from batch to batch.

As we explained a few weeks back as we blended the 2011 Oude Tart, the blending process is extremely important in barrel aged beers and can help balance the different brews.  While one barrel might be particularly sweet and another be particularly hot (alcoholic), finding the perfect blend of batches can result in great balance and the ideal beer to release.

We were quite happy with the final blend we agreed on today and can't wait to hear what you think!

For further info, visit www.thebruery.com/blacktuesday

twitter hashtag #blacktuesday

Tyler measuring out exact blend percentages.

Gotta try the original one of course.

And gotta try last years while we're at it.

Several different blend variations...which one will it be?!

Black Tuesday - A Comic

For more craft beer comics, visit The Full Pint

Black Tuesday Release Party

Well what can we say? This year's release party somehow ran without any faults. Of course there was a debacle with the websales for tickets and we had our server crash the first day, but once the actual day arrived, everything went great.

Of course we are sorry that we couldn't have absolutely everyone here to celebrate with us, but its one of the downfalls of having such a popular yet limited in quantity beer.

For those who did make it out last night, thank you! We had a great time, got through the line extremely quickly, had a ton of great beers on the list for the night including Black Tuesday, Chocolate Rain, Cherry Chocolate Rain, Premiére, Gunga Galunga and Barrel Fermented Autumn Maple, we had some awesome chocolates and perfect cheeses for pairing plus a necessary visit from The Lime Truck right outside the doors.

Year two of Black Tuesday was much different than the 5 hour line of year one and hopefully year three will be different in that we can get even more beer made and celebrate with even more people!

It really was a great night and we hope that everyone who got to come and enjoy had a great time.

This morning we sold out of the remaining bottles of Black Tuesday within a few minutes, so for those who didn't get any, hopefully you can find a kind person with a bottle to share some with soon!

Until next year!

Cheers!

Black Tuesday

You all know its coming, but check out this really awesome video that RedTailMedia made for us just for fun! It even gets us excited!

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who made Black Tuesday a success. We had a lot of stressed out fun and hopefully you all had a good time as well, despite the long line. Hopefully next year will be even better.

The Bruery - Black Tuesday from benjamin weiss on Vimeo.

Black Tuesday Release Details

Black Tuesday Release

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

** If you received this eMail, you may have seen the reference about "Being Served Tonight in addition to our usual lineup". I (Patrick) screwed up, sorry. We will have these beers on Tuesday, but not tonight. However, we will have Kogi BBQ!**

The details have changed a bit from our previous announcement, so please take a look. The major changes are:

-- No more number system (just one line and two registers forming outside-- we'll do our best to keep it moving quickly)

-- All purchased and allocated bottles will be picked up in the front office (we will give you a Purchase Form at the time of purchase)

-- Partridge in a Pear Tree is for the first 250 Reserve Society members only (we only yielded 290 bottles total)

-- Please do not arrive earlier than 4:30 PM so we can less the impact on our neighbors. We will not have a designated line prior to 4:30 PM. Please do not consume alcohol in our parking lot-- it is not part of our brewery and therefore does not have an ABC license.

Available for Purchase

Special Releases

- Black Tuesday Imperial Stout bottles - $30 (3 bottle limit per person)

- White Oak bottles - $15

Special Black Tuesday Tasting Flight - $20

Includes:

- 2 Black Tuesday tickets good for 4 oz. pours of Black Tuesday and/or Chocolate Rain

- 2 General tickets good for 8 oz. pours of any other beer on draft (Black Tuesday tickets can also be used for this)

- Bruery logo tulip glass, yours to keep

- To keep everything moving along somewhat smoothly, the Tasting Flight will be the only option (no full pours, etc.)

Bruery Reserve Society Memberships - $195

- 1st 250 memberships will include 1 bottle of Barrel Aged Partridge in a Pear Tree (Reserve Society Exclusive Release) in addition to White Oak and Saison Rue. The other 150 members will receive Barrel Aged Autumn Maple in addition to White Oak and Saison Rue.

