Avery Fourteen

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

Bottle@BlindTastingSession. Strong aroma, very sweet and fruity with some laurel. Ruby color, beige firm head, good lace. Very sweet, very bitter, especially towards the finish, licorice wood, roasted malts, hint of chocolate, black currant. Full and I don’t think I could finish more than 1 bottle. But the flavors and especially the aroma are great.

Bottle. Dark brown pour with creamy head. Malt, sweet, chocolate aroma. Lots of flavors in this one. Molasses with some hop bitterness, dark fruit, chocolate and a lingering smoke. Interesting brew.

Huge beige head, rather fine bubbled and irregular, leaving some lacerings over deep dark beer with a ruby shine. Dark malts, alcohol and fusels, USA hops, cardboard, caramel and something perfumey-soapy. Generally speaking delicate and discreet nose. Bitterish, both hoppy & roasted, and a spicy flavour, reminding me of cumin; melanoidins. There’s quite some toffee & caramel, even molasses, but the hopgift quickly smothers it all. Good balance for an impressive brew. Very slick and well-bodied, alcoholwarming; Better balanced, discreter than most Avery brews I discovered, and for a rather massive ale, at that. Thanks, David A!

On draft @ the Brew Kettle 5/25/06 and also rated separately in a 22 oz bottle 6/24/07: Burnt sienna brown w/ a lasting, thick, beige, creamy, foam head. Also laces very nicely. Chocolate and toasted malts in the bottle version, caramel seems to make itself more prevalent in the draft version. Clove seemed to be slightly present in the draft version, but absent from the botled version, both were moderately fruity w/ some raisiny esters in the draft version. The bottled version seemed to have more hop aromas of piney, floral, herbal, and resiny. The bottled version seemed to have some black licorice notes that I did not pick up the first time I had it a month ago, although the draft version had some brown sugary notes in the aroma. The flavor between both versions seems a bit different. The bottled version seemed to be more hop dominant with piney and herbal hop flavors up front, whereas the draft version seemed to be malt dominant. Both have chocolate and bready malt flavors, but the balance seems to be a bit better in the bottled version. I thought the draft version was slighly under attenuated and a touch more fruity. Both versions had an herbal hop finish with a roasty malt undertone. The draft version seemed to finish medium sweet, while the bottled version was pretty well balanced. Both had a nice, creamy, smooth mouthfeel w/ well hidden alcohol. Low med. CO2, and fuller medium body. I liked both versions, and not that they were 2 completely different beers, but there were enough of them. I don’t check my notes often enough and should have realized that I had already rated it, but what the heck, the scores were almost identical, actually 1 number off... Interesting! I quite like this beer on both accounts.

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.

Dark brown body, no, more like mahogany with a tint of crimson coming in....clear at foot, ...fluffy, cocoa-toned head. Aroma: SWEET-ness!...chocolate, spice, mollases, nuts, brown sugar, lovely, and utterly malt-alicious...now to taste ’er! More of the same, now dancing on the tongue...sweet, plump, chocolate chip’n’raisin-y goodness, caramel chewiness, blasts of black pepper, lush molasses, dark rum & anise Long lasting finish, full bodied, and very special...happy 14th, guys!

(RBESG 2007, Glasgow. Bottle) Dark amber color, brown head. Malty and milky aroma. Creamy, malty chocolate flavor, some fruit andsome caramel notes.

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.