Avery Fourteen

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

Bottle and served in my NB worthy glass: Deep brown hue with a mostly last foamy head and spotty lace. The aroma has notes of piney and acidic fruits, herbal and grassy vapours along with the smoky, earthy, chewy dark side of malt and yeast. I happen to like this nose profile.

The taste starts moderately sweet and caramelized with supporting rye bread and chocolate. Quickly followed by a dose of resiny and fruity hops with a dash of hop spice more towards the finish. There is a bitterness about this brew that is not only the function of hops but too of the malt methinks. I am digging this. The mouth feel is smooth across the palate with a snappy bit along the edges and finish. Light alcoholic kick helps clean the palate. A very enjoyable brew and ready to drink right now. AVERY HATERS DISS THIS! I don’t care!!

Bottle courtesy of Kryptic: Poured a deep hazy brown color ale with a big foamy head with some good retention and some nice lacing. Aroma of light roasted malt mix with some big caramel notes and some floral and medium bitter hops. Taste is a mix between roasted malt with some caramel malt with a dominant hops profile which includes some bitter and floral notes. Full body with what looks like minimal filtration with some good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. I quite enjoyed that one and thought it was an interesting experiment which falls beside regular style and must admit that most Avery anniversary beers are really good.

Bottle. Large light brown head, Dark brown color. Long flavor duration. Wine aroma.

The Avery Fourteen was poured into a St. Bernardus chalice, and it looked a quite a lot darker than any other beer that had graced that glass prior. The head atop was smallish, but stayed put for a while. The citric and piney smell was backed by dark roasted malt, and would probably have been most at home in an Imperial Stout. The taste was quite any other beer I’ve had before. It was balanced between bitter, savory, sweet, and sour tastes and had each of these in spades. Very dry too as a result of the high hop presence, and the alcohol content. If you don’t like big beers, stay far away, as this would tun you off on multiple levels. Very difficult to drink at a rapid pace due to a sensory overload. Some maturation time would likely help in that department, but then the wonderful hop kick would be gone.

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.

Pours out a deep brown color with a moderate syrupy head, nice lacing. Mostly earthy aroma with slight hops. Taste is very well balanced with a velvety mouthfeel. Earthy with notes of roasted malt, molasses, dried fruit and slight coffee/chocolate, slight hop bitterness on the finish. Very solid brew

22 oz bomber: I had consumed a few bottles of this before I could really begin to write how to define this beer. One word in short would be bazaar. In the nose, I find a blend of roasted malt, sugar, and a hint of pine? The palate is rich and creamy and has a pure well balanced mouth feel and finish that really allows me to enjoy this ale despite my lingering question about how exactly to define this beer. Anyhow, what I will say about flavor is that it touches on my sweet and bitter taste buds and that’s probably because I sense dark roast malt with caramel similarity and a citrus west coast hop that could easily be fooling me. I positively guarantee with a few months of shelf life this element of hop will disappear and allow me to truly see this ale as it is.

Draught: Dark pour, huge ivory head. Big aroma of dark fruits and some smokiness. Flavor is just all over the place, dark fruits, crystal malt sweetness, roasted malts, smoked malts, floral hops in the background. Mainly dark fruits but with a chewy sweetness and roastiness in the background. Crazy beer that’s all over the place and I need to have another and really try to pull more out of it, just an awesome beer.