Black Ops review

A sagacious manager at a past job of mine once suggested, "Never say, 'to be honest'. That implies everything else you say is not. "

But now, I'm going to ignore that suggestion.

To be honest, I wouldn't have tried Brooklyn Brewery's Black Ops if I weren't selling it in my position as a beer and wine salesman.

But I do, so I did ... and 'hey Mikey,' I liked it.

The back of the bottle reads, "Brooklyn Black Ops does not exist. But if it did ..." Ah, but it does, and here is photographic evidence.

Deep black with a dark brown head, Black Ops was fermented out to 10.7% alcohol by volume (abv). The beer was then racked (transferred) to oak bourbon barrels, and aged for 4 months. Racked back out of the barrels, the beer was re-fermented with champagne yeast and packaged finally in cork-and-wire 750 milliliter (25.4 US fluid ounces) bottles.

What's it like?

It is not the knock-you-over-the-head whiskey burn of some beers aged in bourbon barrels, which would have been the reason for me not to try it.

Rather, it's like liquid bakers chocolate, creamy and gently spicy, with hints of vanillin and medicinal character (in a good way, like scotch),

Very limited availability: according to the bottle's back label, only 1000 12-pack cases were produced.