Avery Brewing - Mephistopheles Stout

So today I was reflecting on life, liberty, and the pursuit of delicious beer.  I realized that when I go beer shopping, I tend to be drawn to new breweries and beers that I've never seen or heard of before.  It's driven mainly by curiosity, and most of the time it's good, considering Steve and I write about a new beer every day - it's our duty to stay on the front line of new-brews.  But as a result, I often overlook some of the more commonly available beers, for no good reason other than the fact that I see them all the time and they've become familiar.  It's completely ass backwards, right?  Anyway, this Mephistopheles Stout is one such beer that I've seen on the shelves for 2 years now, and for one reason or another, became familiar with it without ever actually trying it.  The $9/12oz price tag might have had something to do with it too ; ).

There is some interesting history behind this beer's name.  Mephistopheles is a demon found in German folklore.  As the story goes, Faust, a well-known and successful scholar in the 1600's, sells his soul to Mephistopheles for worldly knowledge and power.  As you can probably guess, things don't end well for Faust.  The name seems appropriate, considering the stats on this brew; 15.95% alcohol by volume (more than most wines) and 107 IBUs (more than most IPAs).  This beer is brewed once per year, and bottled on December 1st.  It's the 3rd installment of their "The Demons of Ale" series, which also includes Samael's Oak-Aged Ale and The Beast Grand Cru Ale.

The label includes some amazing art - this image of Mephistopheles is really creepy and awesome.  

Bottled in December 2010, Batch 6.  Glad to hear this has 1 year of age behind it, hopefully that will help soften up the 15% alcohol.  The color of this stout is the blackest black, with a thick 2 inch layer of dark tan foam that doesn't recede.  Ever.  Aroma is hefty, with rich milk chocolate malt-balls, molasses, candied dark fruits, and plenty of boozy vanilla.  Generally this beer smells very sweet, quite a bit less....ominous....than I expected.  After my first sip, I was in a state of beer shock.  Literally sat back with my eyes wide, mumbling "wow" under my breath.  Incredibly rich, with heavy chocolate malt sweetness assaulting the palate up front.  If that was an assault, then what comes next is the Big Bang.  An intense multi-layered middle, with a combination of cocoa, sprinkled on raisins, drenched in woody, vanilla-laced alcohol, with a hint of brown sugar on top of the whole thing.  The finish leaves a thick layer of Espresso on every nook and cranny of my mouth.  Mouthfeel is thick and syrupy, with minimal carbonation that fits perfectly.

Overall Rating:  This Imperial Stout is extreme in every sense of the word.  Chocolate heaven.  A session beer, this is not.....the heavy alcohol definitely heats things up, but never overwhelms the other flavors.  This would make a great showcase/dessert beer for a family dinner or holiday get-together.  I plan on buying 3 or 4 bottles for the cellar, this beer is worth every penny.  A+

Avery - Hog Heaven

Tonight I'm drinking Hog Heaven from Avery Brewing.  This is an American Barley Wine that ensures its hop presence won't go unnoticed.  An aggressive dose of dry hopping is going to make those hop aromas explode out of the bottle.  If you want to make an American version of a beer, add more hops.  It'll get the job done every time.

Duns reviewed this brew back in May.  While he loved the aromas, he found the overall brew to lack any cohesive direction.  We love Avery here at TWoBC (pronounced Tuh-whoa-buk in case you were wondering).  We have 13 Avery reviews between Duns and I.  Their extensive line-up makes it easy for us to find a new beer every time we get to the beer store.  One of these days we'll get through every beer they have to offer.  Just don't expect that to be anytime soon...

104 IBUs, 9.4% ABV, flying pigs through a garden of hop cones... on paper, this is exactly what any hop head should want in an American Barley Wine.  Flying hoppy pigs!!!  Sunburst orange and crystal clear with a few fingers of bright white foam capping this beauty off.  The aromas are a mix of citrus a vegetation.  Fresh cut grass, citrus zest, lemon rind with a smattering of toasted bread and malty sweetness.  The alcohol isn't even noticeable in the aroma.  It's definitely there in the taste, though.  But not oppressive, just warming and drying in the finish.  The hops are the real star here.  An assertive bitter bite takes a hold of your palate and doesn't relent. A wave of flavors quickly rush in to provide a semblance of balance.  Grapefruit, white grapes, more cut grass, light caramel and just a hint of bittersweet chocolate (not sure where that came from) round out this bold barely wine.

Overall - This is a barley wine that you should drink right away.  Don't age it!  Avery says you should, and you could, but you shouldn't.  The hops are the star of the show, no doubt about it.  There are plenty of big hop aromas and flavors that would be lost if you aged the bottle for longer than a few months.  This brew isn't for the faint of heart either.  It's like drinking concentrated hop juice with a dash of malt.  Very well brewed.  Something I'll be drinking again soon.

