One New York Life

Brooklyn Dark Matter

Brewed By: Brooklyn Brewery
Brewed In: Brooklyn, NY
ABV: 7.5%
Type: American Brown Ale

What They Say: I got this in a growler and, in fact, I’m not sure if it was bottled at all. I don’t see anything on their website proper, but they have a lengthy blog post with a similar theme as the Black Ops. The relevant highlight is as follows: Anyhow, they say that back in 2007, a small amount of Dark Matter was created alongside Black Ops, but very few people had an opportunity to taste it. The Brooklyn Brewing Team decided that this shortage was unfortunate – plenty of Dark Matter for themselves, but not enough to share with all their friends. So last autumn they decided to recreate Dark Matter and open up the Brooklyn Barrel Room to a wider world..

Website: I’ve mentioned in other Brooklyn reviews that I’m a fan of their website. We can leave it there.

Why I Picked It: A recommendation from the Big Show, followed by a drunken sample at Rattle n Hum, plus a sighting of it at the Whole Foods Growler station. That’s pretty much the universe telling me it’s time to sample. Sadly, a combination of circumstances (including a trip to central New York and a fresh, once-a-year growler of Wagner Valley Maple Porter kept this growler in my refrigerator for almost two months before I finally got to it.

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Presentation (5): So far as I know, this is draught/cask only. (N/A)

Originality (5): Maybe it’s increasing awareness on my part, but it seems like Brooklyn is attempting to grab a small corner of the “we do crazy stuff with beer” market currently cornered by Dogfish Head, which makes it even more strange to me that Mario Batali went to Maryland (Dogfish) and Sonoma Valley (Russian River) for his new Eataly Birreria restaurant instead of across the river to one of the Brooklyn brewers. Regardless, in this case, not only did Brooklyn decide to age stuff in bourbon barrels, but they decided to take the bourbon barrels that they previously aged the Black Ops in and use them again to see what happened. Can’t really go wrong there. 5

Body (10): The beer is an opaque brown with a very small head. The carbonation is incredibly soft and stays entirely out of the way of a smooth, creamy mouthfeel. The odor is almost entirely bourbon, with a consistency bordering on a porter. I usually imagine “brown ales” to be really thin and heavily carbonated (Newcastleish). That isn’t the case here at all… the barrel-aging entirely changes the characteristics of the ale… I’m not quite sure if it’s for the better though. 7

Taste (10): The flavor here is a lower-keyed Black Ops. It looks like they took a recipe — possibly their standard Brown Ale recipe — and just decided to see what happened. The flavor is a blast of bourbon and vanilla from the barrel with hints of alcohol around the edge. Most of the brown ale flavor is killed by the barrel, with nearly all the flavor coming from the barrel’s previous residents. Since the flavor is so similar to Black Ops, which I loved, it’s hard for me to deduct points for it here. The problem is this comes across as a slightly less powerful version of that beer. I like Black Ops as it is… I don’t know if I need a brown ale that tastes like it, too. The bourbon and vanilla also combine to form something that might be a touch too sweet for me and there’s not any carbonation or bitterness to tone it down. 8

Efficiency (10): It’s hard to argue with a 7.5% ABV for a regular-priced growler. Whole Foods is sadly moving on to a graduated pricing scheme with their growlers. Instead of $8.99 across the board for 64 oz, they’ve started to change the price based on the ABV and adding a cheaper 32 oz version for the wusses of the world. In this case, the alcohol seems a little more noticeable than the Black Ops and the sweetness is a little tough to take after awhile. The ABV is high enough that I got multiple sessions from one growler, but by the third I wasn’t looking that forward to it. 6

Versatility (10): Sadly, low. This is never going to be something non-snobs would enjoy. This is, generally, one of those Dogfish-Head type experimental things that folks like me can’t wait to try, but aren’t going to get out of the snob-subculture. Someday, when I have my man room in my 4 bedroom house in the suburbs with 3 kegerators, I’d love to have this in one of them. Unfortunately, the folks who would drink it would be limited to other writers on this site and maybe some of the readers. 4

The Snob Sez: A relatively decent brown ale with flavors that get lost in the barrel. Glad to try it, but not sure if I’d go out of my way to get it again.

Final Score: 30 (of 45) = 33 (of 50), good beer.