Avery Hog Heaven

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Boulder, Colorado USA

Nice, transparent color of tobacco smoked cedar with a golden, quickly diminishing head. Hop aromas are strong, almost like dried red cedar cones, but there is an underlying sticky sweetness lingering beneath the bitter hoppiness. Pink grapefruit, plum, and fresh peach notes are detected after the initial hoppy shock. Sweet hops greet the tongue on the first meeting, followed by the quickly fleeting sweet plum and peach notes, which are immediately followed up by a slightly drier hoppiness from the first impression. Long, lingering finish of toasted caramel malts. I will try cellaring this for a couple of years before a retaste, hoping that the hoppy finish will be softened and supplemented by its subtle sweet fruits.

Bomber in Pagosa, CO on business. Very pleasant B-Wine. Appearance is not quite a 5 - solid sticky lace! Packed with caramel malt and a zing of grapefruit juicy hops on the back side. In essence, it’s leaning towards the super malty double IPA type barleywine. Still seams a bit raw and could only imagine this with a 2-3 years in nap land. Came off a tad sour on sips which wasn’t too great. Overall, solid brew and def hit the spot.

22 oz bottle, poured a dark cloudy copper color. tangy scent. Juicy hop flavors with loads of citrus, mostly grapefruit... some bitter orange peel, all on top of a rich malty base. Some hints of a light spiciness and some caramel, along with an extremely bitter, but nicely balanced finish. Nice barleywine.

Bottle. Nice aroma of orange rind, grapefruit, on an unusual base that I decided smelled most like tomato juice in character to me. Caramel and toffee in the background as well. Flavor is pretty mellow for the big talk on the label, the hops don’t attack the mouth as advertised, but nothing wrong with it, relaxing fruit flavors. Nice beer, but I’ll always prefer a bolder barleywine, whether from the hops or the barley. 8-4-7-4-14/3.7

Rerate 6/17/08. My early ratings are hilarious. Goodness. Bottle. Aroma at first of lovely citrus notes, grapefruit in particular, but also some tangerine, and some pollen-like notes also coming in there right alongside the citrus, then transforms into rich caramel and toffee with lots of figs and prunes, and a ton of earth as well. Flavor is quite sweet (not that that’s a surprise), but still marvelously balanced by that citrusy, zesty hop character that always pops back to remind you it’s there. Then the finish is once again lovely toffee, caramel, earth with some bitter hops still hanging on. Despite my comments from my early days, this is actually very much my type of barleywine.

Dark amber color with little to no head. Great hops! First barley wine i have ever liked. Thanks Kevin.

nice citrusy hop aroma as soon as the bottle is opened. a little more malty than i usually like, but in nice balance with the hops.

22. Pours copper with a foamy head. Excellent lacing. Hoppy aroma with butterscotch and caramel. This seems like it’s gonna be good... It is! Nice hop flavor. Malt is a bit more subdued than I’d like.

0.65 l bottle at Stockholm Beer Festival 2007. Dark amber color. Fruity-flowery aroma with toffee, vanilla and dry hops. Sweet flowery-lemony flavor with warming alcohols. Bittersweet and fruity finish.