The Bruery 4 Calling Birds
A Belgian style dark ale brewed with spices. The fourth verse of our Twelve Beers of Christmas saga incorporates gingerbread-like spice into a rich and robust dark ale.
3.6
289 reviews
Placentia, United States
Community reviews
Bottle thanks to Will. Pours a dark brown with medium beige head that lasts. The aroma is strong spice, cinnamon, and cookies. Thin mouth, strong gingerbread cookie, cinnamon, spice, nutmeg, light booze, very nice.
Pours a dark brown beer with little brown head. Aroma reminds me of gingerbread and is spicy. Taste is sweet, spicy, and has hints of gingerbread. Full body, coats your mouth with some nice alcohol warmth at the back.
Bottle shared with BBGTC. Pours a brown body producing a small tan head. Spicy aroma with hints of dried fruits. Taste is sweet at first but with spice and also a light sour touch. Noble oxidized notes becomes this ale very well. Body is full, oily texture and softly carbonated.
Bottle, shared with BBGTC. Deep brown, near-black body with a light beige head. Aroma is licorice, nuts, oats, grains, nougat, honey, toffee and hints of cinnamon, pumpkin and mild clove. Taste is licorice, nuts, nougat, biscuits, grains, brown sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon and hints of clove, raisins, wood and red berries. Full body, medium carbonation. Sweet, yet a bit sour somehow and with loads of complexity and a fair deal of oxidizing caused by cellaring (3 years), Pleasant and smooth, and interesting. Nice one.
Bottle via and shared with oakbluff. Muddy brown in colour with medium carbonation. Aromas area of heavy malt, red berry, vanilla, an peppery spice. Loads of malt and black licorice flavor, along with some baking spices and vanilla. Heavy and a bit boozy. Ok.
Bottle at Anchorage Sept ’14 Tasting: Poured a dark brown with red edges, head was light brown. Aroma was strong vanilla and spice. Taste mixed well with nice malts, tobacco and chocolate.
Draft at craft ale house. Pours clear reddish amber with minimal head. The aroma has brown sugar notes, caramel, some spices. The taste has a sweet anise, caramel, light soy.
Bottle for Thanksgiving 2014.
Dark pour, decent head. Hugely spicy nose. Flavor is...sweet, sticky, and so.much.spice. This is absolutely undrinkable. Dafuq! On the heels of a Cuvee van de Kaiser Blauw ’08, this is a travesty. Total drain pour. My dad is drinking it anyway; I feel terrible as a host. Now what do I do with my five golden rings and six geese a laying?
"Rich, dark brown with quickly dissipating head. Nice aroma of gingerbread, belgian yeast, and sweet malts. no hint of 11% til it gets closer to room temp. nice holiday ale. best aroma of the 3 i’ve had, nice smooth relatively thick bodied. flavor similar to the aroma...spice dominant and tasty."
Deep dark brownish color with a tan head. Brown sugar, fruity, oak, spicy and vanilla aroma. Powerful little horny devil. Full body. A bit sweet and a moderate bitterness. Sugary and a bit sweet flavor. Oak, spicy, vanilla and chocolate flavor. Lovely tasty ale.
[Bottle at rlgk plaza]
Flaska på provningen USA comes to Göteborg 2014.
Luktar marshmallow, surt, choklad, vin, äpple, krydda.
Svart.
Smakar frukt, choklad, godis, surt, alkohol, krydda.
Ganska fyllig.
Bottle at rlgk. Pours clear darker mahogany with a minimum of head. Aroma is sweet chocolate malty some raisins. Flavor as aroma.
Bottle. Dark brown colour with a beige head. Aroma is alcohol, spices, roasted malt. Flavour is ginger, bread, fruit, roasted malt, caramel, chocolate. Full body. Very nice beer.
Dark brown pour with small tan head. Aroma of malts, cinnamon, cloves, dark fruit and gingerbread. Taste of caramel, molasses, vanilla, gingerbread, dark fruits. Full bodied, perfect carbonation, nice long gingerbread finish. Very good beer.
Aroma. Sweet Bread, Vanilla, Gingerbread, Mildly Boozy
Appearance: Dark Brown Hue, Passes Mild Light, Off White Head Ring, Mild Lacing
Taste: Gingerbread, Vanilla, Mildly Boozy, Mild Sweet Bread
Mouthfeel: Average Carbonation, Medium Bodied, Mildly Sweet, Mildly Boozy
Pours dark with a foam head that dissipates and clinged to my glass. The aroma is very spice driven, dough maltiness, semi sugar sweetener. In the flavor there is a mild bitterness, semi chocolate malts, soft acidic fruit taste, and a pleasant pumpernickel grain taste. The finish was somewhat tasteful but had a complexity of ingredients that blended rather strange. Overall I enjoyed this beverage.
