Avery Fourteen

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

22 oz bomber. Aroma reminds me of walking into an old smoke shop with the aromas of candy, sweet pipe tobbacco, wooden floors. Dark body with red tynt to color with tan head and lacing covering the glass. Sweet candy with some spice to add some bite to flavor. Good fruity candy aftertaste on plate with an alcohol body warming. Good Brew.

Very belgian-style aromatics with a complex roasty spicy head. Excellent beer with just a wonderful complex taste. One of my current favorites, just great!

22oz bottle pours dark brown with ruby highlights and a huge tan head that stays well and laces in sheets. Aromas of caramel, chocolate, pine, and some rasin. Flavor is caramel, chocolate, lots of earthy notes, pine, slight grapefruit, and some slight spice at the finish. Well carbonated with good medium body and a nice mouthfeel. Somewhat bitter at the finish. An interesting brew!

Fairly well carbonated, this beer is topped initially by a three-finger thick, lightly browned, amber-tan colored head that leaves a wispy lacing pattern as I drink this beer down. The beer is a brilliantly clear, blackened-amber colored brew that shows deep red highlights when held up to a bright light. The aroma is interesting; it is certainly hop driven, yet somehow is reminiscent of a citrus & spice, black holiday cake / sweet bread. I get notes of roast coffee beans, bergamot, candied orange peel and some un-specified spice notes sort of like a mix of allspice, clove and cinnamon, but really unlike any of these. The aroma almost has a split personality; at times the hop notes provide a citrus character which mixes with the malt to form notes of a dark spice cake, but at other times sharper, herbal, green, pine-like, even menthol type, almost raw hop notes provide a rough contrast to the other side of the aroma. If you really dig around in the aroma a substantial malt character becomes noticeable with notes of toasted malt, browned bread crust and lightly burnt biscuits. As the beer warms, aromas of warming alcohol become noticeable.

Thick and quite a bit sweeter than I was expecting. The hop character is still quite evident, but again it seems to contribute flavors that meld with the malt character to display a deeply rich, sweet, dark spice cake flavor that has notes of molasses, burnt toffee, orange zest (the citrus character is actually quite prominent), at times notes of cherries and a bitter finish that has lingering notes of espresso and hop bitterness. The usual citrus hop flavors at times take on a fresh, raw hoppiness that reminds me of spicy, freshly chopped herbs, piquant pine needles, and even something like garlic chives. How would I describe this beer quickly, well it is a cross between molasses sweetened earl grey tea (with lots of bergamot and a green, herbaceous, tannic tea character) with a black coffee. The flavors are juxtaposed, cacophonous and jarring, yet somehow remain eminently drinkable and enjoyable. Despite the straight-forward sweetness, this beer has a fairly light body, or I should say that with this level of sweetness I would expect this beer to be sticky and cloying, but instead it has a medium fullness to it.

This is one of the more interesting beers that Avery has put out recently. When compared to there super-high alcohol brews this beer is quite stellar in the comparison. I really like the mix of hop character and dark malt flavors; even the sweetness seems to work here. In fact without the ample hop character the sweetness would likely overpower this beer and make it undrinkable for me (think the beast, mephisto or Samuel). I was fully expecting this to be another strong beer from Avery that was a complete flop, instead I am pleasantly surprised by a beer that almost seems like it shouldn’t work.

Bottle. Pours deep mahogany with a lasting dark beige head. Aroma is a cornucopia of orange, lemon, grass, and candy. Flavor is a symphony of mild malted grapefruit and plumb, followed by hops and grass with a slight white wine; and then, it branches out into molasses and chocolate with coffee as it warms. Full and coating mouthfeel. Fantastic beer. Dopple Bock IPA?

22 oz bottle, via dirty_martini. Pours a dark mahogany brown body with a large craggy foamy beige head that coated the glass with lace. The nose is quite pungently hoppy with lots of floral quality. Heavy malt base as well, nuttiness, caramel, coffee, brown sugar, there’s a lot going on here. The flavor is quite an odd combination. Biting floral and perfumy hops, very intense on the finish. Heavy burnt caramel and brown sugar maltiness clings to the cheeks and lingers forever. Seems like it’s trying to be lots of stuff at the same time, and it’s not doing any of them especially well. Full bodied and sticky with a clingy syrupy finish. Moderate fizzy prickly carbonation. Not too big of a fan of this one.

Dark Brown with Red Hues..and Dark Sandy head. Very Fruity and Floral Nose with Subtle Sweet Syrupy Malts Behind Them. Wonderfully Zesty Nose. Medium to Heavy Bodied....Creamy Dry Mouthfeel. Very Sweet and Thick Malts...Sweet, Lightly Syruped..Molasses, Subtle Roast and Dark Breaded Flavor. The Same Fruity Flavor that Encapsulated the Nose Pop Up on the Tongue and Slowly Transition to a Floral and Fruity Hopped Ending. Sweet and Dry Aftertaste. A Wonderful Strong Dark Ale. Very Smooth for Almost 10% as Well. A Good One to Keep Stock of for the Colder Months of Winter.

Bottle: Deep brown, cola accents, large foamy beige head, clingy lacing.   Bready aroma, slight white/black Necco wafer tinge, minor cocoa powder.   Has a candy sweetness that fills the nose, the powdery kind.   Quite malty on the tongue, dark, moderate hop presense but without too much bitterness.   Somewhat of an odd duck as it is.   Big in malts, remains bready through to the finish.   Seems like a really hefty American Amber crossed with some sort of Belgian.   Picks up a little bit of citrus rind as it warms.   I reiterate, this one is somewhat of an odd duck.   I am getting some heavy breadiness, dark malts, slight citrus peel, and a touch of anise.   Makes for a weird combination.   Moderate to full body, moderate mouthfeel.   Certainly an interesting beer, but one that just seems a bit confused.   Lingering cocoa powder, Necco wafers, and subtle citrus peel.   Well crafted, just a bit weird.