The Bruery Melange #3

Melange #3 is a blend of three bourbon barrel aged strong ales. White Oak Sap, a wheat wine, our Anniversary Series old ale and our imperial stout, Black Tuesday, join forces in this luxurious strong ale that links some of the best characteristics of each of the contributing beers. Chocolate, dark fruits, oaky vanilla and rich toffee-like character reach through the bourbon veneer for an intensely satisfying quaff.

Previous Vintages: 15.5% ABV

546 reviews

Placentia, United States

Community reviews

4.1 750ml bottle from Woodmans in Waukesha for my 4800th!! Cellared 30 months, served colder than cellar temperature, and shared with Bananabi11. A bit of a white whale - super excited to try. Browner than dark brown pour with a beige head. Aroma starts with big barrel. Then there is raisin, caramel, some nut, and more barrel. Taste has big barrel, caramel, certainly raisin. Tasty, strong, fairly smooth. Barrel had almost 3 years, yet was kicking hard. Of the inputs, there is some evidence of the wheatwine, beyond that big Black Tuesday presence. Finishes strongly sweet. Like these big Bruery brews! 15.5

4.0 75cl bottle at home. Appearance: Hazy dark brown to black with medium sized off-white head. Aroma: bourbon, molasse, dark raisins, port, chocolate, slight iron. Taste: high sweetness and high bitterness. Notes of dark raisins, molasse, not sugarry per se, plenty of bourbon, port like. Palate: medium to full bodied, sticky texture and medium carbonation. Overall: great stuff. Complex, intense and the alcohol is pretty well hidden.

4.2 Bottle kindly shared by Erik, many thanks! Reddish brown without much of a head. Heavy caramel, chocolate, dried fruit, some oak. Massive flavor bomb. Great stuff!

4.3 Mikołaj Rutkowski is drinking a Mélange No. 3 (2017) by The Bruery at Morze Piwa

3.9 Flaska från systembolaget. Brunröd utan skum, tung. Doftar torkad frukt, choklad. Farligt drickbar mjuk, mer barley wine än stout. Vinös, spritfat, läder, choklad.

4.1 Flaska. Häftigt öl som lyckas vara relativt balanserad trots att det är mycket som pågor. Inslag av bourbon, vanilj, honung, choklad, vin, rågbröd och risgryn. Mjuk och fin kropp!

4.6 Bottle @ Dok Brewing Company. Dark brown colour, thin layer of foam. Very comples aroma of dried fruit (dates, plums, figs), red wine, chocolate, vanilla, bourbon. Boozy and strong, well balanced. Great!

5.0 Mörkbrun grumlig med ljusbrunt skum. Doftar och smakar sjukt mycket russin/torkad frukt och en massa bourbon!! Fyllig med bra beska och inte mycket alkoholsmak trots 16.3%. Sjukt bra öl! Dracks hos Trollrunnan på hembrygarträffen

3.9 750 ml bottle. 16.3%. Courtesy of tovesa. Enjoyed on May 10, 2019. Dark brown color with a medium size foamy light tan head. Sugary sweetness, booze, dark fruits, malt and fruity sweetness in the aroma. The flavor is jammy and marmalade sweetness, booze, darkness... even more sweetness. So jammy. Strong, boozy and strawberry jammy. Surprisingly tasty.

4.1 This 26-ounce bottle, with a listed ABV of 16.3%, was a pricey treat to myself at the end of a taxing academic year of teaching. Pours mahogany with ruby highlights and a tiny tan head and residual lacing, along with a fair amount of carbonation bubbling up in the small snifter. Aroma: brown sugar, cherries, molasses, caramel, dark dried fruits. Flavor: intensely sweet with caramel, brown sugar and toffee, along with port wine, chocolate-covered cherries, figs, dates, raisins, prunes, molasses bread, vanilla beans, coconut, anejo dark rum, wooden char, leather, cigar. Mouthfeel: full-bodied with an oily, syrupy finish and a boozy warmth throughout. This is the sipper of sippers, best shared (rather than trying to finish a bottle yourself). While incredibly complex and flavorful, I personally found the sweetness to be too much. It got cloyingly sweet the more I tasted.