Avery - DuganA IPA

Tonight I'm reviewing an IPA that Duns reviewed back in January.  I should have known that he had reviewed this one already.  It's an IPA... what IPA available in the Midwest hasn't he reviewed?!  I think the fact that two of us run this blog warrants the need for two opinions anyway.  Heck, it's the reason we love hearing from our readers!  We love to hear your opinions about the beers we review.  The community around the craft beer world is half the reason we drink craft beer.  The other half is because it tastes so damn delicious.

We have a bit of an affinity for Avery here at The World of  BeerCraft.  If you check out the Review Archive you will notice that Avery garnered the most reviews out of any other brewery you will find on this site with 12 reviews.  Tonight's will make 13, putting Avery two reviews past Sierra Nevada and Summit.  Surprisingly enough, we have had a pretty hard time finding a beer we didn't like from Avery.  They brew a quality product, consistently and on a large scale.  That's something that any beer drinker can respect.

DuganA IPA's bottle has changed a bit since Duns reviewed it earlier this year.  The barely dressed hot Indian woman still graces this label (thank you Avery) but the name has moved to the middle making the overall appearance a little cleaner in my opinion.  Nice aesthetic update.

This brew is light orange in color, crystal clear and leaves a very thin white head.  The aroma is potent!  I could smell it from a few feet away after I filled up my pint.  Lots of earthy, sticky hop aromas with pine, citrus and mint as the primary players.  Hints of caramel elbow their way through the hop crowd to make its presence known.  The first sip is a bit on the boozy side.  Luckily this aspect quickly recedes after letting it warm up a but.  A prominent and relentless hop bitterness absolutely assaults your pallet.  It's almost on the verge of too hoppy.  Some caramel and malt characteristics come through to provide a welcome relief and balance from the hop warfare currently taking place in my mouth.  As this brew warms further the bitterness gives way to a nice fruity bouquet of orange zest and grapefruit primarily.

Overall - At first, I had my hesitations.  But as this IPA warmed it turned into a different beer.  The hop bitterness became more subtle and the citrusy and malty body came through to give a nice complex profile.  I'm still a bit put off by the alcohol heat, but at 8.5% ABV it's something to be expected.  This certainly isn't my favorite IPA, but it is worthy of a purchase if you are a hop head like Duns.

Avery - The Kaiser

Happy Monday Beer Enthusiasts!

This morning, Duns and I had a scientific conversation about hoppy beers.  It started by me sending him a brief email saying I had an extreme and immediate urge to consume something hoppy.  He replied explaining to me that he always has this urge.  For some reason, this didn't surprise me.  However, he went onto explain to me why this urge was ever present with him.  He believes that hops release the same endorphins that spicy foods release causing your body to experience a "food high".  Since Duns doesn't like spicy foods, his endorphin rush is always satiated by hoppy, lupulin-packed beers.  Scientifically speaking, I don't think you can obtain more conclusive evidence than this.  In fact, I believe this to be the reason why breweries tell us to pair spicy foods with hoppy beers.  It's like a double whammy of endorphins to your brain!!!  Best marketing ploy ever.

Tonight's brew is from Avery Brewing.  Duns went on a brewery tour of Avery back in April and was very impressed with what he saw.  Avery is one of those breweries that seems to have every type of beer you can think of.  Just between Duns and I, we have reviewed 11 of their beers!  Check out the Review Archive for a full list of reviews including one of our personal favorites, Maharaja.

Avery's Kaiser is an Imperial Oktoberfest.  As you have seen in the past week, both of us are big fans of the Oktoberfest style.  My favorite so far has been Hacker-Pschorr's Oktoberfest.  I like the classic examples of the style.  If they are too big, smokey or hoppy I generally am not a fan.  So I'm going out of my comfort zone getting an imperial version of my favorite Autumn-time marzen.

The Kaiser has little to no head.  Nice, deep amber and brilliantly clear.  Very malty aroma with a mild hop presence that seems subdued.  Other than the darker than normal color, I wouldn't be able to tell that this is an imperial example of an Oktoberfest.  The taste... well, thats where this brew shows its true colors.  A nice body, bold, but hot on the way down.  This could use some age to lose the heat.  Plenty of bready and caramel flavors persist throughout with a mild hop bitterness and plenty of alcohol warmth.

Overall - I really wanted to like this beer.  But the heat from the alcohol just brought me out of it.  All the flavors were there to make this a great beer.  In fact, I think it is a great beer, but just not right off the production line.  If I let this bottle age for a few months I'm sure it would live up to my expectations.  Grab a bottle and cellar it until Christmas or Thanksgiving.  You will be happy that you did!

