Avery Fourteen

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

Poured a very scary looking watery deep dark brown with a creamy, lacing light brown head. Aroma is very interesting, I expected more of a floral, citrus nose and what I found was a nose more like a Abbey Triple with yeast and medicine at the front with pine and grapefruit in the background. Flavor crazy, all over the place. When it hits the tongue you get heavy malt and fruit (grapes, apples, oranges). Then as it envelopes the tongue you get a barley wine type flavor with heat, alcohol, candy and yeast like a Belgian. Finish is slightly syrupy, slightly astringent but very drinkable. This was very unique and a cornucopia of flavors.

Bottle. Black colour wit large creamy light brown fully lasting head. Aroma is roasted malt and caramel. Sweet bitter flavor and bitter finish. Oily palate.

defintinly has a floral smell and taste. Good all round beer. I guess American Strong Ale fits this one good but the strong is well hidden because alcohol is matched well with the hops.

This one was a real treat. Chocolate brown pour with a nice tight tan head. The hop aroma is very heavy here, which I love when combined with darker malts. Reminds me of something like the Black Sun from 3F. Anyway, the aroma is great and the flavor is as well. Very complex with bold hops, vanilla, molasses, smokiness and candied sugar. Very sweet, but the hops balance it out all the way through. Once again, it was nice to get my hands on a few of these. Big thanks to Bigsilky.

Bomber. Barely can see through this deep brown beer with red highlights. Huge creamy and sticky head lasts forever. Aroma is big molasses malt and fruity hops. Flavor is similar with earthy-herb, fruity (Fuggles, maybe?) hops taming some spicy dark fruit and slight cocoa very well. Just a touch of alcohol rounds it all out nicely. The finish is bitter but not harsh; seems a bit Goldings or Saaz-like. Even some slight bubblegum in the aftertaste, like a Belgian. Palate feels smooth, oily and medium-large bodied, but not syrupy. Excellent experiment in what seems to be an American style barleywine with a flavor battle of the hops: American vs. European.

Bottle: Ruby amber in color with a two-finger tan head...sweet caramel, figs, raisins and dark malts rule the nose, no hop notes were present as I kinda expected. Very english barleywine-ish. Viscous, sticky body...again, sweet dark malts, bread dough and earthy esters are present in the flavor. This was quite good.

Bomber. The low ratings suprised me quite a bit with this one, I thought it was pretty tasty. The aroma is a little too subtle, but still quite nice. Flavor was very rich and sticky - ranging from chocolate to dried fruits to caramel to smoke to citrus to molasses to....... etc. With some warmth, the palate turned out to be even more enjoyable for me. Can you say an IPA/stout meets a Belgian quad meets an American Strong ale? - quite unique. Nice frothy head - loved the appearance, too. Not for the weak hearted as the alcohol did show through just a bit. Good job Avery, cheers on the your 14th!

Deep brown in color with a tinge of red. Scents of plum, dark carmel, orange zest and citric hops. The palate shows the hops toward the finish. Nice density in the midpalate which showed nice richness leading toward the dry finish.