3.9 75 cl bottle (16.3% abv). Thanks tovesa! Pours dark red-brown color with a small off-white head. Ripe fruits on the nose, toffee, alcohol is evident, wooden notes, some bourbon-y vanilla, faint syrup. Flavor is sweet with syrup and molasses, chocolate, licorice and some caramel. Quite sweet, exceptionally good balance despite the strong abv, nice. 6425

3.9 75 cl bottle (16,3%) @ olio Aroma has sweet toffee malty tones – feels Belgian! Flavour has alcohol, toffee candy, belgian yeast and molasses. Also ripe fruits. Alcohol is present in the finish too. A slow sipper and high drinkability compared to the ABV – but nothing I’d have again.

3.7 Bottle 750ml at olio tasting. Pours black, beige head. Dark malts, dried fruits, caramel. Full body, oily texture average carbonation, roasted finish.

2.8 75cl-fles van bij beergium.com U: Donkerbruin met een dunne écru schuimkraag. G: Donker fruit, hout, marsepein, kokos, gedroogd fruit en maraschinokers. Te veel alcohol. S: Zoet met een lichte bitterheid. Amandel, gedroogd fruit en hout. Veel te veel alcohol. Jammer van de alcohol anders ging dit een geslaagd bier geweest zijn. M: Volmondig met een lichte carbonatie.

2.6 75 cl fles. Donkerbruin bier met rode gloed en weinig wit schuim. Geur: hout, alcoholisch, donker fruit, hint van kokos en amandel. Smaak: de alcohol overheerst, zoet, fruitig, rood fruit. Matige koolzuurprikkel. Afdronk: alcohol. De alcohol is te overweldigend voor bier, totaal geen balans meer ten koste van de smaak.

4.0 Taster shared with Nische courtesy of karrjin, big thanks. dark brown color, very small head. smells of bourbon, mint, marzipan, molasses, very nice smell. full body, no carbonation, slick mouthfeel. tastes of bourbon, molasses, wood, mint, light coconut, vanilla, bit boozy. finishes lightly boozy and bit sweet with notes of molasses, bourbon and some mint notes. very nice one, rather on the heavy side, great barrel notes, loved the mint notes.

3.5 750mml. bottle, taster. Sampled on the 16/03/2019 at "Barcelona Beer Festival 2019", (L´Hospitalet, Spain). Dark brown colour with a low tan head. Some sediments. Aroma is bourbon barrels, red fruits and hazelnuts. Taste is red fruits, bourbon barrels, chestnut and tannins. Finish is acidic and medium dry. Next one please!

4.1 Überkandidelt ToffeePfeffrig & muddy UK-Stronger🤔 ..Sour Nutella Bomb indeed🧟‍♂️...BorkenkäferBoBoHardlineSud mit OldSocksTimbre👣...Andy is too soft👾 ...Dann lieber SchwarzWälderKirschBrand😜 ...2017er 0,75l BEERGIUM QUAL ;)...

4.0 Botella, @BBF2019, Barcelona 16/03/2019 Color marron oscuro corona de espuma beige, aromas maltososo, sabor malta, notas caramelo, dulce, cuerpo denso, rica.

3.8 Beautiful aroma of barrel aged barley wine,caramel,sweet figs.Taste of bourbon,caramel,cherry ,lots of alcohol,figs,prunes,dried fruits.unbalanced and too much alcohol even for a 16% beer..

4.3 Taste from a bottle. Pours an opaque, mahogany color, with a small, beige head. The aroma is plums, roasted coffee, vanilla, coconut, sherry, and cherries. Sugary sweet, with a nice bitterness. Thick, boozy, and sugary. Great complexity and depth. Excellent!

4.7 Bottle, 16.3%. Color: Dark reddish brown, thin beige head. Aroma: Dark dried fruit, fudge, sweetish alcohol, vanilla. Taste: Dark dried fruit, light hints of red fruit, vanilla, fudge, caramel, boozy, Bourbon. Hints of raisins. Heavy alccohol old ale and barleywine-ish. Sirupy, sugary sweet. Over medium sweet, moderate bitter. Warming mouthfeel. Full body, below average carbonation. Great beer.

