Avery Brabant

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Boulder, Colorado USA

Bottle from Paiste2002, thanks! Deep dark brown color, steady head. Oak, apple vinegar, grapes and mustard in the aroma. Vinous flavor with roast, just a hint of chocolate, oak, subdued sourness and a caremelly bitterness. Complex beer, like imperial stout meets Rodenbach grand cru. I really liked it.

A deep black, so deep that you can not see through it at all, with a very thin compact off white head. Aroma has a strong note of zinfadel and oak, sour is pretty pronounced in the nose with a heck of a lot of farmhouse notes toward the end. Flavor is pretty tart and sour off the bat, lots of oak up front, it has a slight vinyl taste but not so much that it makes it bad, light tart cherry in the middle, lots of funk with a little bit of a zinfandel bite and after the beer has left for a bit, a light prune/raisin fruitiness and caramel maltiness linger on the tongue. Fantastic density, very lively carbonation (even though you can’t see it since its so dark) and a slightly oily and dry bite, both at the same time, at the end. Overall very unique and interesting brew. I was kinda shocked to find out it was fermented with Bret. since I was not expecting this since I found it at random.

I had this on draft at Beachwood BBQ’s SourFest. Dark brown/black pour with a light brown head, some sourness, some vinous flavors and nice nice complexity all around make this a very good beer.

Very dark, near black; thick khaki head. Rather looks like a stout. Wonderful aroma, brett, oak. Full bodied flavor, light-medium sourness, wood. I don’t know my wines well enough to be able to pick out zin, but it certainly has the right effect, adding body, wood, and a little bit of heat. I hadn’t expected Avery to make such a nice beer.

12 oz bottle. Pours surprisingly dark brown with tall tan head. The aroma is very leathery with some odd wood, nut, and caramel hints, maybe a little bit of vinegar. The flavor is intensely leathery with some tannicity, a roasty note, and a dark, pruney, brett funk note that pretty much stays in the background. There isn’t much in the way of sourness to cut through all the dark flavors, which makes it seem kind of muddled. Not bad, but a little bit disappointing.

12 oz bottle courtesy of my Secret Santa Summer ’09, rustychiles. Thanks a bunch, Rusty! Pours an opaque blackish brown pour, dark with a decent brownish head that laces a bit, dies to a film eventually. Nice. Aromas are bretty funk, sourness, wet oak, some darker red wine character that throws oak, dryness, a touch of chocolate and faint smoke. Sourness and brett are the dominant factors however. Initial is brett forward, considerably less sour than anticipated. Bretty funk coats the mouth with oak and wet wood, faint smoke, good dry bitterness in the body and finish. A bit tart, moreso further in, with some light red wine character, a touch of darker faintly chocolate malt, a little roast, and smoke, good bitterness in the finish that feels like some tannin character, perhaps from the remains of the barrel. A bit chalky, funky, medium bodied, with brett coating the palate. This is good, but certainly isn’t a favorite in my Wild Ale preferences

Chocolate vinegar nose, dusty barnyard hints, some bitter orange. Dark brown with orange hues, small medium soapy head. 90% pure cacao bean bitter chocolate sweetness, tart horse sweat bitterness, intriguing balance. Stinging and tight carbonation, medium syrupy body, peppery liquoricey, vanilla Port finish with a solid burn. Deep and complex flavors that are very young. This is going to be awesome with some aging.

Pours a dark,dark brown with a well formed beige foam. Sour aroma with tones of red wine, chocolate, wood, tobacco, vinegar, leather and floral notes. The initial flavor is of a tannic red wine followed by chocolates. As the beer warms, more chocolate and earthiness come out along with a slight alcohol presence on the throat. This is a tasty sour ale with an agreeable personality.