Avery Fourteen

Formerly brewed at Avery Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Boulder, Colorado USA

Deep, dark brown with ruby-red highlights around the edges. Cappuccino-like head; frothy, with tight and small bubbles. Residual lace. Smooth, soft, creamy texture. Dark roast. Multigrain, dark bread. Fresh nuts. Aromatic citrus, perfectly in the background. Dark chocolate ... even had that "sour" quality that high-percentage dark chocolate has. Nice hop presence, and just enough bitterness to cleave off the subtle molasses sweetness. Alcohol hints were welcome, even though it was hidden pretty well. Warming and cozy. Love the image of the Flatirons wearing their winter coat. I see a lot of Flatiron images, and the angle of this photo is unique. The timing on this beer (and its label) couldn’t have been better, as I just made my first outdoor climb last weekend on the First (the Flatiron on the right side of the label).

Pretty beer. Deep dark reddish-brown. Almost opaque but not. Big tan honeycomb-like head with lots of air pockets. Rich balanced big aroma, jam-packed. In addition to jam are minterals and earth. Yummy balance of flavors. Dark malt is excellent complement for the hop, which does not overpower. A little rummy but the alcohol is well disguised. Sweetness from the malt tapers to a dry but not bitter finish. Jammy, roasty at times, with burnt cookie, molasses, and prune. I like this one.

22oz. Bottle: Nice aroma. Smells of malts, with hints of caramel and cookie, but dominated by hops, with spruce, and resin. Clean crisp scent. Poured brown with a hint of ruby. Big, rocky, dark-tan head lasted throughout. Great lacing. Opaque. Flavor is a little sweet and a little bitter. Tastes of raisin, coffee, alcohol, chocolate, roasting, cream, spruce, and a tiny bit of spice. Very odd flavor. Like they threw the whole kitchen sink into it. Medium body. Slightly thin texture. Average carbonation. Long, coffee and spruce finish.

Big nose of hops, pine, mountain forest, plus a smoked element in the nose (perhaps a forest fire?!). Smooth but some carbonation. Orange in the finish, some rounder citrus edges. Clear brown, some percolation in the body. Typical Avery contribution.

Bottle from cbkschubert; Nose an unusual combo of light piney hops and dark fruits with toffee; clear cherry brown with a big beige head that laces nicely; falvor of caramel, coffee, toffee, pepperiness, and some hop bitterness, which combines with some fruitiness fro the finish! i think the Stone 11th tried to follow this one!

The aroma has pleanty of hops, with fruit, buble gum, spices, and roasted malt. The appearance is dark brown with a foamy head. The flavor is like the aroma with alcohol and herbs making quite a statement. The palate is smooth. This is good.

Dark ruby, nearly black pour, with some large chunks of sediment, and a frothy, well-sustained tan head - kind of perfume-like floral aroma, with peppery hops, light roast, and an almost peaty quality - lightly tart flavor, with some moderate balancing sweetness, mostly in the form of a molasses flavor - notes of fig and plum - some herbal and floral notes mix well with a spicy hop flavor - a bit of maple syrup and roasted/coffee flavors - an almost belgian fruitiness crops up as the beer warms - some faint plastic notes detract a bit from the enjoyment, but it isn’t consistently perceptible - a unique beer, and one of the best Avery beers I’ve had in a long time.

65 cl. bottle. Dark brown colour with a nice light brown head. Aroma of yeast, bread-like, hops, roastedness and sweet malt. Tasty flavour of maltness, alcohol, roastedness, very smooth and with a nice bitter finish.