Avery Brewing - Eighteen Anniversary Ale 2011

Tonight I'm heading back to the state of Colorado for another Anniversary brew from Avery Brewing.  This will be my second Avery Anniversary brew review, the first being their Seventeen dry-hopped black lager.  This is a dry-hopped Rye Saison Ale, brewed with a potent blend of 5 different belgian yeast strains and a boatload of rye.  And of course, it wouldn't be an Avery beer if it wasn't dry-hopped into oblivion!  It registers 8.12% alcohol and 40 IBUs, bottled and only available in the Summer 2011.

The label on this bottle says it was bottled in May 2011.  Very nice label, with some barley grains in the background and the foil cap-cover typical of Avery.  The beer is a hazy dark copper (penny) color, with a hefty amount of off-white foam that leaves some lacing behind after quickly receding.  The aroma is a fusion of rye and belgian yeast funk.  Also some lemongrass, mixed in with other faint fruit juices.  The first drink confirms what I was afraid of.....I'm serving this a little warmer than usual, it was hot out today and the bottle only had about 1.5 hours in the fridge.  It's probably at 50+ degrees right now, probably warmer than the intended serving temperature.  But that doesn't seem to hurt things too much.  Starts off with a helping of rye malts that leaves a hint of spiciness and dryness in it's wake.  Sweetness reigns supreme in the middle, with a chewy caramelly sugaryness.  Then comes a farmhouse funk, the yeast comes through with notes of fruityness combined with an earthy lemongrass citrus.  Warm alcohol greases the skids on the finish, nothing hot or out of place, but definitely noticeable (even more so with the beer being this warm).  The body is quite syrupy, and delivers that big sugar sweetness (a little too) efficiently.

Overall Rating:  This beer is tough to figure out.  After some reflection and some more drinks, I think there is too much sweetness and not enough rye spice to reign it in.  Not a bad beer, but the different components don't play nice together and leave me feeling like it's just slightly out of balance.  Hate to say it, but this falls towards the bottom of Avery list.  C 

Avery - Out of Bounds Stout

Tonight's beer comes to us from Avery Brewing - this is their year-round American Stout offering.  Avery boasts that this stout is big, roasty, and takes flavor to the extreme.  That is certainly true of some of their other brews (Maharaja, The Beast), but this should be a bit tamer than those meaner beers.  Specs register at 6.3%ABV, with 51 IBUs and lots of dark malts in the grain bill.

The label on the bottle depicts an extreme downhill skier going down an 'out of bounds' run.  I accidentally did that during a college snow-boarding trip in Park City, UT about 5 years ago - it was terrifying.  Actually, it was a double-black diamond that was "poorly" marked, but there were rocks and trees everywhere, so it seemed out-of-bounds enough for me.  Needless to say, I spent most of that run on my ass.  But I digress!  The label design is cool, as expected from Avery.  This pours dark ruby black and consumes all the light around it.  The aroma is full of roasty chocolate malts and coffee beans, and burnt toast.  The flavor starts off with those dry chocolate malts - it reminds me of burnt bread crust.  Then comes some hop bitterness that tries to balance things out, but is actually kind of unwelcome and leaves a sticky off-flavor that lingers.  The aftertaste almost reminds me of old, stale coffee.  The carbonation is fine, and the texture is stickier than expected for a stout. 

Overall Rating:  (3.0 out of 6.0)  Honestly, this beer was a little disappointing.  It provided some of the nice roasty flavors initially, but the second half of the beer was full of burnt, old, stale coffee that lingered on the palate.  Not a terrible beer, just left me with a 'blah' impression. 

Avery Anniversary Lager Seventeen

Tonight I'm drinking Avery Anniversary Seventeen, a dry-hopped black lager that I believe technically classifies as a Schwarzbier.  This is brewed by Avery Brewing, out of Boulder CO.  The label depicts a cool illustration showing hops growing on vines, and lists "A Dark Study in German Hops".  This is the first lager Avery has done in their Anniversary series.....looks like an interesting brew.  Bottled in May 2010. 

Pouring this into my snifter, this pours a dark brown (almost black), with light brown head that is quite fluffy.  Click that link, you won't regret it.  The aroma is hoppy with citrus and some apples and pears.  Also something in there that reminds me of cleaning supplies....almost like a rubbing alcohol kind of smell. 

The first sip brings a piney, earthy resin-flavor that quickly fades into a slightly bitter, burnt roasted malt background.  There is a bit of an alcohol burn that doesn't surprise me, considering this is listed at almost 9%ABV.  There is also some smokiness present in there.  The carbonation is fairly heavy, and the texture is actually strange....I would consider it full-bodied, but the carbonation breaks it up quickly and makes it feel lighter. 