4.6 75cl bottle @ monthly tasting, Chez Sophie, Jan 19. Many thanks Jeremy for bringing this! Deep mahogany, off white head. Aroma is rich, cakey, layered malt. Taste is smooth sumptuous bourbon, moist cake, beautifully balanced. An absolute joy to sip, probably the most enjoyable beer i've had of this strength.

4.4 28th Jan 2019. Shrewsbury Beer Exchange Group meeting in Chez Sophie. Bottle brought by me, given by a friend who bought it in Flagstaff AZ and flew home with it last year. What a lovely beer this is, we had 21 different beers during our session and this was by far the best beer we had (for me anyway). Dark, rich and interesting, boozy, sweet and flavoursome. A work of art by the brewers and blenders, just sublime in all aspects.

3.9 W aromacie dużo mocnego szlachetnego alkoholu, melasy, czerwonych owoców. W smaku słodkie dość, mocno alkoholowe, ale szlachetnie. Nawet degustacyjne.

4.4 Classic Bruery beer, one of the first Mélange editions and probably still the one that left the most lasting impression; a blend of - what The Bruery calls - old ale, wheat wine and imperial stout, all aged on bourbon barrels. Expensive 75 cl bottle shared with my girlfriend, Craftmember and his girlfriend Hinke. Mousy, egg-white, creamy 'ring' of a head, rather unstable and eventually almost vanishing; misty deep purplish-hued bronze robe, beautifully 'ruddy' and autumny. Powerful, intense and beguiling bouquet of caramel cream, strong sweet bourbon, melting milk chocolate, hazelnut oil, tawny port, brown rum, medium rare venison, glazed spareribs, Poire Belle Hélène, blonde sugar, red wine, almond, cognac, prominent vanilla-ish oak wood, toasted walnuts. Very sweet, intense onset, tons of candied fig and cherry, very full and vinous body, softly carbonated with a deeply toffeeish, hazelnutty and lightly chocolatey malt sweet basis superseded by a lot of residual honeyish sweetness but soon intensified by very hot, warming, very bourbon- but also cognac-like alcohol mixed with pronounced vanilla-scenting oak wood adding a dryish tannic effect, a welcome balance against the overall sweetness. Pink peppercorn-, clove- and soy sauce-like notes add further complexity to an already very complex sipper. The Black Tuesday component is beautifully softened and 'absorbed' by the whole here, though everything remains very boozy; extremely desserty, highly complex barleywine, a noble and very classy beer worth every penny. Very memorable.

4.7 75cl bottle at home, 2017 ed. Cloudy dark brown, syrupy pour, beige foamy head. Really intense bourbon loaded, porto vinous, red fruits, ripe apples, roasted malty toffee, caramel, appelstroop, molasses, coffee, butterscotch, praline, vanilla, prunes: sweet and boozy up front, light bitterness in the finish. Longest aftertaste to date, just keeps on building and building with vinous, boozy red fruit - really nice. Big body, medium carbonation, oily mouthfeel.

4.5 0.75 bottle, 16.3% ABV version. Dried fruit, figs, dates, chocolate, alcohol is of course noticeable, but my guess would be around 10, maybe 11%, I'd never say it has massive 16.3%! Pitch black color with minimal sized tan head. Taste is absolutely spectacular, heavy dates, chocolate and caramel. Full body, flat carbonation, some alcohol warming.

3.6 Draft 5floz snifter, 16.3 ABV. Raisin beer is what this is, brown in color and has that dark dried fruit aroma and flavor of raisin. Boozy, warming, full bodied, mildy carbonated, and minimally apparent hoppiness. Decent, but it seems a certain strain of strong browns convey similar traits, and this isn't elevated in my opinion.

4.3 From old notes I recently found. Likely a bottle share at a friends house 4-5 years ago. Bottle. POURS a muddy brown with a thin layer of white-ish foam with big bubbles. AROMA is very complex with various notes of bourbon, vanilla, light chocolate and coffee, port wine, etc. FLAVOR also very complex with notes of pipe tobacco, molasses, vanilla, bourbon, and my notes say "etc. etc." This is quite sweet, starting to approach cloying. Finishes hot due to the 15% (burning in the mouth but not down the gullet), but still maintaining complexity. Can't drink much of this at any one time, but I quite liked it. (499, 1114)