The Bruery - The Order (2017)

The Bruery’s The Order from 2017 has developed into a beautifully aged quadrupel-style beer, with tons of character, smooth drinkability, and rich layers of brown sugar and dark fruit. It manages to provide that Belgian-style drinkability despite being 9.5% ABV.

The Order pours a dense, honeyed, golden brown with modest off-white foam. We found lots of dates and dried fruits in the aroma: candied and fruity, but super smooth, with little alcohol poking through. Caramelized sugars, lush dates—super bright and fruit forward.

Moderate bubbles here and a nicely lean presentation overall, allowing those layers of dates and dried fruit and brown sugar to play out easily. This is lush but never heavy, caramelized but never sticky. It’s an aged Bruery beer that’s performing at its best. We found cherries, brown sugar, loads of dates, delicious caramelization, plus lots of bright fruit (apple and pear). A well integrated and super satisfying release at this point.

The Order is certainly able to withstand a bit more time in the cellar, but doing great now. Core notes of red fruits and dates have us looking to pairings with roasted pork.

What The Bruery has done for beer in Orange County, California, while impressive, is just a part of their contribution to the greater brewing landscape. Once just a confusingly named, obscure little brewery from a curiously named little Southern California town, The Bruery is now known to the majority of beer geeks across the country and beyond. They’ve continued to develop their extensive barrel-aging program, launched the Bruery Terreux line, opened The Tasting Room at Bruery Terreux in Anaheim, and ultimately become one of the most respected breweries in the nation. They’ve even recently added a third Bruery location: The Bruery Store at Union Market in Washington, DC, establishing a wee East Coast outpost.

As a result of their unbridled creativity and skilled brewing practices, The Bruery’s beers are still some of the most highly coveted out there, period. It was back in 2009 that they released the beer that took the brewing community by storm: Black Tuesday, a massive imperial stout (clocking in around 20% ABV) aged in bourbon barrels for well beyond a year. Hugely oaky, rich, velvety smooth, and borderline nourishing, it caused both a stir and an annual tradition. The demand for this stout led people to drive and/or fly from hundreds (or even thousands) of miles away.

A handful of breweries have managed to take the “limited-release” concept as far as The Bruery has done with their beers, with annual vintages that sell out in a single day. Some folks have even gone one step further, creating the release equivalent of a serial novel, as The Bruery did with its recently completed 12 Days of Christmas series of annual beers.