Overall Rating:  (4.5 out of 6.0)  This was a nice break from the normal brewing styles that I'm typically drawn to.  I enjoyed the range of different flavors this beer brought to the table, and it got better as it warmed.  The melding of ingredients and styles really made it unique, and I would recommend it to most any beer-drinker out there, since it has something for everyone.  The roasted, malty characteristic of a dark lager/ale, along with the pleasant hoppiness of a dry-hopped ale.  This is a nice beer to sip during a Sunday sporting event.



Tough to read, but I wanted to include this little Anniversary story, also note that this is a "Malt Liquor"!



Avery DuganA IPA

I picked up this bottle of Avery DuganA IPA over the weekend - this is one of those beers that I've intended to try for a long time and just never got around to it for some reason.  But today is the day, and I'm in the mood for a hop-assault, so hopefully this will deliver.

The bottle is beautiful, with a very cool label.  The label also has a description, "Lupulin Rapture Incarnate!  As fervent devotees of hops, we found ourselves on a quest to create a transcendental IPA capable of quenching our voracious lupulin desires.  Our mantra became, "unity of bitterness, hop flavor and aroma."  Enlightened, duganA IPA was born.  A brutally bitter, dank, piney and resinous ale designed for those seeking a divine hop experience.  Brewed with Rocky Mountain water, malted barley, hops and yeast."  Beer geeks, lupulin is the resinous, bitter part of the hop flower that makes beer bitter - it's a flavor delivery vehicle.   Delicious!

I had a little accident while opening this bottle.  Because I am a dumbass, I decided to open the bottle immediately after holding this beer on it's side to read the label, thus shaking it up, and thus creating a foam bomb that I exploded and got all over the kitchen counter.  Whoops! 

After this little mini-disaster, I poured the rest of the beer into my ale glass.  It pours a hazy dark golden hue, it's got a musky look to it.  The aroma is full of resiny, piney, musky hoppiness.  There might be some floral notes hiding somewhere in there, or maybe those are grapefruits.  Either way, but they are hiding behind the pine forest. 

The flavor starts off with a very floral taste, followed closely by a musky, piney bitterness.  Super bitter, I love it.  There is a fairly big caramel malt backbone, which delivers the sticky resins that linger in the mouth for a while.  After drinking this for a while, I've noticed there is some sweetness that I didn't catch initially.  Quite a bit of sweetness.  The texture is sticky and medium bodied, with good carbonation.

Overall Rating:  (4.7 out of 6.0)  Not a bad beer at all.  Lots of different flavors working together to make a big, bitter, malty glass of beer.  The sweetness actually caught up to me after a while, and I was pretty full by the time I finished the pint.  But I enjoyed it and would recommend it to the hop-heads out there.

Avery - Old Jubilation Ale

During this frigid Minnesota winter I cant help but review these seasonal brews. Most of what breweries are releasing right now are their stouts and old ales. That means you folks who enjoy your nice, malty brews are in luck! Don't worry hop heads, there are some delicious American style barleywines that have yet to be released this season. Stay tuned for those reviews in January.

Continuing with our winter seasonal review trend today we dive into Avery's Old Jubilation Ale. One of the BJCP's recommended beers for the Old Ale style in the Strong Ale category. This mahogany colored ale has a sweet, nutty, slight hazelnut aroma. Almost like a nut brown ale. This one will be more complex as it warms. The wife claims to smell toffee. I'll believe her for now. My first taste brings a solid malt presence with a hint of alcohol on the way down. The bottle says "cellarable for 3+ years". I'm sure with some age this old ale will lose that alcohol taste and be replaced with a smooth, creamy finish. Some of the initial flavors you would expect of an old ale have some trouble breaking through the 8.3% ABV. However, it is possible to tell those flavors are present. Just not as prominent as I would expect. A couple more sips and some more warmth confirm my initial thoughts; sweet malt and toffee (I can taste it now...) with a mild bitter and alcoholic finish to dry out the early sweetness.

Overall, this is a 3.0/6 for now. I think this one has potential. Ill be keeping the three I have left and placing them to the side for another year and see how it has matured. Its worth picking up a six pack now to see the difference between a young and an aged old ale. I have no doubt this will age gracefully. Unfortunately there is no bottling date printed on the bottle to keep track of the release year. But thats nothing a sharpie cant fix! if you pick this up, drink one now and take a few notes for yourself, stick it with the remaining bottles, and read them next year to see if your thoughts have changed. Its a fun experiment in beer tasting!

A little background on the style of the old ale if you are curious... historically referred to as the breweries stock ale, this beer style was aged at the brewery to blend with their comparably lighter beer that they served at their pub. Because of the time this beer was kept at the brewery you typically found age related characteristics with these beers like oxidation or even sour notes if kept improperly. A variation of this beer that is a relative new comer to the beer scene is the winter warmer style. Typically a larger ABV with the addition of more malt and at times holiday spices to make for a bolder. more festive beer if done right.