The Bruery Black Orchard

Brewed by The Bruery
Style: Belgian Ale
Placentia, California USA

Massive head despite a gentle pour that took forever to calm down, but fell to a nice solid film, but left little lacing. Dark brown with ruby highlights. Modest malty aroma with some spices and raisins. Flavors were more pronounced, and featured a slight tartness in addition to dark fruit, sweet malts, candy sugar, citrus, and wheat. Medium body, lively carbonation. Quite a complex flavor profile, but it somehow doesn’t all quite fit together.

I liked this more than some ratings show. Dark brown medium mouthfeel. Malty aroma roasted malt tast with a slight finishing bitterness.

Bottle 75cl. @ Papsoes blindtasting. [ Bottle #2. ]
Unclear hazy medium to dark brown color with a large, frothy to creamy, good lacing, mostly lasting, light beige head. Aroma is moderate malty, roasted, spicy, light to moderate hoppy, moderate yeasty, dark berry, raisin, prune, coriander notes, licorice notes. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and moderate bitter with a long duration. Body is medium, texture is watery to oily, carbonation is soft, finish is light alcoholic or phenol. [20090612]
6-3-5-3-11
Bottle 75cl. @ DØE Tasting, Fox & Hounds, Holstebro.
Clear medium to dark red brown color with a average to large, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, beige head. Aroma is moderate malty, roasted, light caramel, wheat, citrus, spicy - wood. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and bitter with a average to long duration, roasted, caramel, fruity. Body is medium, texture is watery to oily, carbonation is soft. [20090929]
7-3-6-3-13

A pretty poor showing for such a hefty priced beer. It’s not that it was awful, but it just wasn’t really anything I could get into. I’ll give points though for experimentation, which always goes over well with me. The beer though...eh. It poured out a clear chesnut brown color with a small off-white head (no retention). The aroma comes off very soapy with a touch of caramel malts, dried fruit and some plastic/rubber. Flavor had some light vegetal flavors, some roasted malt, undefine spices and some weak yeast. I’ve got a few other Bruery beers to try, but this one is avoidable.

On tap at brewery. Hard to know what to say about this one. Almost like a schwarzbier crossed with a Belgian White. Chocolate malt and soft roasts come through, along with typical Belgian white spices (coriander, etc). Mouthfeel is light, clean, and slightly dry. An interesting offering overall.

750 ml bottle from BevMo (E. Tucson) - Pours a hazy brown color with a large light tan head. Light lacing. Aroma is sharp esters and spice. Flavor is dark esters, lightly sweetened roasted malt, and spice. Medium body. A nice beer.

(bottled) Poured a very large head with a nice caramel colored body. The flavors were pretty muted except for a faint roasted maltiness. Slight bitternessThis is a pretty weak beer.

Courtesy of Tampabrew. Pours dark dark brown with deep purple hues and full, nearly frothy, mocha head. The aroma is sweet with dark grape jam, fruity granola bars, pancakes and vague spiciness. Interesting aroma that seems to do its best to avoid description. The taste is both dry and sweet at the same time with grapes, apples and muted roasted and slightly dusty grains. The flavor then begins to take on a white wine quality. This is pretty nice to drink but also a bit odd.