Avery 14er ESB

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Boulder, Colorado USA

The 14’er pours a cloudy dark yellow color and settles into a clear, medium amber hue. The initially small, fizzy white head was quickly diminishing with fair lacing. The aroma is both malty and hoppy with light bread malts and piney hops. It didn’t contain a harsh aroma, but was quite inviting. Initial light bitter taste was followed by a medium bitter taste for a long duration. Very long duration. The presence of hops was very strong on the palate. Light to medium in body with lively carbonation, the bitterness leaves the palate a little dry (as one expects). This beer definitely puts the ’bitter’ back into the ESB. Reviewed on January 11th, 2007.

bottle poured into an english pint glass. poured a copper color with a thin white head that stuck around for a while. hoppy aroma led to a good flavor. medium body. nice bitter after taste. A solid ESB, not great but good.

Golden pour with a wildly rocky and ascending-ever-higher head...kind of like that expanding spray-on insulation. I poured two ounces into a tall pilsener glass and watched as two ounces of beer diasappeared and instantly transformed into 7 inches of thick foam that rose over the top of my glass and continued on up another inch and a half beyond, and remained completely intact, without the benefit of a glass for support...and then just sat there mockingly, daring me to figure out how to drink the damn thing. After shaving of the excess head with my Swiss army knife and daintily pouring a few more onces, then awkwardly sucking down as much thick foam as possible, I did finally get to taste the actual BEER... Doesn’t seem much like a standard ESB to me, but I liked the balance of sharp bitter floral/earthy hop bite against a pretty refreshing caramel/toffee malt bottom...once I managed to dig out from under all that crazy foam! The moderately spritzy mouthfeel just added to the New Year’s Eve party going on in my glass.

(Bottle, thanks to Marsiblursi) Sampled at a tasting night at Marsiblursi’s place. Shady brown color, small tan head. Spicy sweet scent. Light sweet taste with a yogurt feel to it. Smooth mouthfeel, harsh bitterness.

Dark coppery colored, medium sized light brown head. Flowers, caramel and hops in soft aroma, maybe some vanilla also there. Thin to medium bodied. Slightly watery flavor with hoppy flowers, mild lemon also there. Aftertaste is bitter with some tanginess.

Bottled. Beer is clear, medium brown. Head is small, off-white, frothy and clings to the glass.<P> The first thing that surfaces in the aroma is a heavy note of raw squash flesh. Not the best start. There’s also a light note of toasted grain; Moderate note of resin/pine hop; Light note of yeasty dough; Light note of saw dust, trace note of wet stones/minerals. <P> The flavor is light-to-moderately sweet, moderately bitter, lightly acidic with a long, light-to-moderately acidic, lightly bitter, trace sweet finish. Some huskiness in the finish.<P> The body is light, the texture is watery and the carbonation is lively.

Bottle) Pours light cloudy, deep orange to red. Nutty, hoppy grapefruity aroma with a light floweryness and maybe some fruityness. Hoppy flavour with a light rasiny, bitter touch. Pretty soft mouthfeel. Light, medium malty body. Ok.

12 oz Bottle-poured a copper color w/a large foamy head-seemed kind of large for an ESB. Floral hopped aroma. Wet, bitter hop flavor, not fresh or floral. Kind of bland. Bitter, burnt, metalic malt finish. Too one dimentional, I know it’s an ESB & it’s supposed to be bitter but it needed some fresh hop flavor on the front end to balance out the bitter malt finish. This beer got close, but didn’t deliver the goods-as much as I wanted it to!