Avery Fourteen

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

Pour is a very dark brown with a average white head. Aroma is all things pine hops with some dark roasted malts. Flavor is molasses with some pine hops, dark fruit and a dollop of alcohol. Oh the alcohol is in this one in a big way. The more it warms the more i can even smell it. Still this does have enough tasty things going on.

22 oz. bottle from BevMo LaJolla. Pours a deep brown, almost opaque, with gorgerous cherry color highlights when held to light, and a thick creamy beige head. Roasty flavor with rich dark fruits, cranberry notes, orange and cocolate, molasses, lemon zest, and bitter herbs. Dark bitter coffee flavors, bold citrus including orange and grapefruit, brown sugar, maple hints, blackberry, pine resin, fudge sauce with the alcohol well hidden. Full body, smooth carbonation. Delicious combination of roastiness and hops.

Nice 1 inch thick head of fine and dense bubbles. Mocha colored. Light carbonation. Big aroma. Can smell it across the table. Ripe fruit, floral hops, bit of roastyness, bit of smoke hidden in the background and some molasses. Color is a very dark port brown. This brew is starting off pretty damn good and looks great sitting in my Grottenbier chalice. Big maltyness in the flavor with some sweet malts, roasted grains, dry bitter resinous hops and a late smokyness. Some herbal notes and spices mixed in there also. Noticable alcohol presence with a nice warming as it goes down. Finishes dry and roasty with a little lingering burnt toast and bitterness. This brew really is not all that sweet in my opinion which is great for this style. A damn solid ASA and one of the better brews from Avery in recent time.

Fascinating pour, with a frothy head. Deep dark, lovely color, ecru head. Thin bodied from the get go, boozy too. Flavors of smoky charred bread with raisins dipped in piney hop resin. Has a definite funky smell, like a smoky, fungal smell from your dorm room closet years ago...but more enticing than that somehow (probably because there is distinct cacao or other dark bitter chocolate). Weird as hell. Ernest is right, definite notes of ashtray in this beer, but yet, it’s not too bad. Did I say piney hop resin is draped all over this thing?

Bottle from Friar Tuck in Savoy, IL. Pours a beautiful dark brown/black with a thick brown head- very stout like. Aroma of caramelized sugar, raisen, hops, and tobacco. Full bodied with a slight stickiness to the rich malty texture. Initial flavor of molasses, cocoa, and raisen that immediately gets zapped by a citrusy hop middle. Bitter finish is peppery yet moderately sweet. I am not totally sold on black IPA’s yet, but I enjoyed this much better when it warmed. I think this is better than Stone 11th, at least right now.

Bottle. Very deep dark body with a ¼ inch dense beige head. Nose-pretty much what I would call the ideal American Strong Ale nose-like a light American style Barleywine-hoppy fruity, fresh berries, dark sugars. Taste-medium sweet, medium alcohol, medium to high bitter, sweet hay/husk, dry cola, very light unsweet ice coffee on the back end, low-medium low key hops, roasty characteristics, perfumey on the back end, light wood/tannins. Alcohol and tannins really come out on the back end. Tobacco, raisin, figs, molasses. Tastes the way fresh moist soil smells. Sticky. My only complaint is the over the top stickiness.

Medium to dark brown body sits under an ample beige head. Nose is greeted by cookie dough, nuts, some hoppy citrus, brown sugar. A slightly syrupy texture to its medium body and lively carbonation. The flavor is a malty/hoppy blend that is appealing.

Such a quirky beer. My last bomber (can’t remember where it was purchased). Big and dark pour, with a pretty lively body and an impressive head. Tart aroma, with some modest chocolates in there. As you get into the beer, what first seemed to be choc malts expand into a drier, slightly more astringent molasses. Just a trace of sour fruit at the edges too. But then there are those quirky hops, suggestive of a Belgian black, or a schwarzbier, or even a black IPA. Slightly malty finish, deepening the complexity. I’m not always convinced it all hangs together, but the ambition is props-worthy and the beer is really good.