Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Ops is again once more in pint-sized cans — once more counting on 4 Roses barrels to age its hearty Russian Imperial stout for 9 months earlier than launch.
I discovered the 2023 expression quite fruitier than prior editions, and fairly a bit much less fizzy. Brooding with notes of prunes and macerated figs, the beer is as wealthy and darkish as ever — however immersed in a punishing quantity of chocolate, darkish caramel, and vanilla cream to offer all of the darkish fruits much more of a dessert-like high quality. Extraordinarily candy because it develops within the glass (and warms a bit), the beer slowly converges on one thing approaching chocolate-covered raisins, with a nod towards Tawny Port. Chewy with overpowering molasses notes and barely saccharine on the again finish, I didn’t get the extent of refinement and cohesion from this 12 months’s version that I’ve skilled in prior choices.
12% abv.
B+ / $16 per four-pack of 16 oz cans / brooklynbrewery.com
Brooklyn Brewery Black Ops (2023)
$16
