Brooklyn – BQE First Taste: Cuvée Noire (Video)

Brooklyn Cuvée Noire
Once upon a time, we created a beer called "Cuvée Noire", and this beer lived beyond the strictures of beer styles. It had a stout-like malt structure, Belgian fermentation, and an irresistible personality. We loved Cuvée Noire, but here in Brooklyn our admirations have never been limited to beer. So our brewing team quietly introduced this beer to one of our other enthusiasms — Kentucky bourbon oak. After many months of aging, those six bourbon barrels produced a "Ghost Bottle" nicknamed Cuvée Elijah, some of the tastiest beer we’ve ever made. And then, of course, we drank it all. Ummm…yeah. Sorry about that.
But you will forgive us, because now we’ve made some of this beer for you as well. Brooklyn Cuvée Noire starts with a solid base of German malts, builds color and flavor from British and American roasted malts, gains rum notes from Mauritius raw sugar, grabs a hint of citrus from sweet orange peel, and then ferments under the flag of Belgium. Our Belgian house yeast lends the beer a gentle spiciness on a dry, brisk palate displaying notes of chocolate, coffee and citrus. Then follows six months in oak barrels, which marries all the flavors while adding overtones of vanilla, coconut, and flowers. Finally the beer is bottled completely flat and undergoes a full re-fermentation in the bottle. If this all sounds like way too much, let us assure you that it is, in fact, just right. Cuvée Noire is big enough to take a steak to dinner, roasty enough to love Mexican molé sauce, and complex enough to enjoy with nothing more than a good conversation. You’ve never had anything quite like it. And as for the style thing, well, we sometimes believe in beer styles, but we’ll all just have to relax about this one. After all, Brooklyn Cuvée Noire is delicious, and it’s from Brooklyn, not Belgium. We don’t have a king, and no one’s gonna fence us in.

Malts: Weyermann Pilsner, Simpsons Chocolate, Crisp Black, Breiss Black Barley
Additions: Sweet Orange Peel
Hops: German Perle, Slovenian Aurora
Yeast: Our special Belgian strain
Alcohol by Volume: 10.6%
Original Gravity: 17.3° Plato
Availability: Q2 2014
Format: 12/25.4oz (750mL) cork finished bottles
(Music: Noriyuki Iwadare – Gyakuten Saiban 3 Original Soundtrack – Godot ~ The Fragrance of Dark Coffee)