Pours a burnt umber color with a finger of eggshell foam. Nose is warming spice, medicinal weirdness and bready malt. The palate follows with an aggressively carbonated body, thinner than expected mouthfeel and a bit of weird disjointed layers of spicy nutmeg, earthy gingerbread, stale rye... a touch metallic and just unbalanced in general.
(free beer week bottle from peteinSD thanks!) Pours a brownish black color with a dark tan head that quickly dissipates. Aroma certainly holds a fair amount of spice and I would venture a guess to say there’s some cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and perhaps nutmeg on display. Some chocolate, a lot of booze, and stewed fruit show up as well. Pumpernickel bread. Flavor holds a lot more chocolate that takes on somewhat of a Nutella vibe. Bit of roasted malt here, but a ton of sweetness. Light hints of spice towards the finish, which I’d say is a strong point. Oddly enough, the strong booze presence in the nose doesn’t really carry over into the flavor. Mouthfeel is full and carbonation is restrained. Overall a big, sweet, boozy(nose-wise) beer that is not bad for what it is.
750 mL bottle from Beer Run, opened 12/28/13. Pours a murky dark brown color with a large fizzy tan head. Fair head retention. Aroma of tropical and canned fruits, almost dirty seeming, with some dark malts and mild spice. The taste is tart fruits, pineapple, spice, dark malts. Medium bodied, low carbonation, almost no heat.
Bottle. Pours a murky brown with thin tan head. Nose of brown sugar, caramel, gingerbread. Medium body, light heat
Some old bottle I had in the cellar. Pours deep red. Nose is obnoxious spices, phenolics, fruits. Bready, fruity and rich flavored. Thick and full bodied. I was a little put off by the intense pungent spices up in this bitch.
Pours a dark mahogany color with a medium off-white head. Aroma is dark fruit, fig, nutmeg, cinnamon, toffee, brown sugar. Taste is much the same. Good cinnamon and nutmeg flavors.
Passable but not great. Very sweet, but with a bitter backbone that doesn't quite mesh. Got better as it warmed but still not something I'd buy a second time.
--- Save the unicorns!
Another rather embarrassment in the series. Didn’t age well in the least bit.
Very opaque brown colored with ruby highlights. A slim layer of tan bubbles. Little bit of lacing. Big note of molasses in the front. Some spicy hints. Big spicy taste with a malt and molasses. Not bad. Like a dessert.
750 ml bottle into tulip glass, bottled in 10/2011. Pours dense pitch black color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense tan head with decent retention, that reduces to a thin lace cap that lingers. Minimal spotty foamy lacing clings on the glass, with some light streaming carbonation. Aromas of raisin, prune, caramel, molasses, licorice, dark chocolate, roasted malt, toast, light char, light coffee, gingerbread, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, pepper, allspice, dark bread, herbal, and roasted/yeast earthiness; with some very slight booze. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/roasted malt, spice, and yeast ester notes; with solid strength. Taste of big raisin, prune, dark chocolate, cocoa, molasses, caramel, toast, dark bread, nutmeg, roasted malt, light coffee, gingerbread, clove, cinnamon, licorice, allspice, light char, herbal, and roasted/yeast earthiness. Lingering notes of dark fruit, dark chocolate, cocoa, caramel, molasses, toast, dark bread, light coffee, roast, gingerbread, licorice, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, light char, allspice, herbal, and roasted/yeast earthiness on the finish for a while. Damn nice complexity, balance, and robustness of dark/roasted malt, spice, and yeast ester flavors; with a great malt/spice balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Medium carbonation and fairly full bodied; with a creamy, moderately slick, and lightly chalky mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a small warming present after the finish. Overall this is a very nice spiced Belgian dark ale. All around good balance, complexity, and robustness of dark/roasted malt, yeast, and spice flavors; and very smooth to sip on for the ABV. A very enjoyable offering.
750ml bottle courtesy CaseyK. Really big and rich Belgian Christmas Ale, I can dig it. Rich smoky sweetness, sugary and over the top. Gingerbread, chocolate, caramel, black licorice. A touch brutal, but that is acceptable for the ABV. An interesting over the top Belgian Christmas beer, sugary rich madness.
Bottle from Brusin Ales - catching up on reviews, I had this one a couple days ago, and I think I let it age too long, because all Ingot was the ginger, without anything else to temper it. Meh.
Bottle @ Croydonia. Any day I can force Bruce to try a Bruery beer is a good day in my book. Brown pour with a small head. The nose is farty belgian yeast. Dark red fruits, canned pear. The taste is prune stew. Mild tart red berry compote. Acidic red apple. Full body, not all that boozy. Overall, not terrible, just anonymous.
Bottle pour. Black pour with tan head. Flavor is roasted, spices and light Belgian tones. Aroma is lighter but similar.