Brooklyn Black Ops

Brewed By: Brooklyn Brewing
Brewed In: Brooklyn, NY
ABV: 11.6%
Type: Russian Imperial Stout

What they say: Brooklyn Black Ops does not exist. However, if it did exist, it would be a robust stout concocted by the Brooklyn brewing team under the cover of secrecy and hidden from everyone else at the brewery. Supposedly “Black Ops” was aged for four months in bourbon barrels, bottled flat, and re-fermented with Champagne yeast, creating big chocolate and coffee flavors with a rich underpinning of vanilla-like oak notes. They say there are only 1000 cases. We have no idea what they’re talking about.

Website: Brooklyn’s website hasn’t changed since my Black Chocolate Stout review last year and, really, not much at all that I can remember. In a nice touch, this beer is nowhere to be found on the website because it does not, in fact, actually exist. I’ll mention here that everyone, if they have the opportunity, should try to get out to the brewery for Brooklyn’s Friday Happy Hour. It’s about the best $20 value in the city and it lacks the expected Williamsburg snootiness. A good, low-key vibe with picnic tables, card games, and plenty of delivery pizza options.

Why I Picked It: I visited the Whole Foods Bowery Beer Room on New Year’s Eve to get a couple growlers for the evening. I saw this beer, read the description above, and grabbed it because the idea of their coffee stout in bourbon barrels sounded like a home rum.

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Presentation (5): (image via Park Slope Food Co-op). For a bottle that doesn’t exist, it’s pretty slick. The bottle itself is similar to their Local 1 and Local 2 bottles in shape, cage-wrapped cork, and the logo molded directly in to the bottle — but much like the Black Chocolate Stout, the labeling is specifically different to separate itself from other offerings. The understated silver label and large logo did an excellent job of drawing my attention and getting me to read the back. Overall, great bottle design. 5

Originality (5): Although this Washington Post article suggests that Goose Island has been doing bourbon-aged beers since the mid-90s, it still seems like a new-enough concept that I can’t quite call it overdone. I was relatively certain Brooklyn was, at the very least, one of the first breweries to do it with their Imperial stout recipe and this article from Simply Beer suggests that, if Brooklyn didn’t come up with the idea, they’re certainly part of the first wave. 5

Body (10): The beer pours an oily, opaque black with a big, two-inch, foamy tan head. The head eventually dials itself back to about a quarter-inch on top and laces the glass nicely for the life of the beer. A hearty body and huge flavors aren’t offset at all by the expected low carbonation. It is extremely dry and, while that’s OK for me, don’t expect to be drinking this and then enjoying something else afterward. 9

Taste (10): If I had to guess how this beer was created, I’d assume Garrett Oliver said “let’s see what happens if we dump our Intensified Coffee Stout in a bourbon barrel.” The absolute biggest note in this beer is the bourbon. It smells like bourbon, the initial taste is bourbon, and it finishes with bourbon and just a hint of vanilla and coffee. Now, I enjoy the occassional Knob Creek or Maker’s Mark on the rocks, so this flavor is great for me. However, for those looking for a “hint” of bourbon in their barrel-aged beers this is not remotely for them. For me, though, this is an incredible representation of a bourbon-aged beer. I was right on the border of declaring the bourbony-sweetness in this beer TOO intense but I just couldn’t do it. 10

Efficiency (10): I started this beer at halftime of the Rose Bowl (6:30pm EST) and was just finishing the 1 pint, 9.4 oz. bottle about the time WWE Smackdown ended (about 10:00pm EST). By about halfway through Smackdown (8:50pm EST), I was drunk enough to notice. By 9:10pm EST, I was drunk enough to consider tuning my guitar and playing it… and I haven’t played my guitar in five years. Regardless of the pace-regulation in the bourbon flavor, the huge ABV makes up for it. The ONLY significant strike is the cost. The beer is $20 for the 25 oz. bottle in NYC, which probably means it’s $25-$30 anywhere else. In good conscience, I can’t give something a full efficiency rating that costs as much as a decent bottle of wine — especially when something like Southern Tier Mokah or Ommegang Three Philosophers is a similar effect for half the cost. 8

Versatility (10): Sadly, this is the score that’s going to keep this beer from crossing in to the top three. It’s just not versatile. This is one of the few beers I’ve rated where its versatility doesn’t even include the buyer sitting home and enjoying the whole bottle. This, at best, is good for a 10 oz. pour before or after a meal. It needs to be treated as wine. Even though it physically pains me to give this piece of excellence such a low number, there’s nothing to be done with this beer other than impressing beer snob friends with a “you have to taste this” or enjoying it like a wine or a cognac. 3

The Snob Sez: If not for the versatility hit, this would have been my favorite beer of 2009 and it still has an outside chance of being my favorite beer of 2010… in the first week of January. As That Bootleg Guy said: “You’re ‘beer peaking’ on January 1? Nowhere to go but down.” Sadly, he’s right.

Final Score: 40 (of 50) – Great beer

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Beer Snob: Brooklyn Brewery Dark Matter
2. Friday Beer Snob: Saranac 12 Beers Of Winter 2009 — Black Lager
3. Friday Beer Snob: Kelso Chocolate Lager
4. Friday Beer Snob: Blue Point Winter Ale

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