Brumaire Belgian Stout
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(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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After running some errands today, my wife and I decided to have lunch at a brewpub in Haverhill, MA called The Tap.
Haverhill was once a mecca for the shoe industry, with leather and shoe factories throughout town. The Tap is located in one of these factory buildings — originally J.M. Hickey’s Shoe & Leather Exchange — in a facility which has been used as a restaurant and bar since at least 1897. You’re reminded of that heritage not just by the facade of the building, but by the wooden tap handles shaped like so many well-worn shoes lining the bar.
You may remember The Tap from my post about Haverhill Brewing’s Leatherlips IPA, which of course means I couldn’t order my usual IPA when I sat down for lunch today. This BeerADay.net challenge is never tougher than when I’m at a brewpub. So far this year, I’ve only been in two brewpubs because the experience of looking at a menu filled with interesting microbrews — but knowing I can only order one — should be against the Geneva Conventions.
After very nearly ordering a Milk Chocolate Porter, I decided to pair my beer with my appetizer. I ordered a bowl of mussels steamed in HaverAle, with a 12 oz pint of their Belgian-style Stout — the Brumaire.
Brumaire arrived with a creamy mocha head atop a very dark stout. Nice roasted malt, coffee and chocolate on the nose. They’re a good advertisement for the flavor. Complex malts dance across your tongue, with some smokiness to the finish. There are hints of banana, licorice, and — I swear — bubblegum. But despite all these shifting flavors, Brumaire has an anchor of bitterness that sits in the mid and back of your tongue, holding firm while those wild roasted malts take turns lighting up the rest of your taste buds.
Here’s how they describe Brumaire at The Tap:
This deliciously dark Belgian style stout is brewed with 7 different malts giving it a great complexity. The flavor starts nicely roasty and malty and then finishes refreshingly dry due to the Trappist yeast strain we used. Definitely give this unique brew a try!
Brumaire is brewed with French, German, and Belgian malts. I should have asked about the hops, because they really seemed to be the glue holding this beer together. It has an IBU rating of 58 and clocks in at 7.3% ABV.
The beer paired very nicely with my steamed mussels, and it even held its own against the reuben sandwich and beer-battered onion rings. My only disappointment came when the waitress asked if I wanted another Brumaire.
“Yes,” I said, “but could you bring me a club soda, instead? I’m only having one beer today.”
Painful, but there’s a method to this madness. Each beer I drink this year gets the benefit of a thorough and singular focus. But that Milk Chocolate Porter sure sounded like a good beer, too.
Guess I’ll have to go back sometime soon!
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