- See membership form for additional information

Additional Bruery Merchandise

- Black Tuesday T-Shirts - $15

- Bottles To-Go (Orchard White, Saison Rue, Autumn Maple, Papier, Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, 2 Turtle Doves) - $8-18

- Other Bruery gear (t-shirts, hoodies, workshirts, etc.) - $15-40

- Bruery logo champagne stoppers/keychain bottle openers - $5

- Sorry, no growler fills on Black Tuesday

Being Served in addition to our usual line-up

- Black Tuesday

- Chocolate Rain (Cask conditioned Black Tuesday with Vanilla Bean & Cocoa Nibs)

- White Oak

- Our usual rotating lineup (Orchard White, Black Orchard, Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, Saison Rue, Autumn Maple, Sour in the Rye, Snicklefritz, Mischief #1, Mischief #3, 2 Turtle Doves)

Forms of Payment Accepted

-Cash (preferred)

- Major Credit Cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover)

Please have ID ready and available at the time of purchase for credit card sales! No checks, please.

Details & Instructions

While in line, please fill our a Purchase Form indicating all of the items you’d like to purchase (including Tasting Flights and Reserve Society Memberships).

Once you’ve been checked out and your Purchase Form has been approved by Bruery employees, you may pick up your bottles/merchandise at anytime in the front office or proceed to the bar to redeem your drink tickets. You will need your Purchase Form to pick up your bottles!

If you’d like to purchase an additional Tasting Flight, you may do so in the same line (which unfortunately means leaving the Bruery and waiting in line again).

Complimentary snacks will be available inside.

Looking forward to seeing you on Black Tuesday!

OktoBRUEfest! and a few other new items!

We may not make and Oktoberfest beer, but we still know how to celebrate this beer-centric tradition!

This weekend (October 2-4) we've lined up a whole three days of festivities at the Tasting Room.  Starting Friday with First Firkin Friday and as always we'll have a special cask on - a sneak preview of a new beer we'll be releasing soon.

Saturday, we'll be offering our Stimulus discount of 25% off all draft beer including growler fills.  On Sunday, Patrick will be manning the grill and serving up some brats to go with your beers,  and we'll be ending the weekend with one of our favorite events - Beer Geek Show & Tell!

If you haven't been to one of these before, we invite you to bring a 750mL/bomber/2 12oz bottles of a rare/special beer/exceptional homebrew that you'd like to share with everyone.  You'll then have a chance to taste what others have brought in.  It's a great opportunity to try some cool beers and talk with some fellow beer geeks about them.

Another item I want to mention is a new program we're implementing starting this weekend.  We will be putting up a new chalkboard in the Tasting Room and starting BRUE-it-forward.  In the spirit of sharing a beer with a friend, you'll be able to purchase a beer for someone else and we'll write their names on our BRUE-it-Forward board so that the next time they come in, they can redeem their beer and see that you purchased it for them.  The only thing better than enjoying a good beer is sharing one, right?  So come down and BRUE-it-Forward starting Friday.

Finally, we'll be announcing details about Black Tuesday this week, so keep your eyes open for that.  I promise it'll be a night not to be missed!  

Looking forward to seeing you all for OktoBRUEfest in the Tasting Room!

Feeding The Beast

Black Tuesday has yet to be released, but we've already got next year's batch fermenting away and we're trying to make it even bigger and better than what's already been tasted by a lucky few. Tyler pried the lid off of the fermenter in order to feed sugars and nutrients to Black Tuesday and the beer eagerly ate it up while spitting up on him like a giant baby. Luckily, this baby will eventually grow into a 20% alcohol imperial stout for us all to enjoy in October of 2010.

For those who haven't had a chance to try Black Tuesday from our tasting room, here are a couple of the reviews it is already garnering from beeradvocate and ratebeer reviewers:

One of a handful of beers I could legitimately call the best I've ever had.
-Overlord, Beeradvocate.com

Absolutely amazing. Gets better and better the more you drink. Wow.
-Mspindler, Ratebeer.com

Among, if not the best Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout/Strong Ale that's out there. If they produce it every year as they say they will, this will be a stalwart in the Top 100. I predict a perch in the Top 10 once enough people get to try it.
-Alexd3891, BeerAdvocate.com


A big big thank you to those three drinkers and to all of our loyal fans who are giving us good reviews on their beeradvocate and ratebeer accounts as well as through their blogs, publications and word of mouth. When we read reviews like the ones above or hear people's compliments, it makes us all happy to be brewing beer and gets us excited to try new things. Thanks!