Avery Mephistopheles Stout

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Boulder, Colorado USA

Huge beer. 2006 vintage. Even with three years on it the first sip was a choker! A good imperial stout taken and cranked up to 11. Chocolate, coffee, dark fruit and alcohol. Oh and a little soy sauce on the finish. Just one of those beers were you just stop and really appreciate the beauty of such a brew. A special beer and am very lucky to try it. Thanks Geishabrewer!

Black oily pour with a thick burnt tan head that laces well. Nose is thick with sweet overripe fruits. Taste dominated by the warmth of the abv, dark fig, current, plum. Warms you down to your toes. Never bitter or harsh. Great stout!

12 oz. bottle- I thought I would pick something special for my 200th rating, so I picked this. Pours black with a good tan head and good lacing, a beautiful beer, aroma is malt, caramel chocolate, but suprisingly not alcohol. The flavor is different, the alcohol is abundant, excellent, it has a smoky flavor with chocolate almost as an afterthought, but nothing is an afterthought in this perfect brew. This should be enjoyed while watching a good horror movie, in the dark if you dare.

Batch 1 bottle opened just short of 4 years old. It’s been a while since I had any version of this either fresh or aged, probably more than a year, and I’m liking it more and more. Pours a brown head over a completely opaque black snifter of beer. The nose is raisins and dates with chocolate and dark cherry. First tip past the lips is chocolate and cherry and a nice alcohol warmth. The sweetness is not as strong as I remember, and I like that just fine. Midway down the flavors become the sweet dates and molasses, and then they shift to the roasted bitterness of coffee with dark chocolate. Finish is a sweet/bitter roastieness and a happy mix of fading fruit and dates. Now I just have to figure out why I don’t have any batch 3 in my collection. Humph. I must have let it slip past that year. Bummer.

Sweet and syrupy flavor. Opaque black with tan head. Complex sweetness, hoppiness, and roastiness. A bit of dried fruit and molasses with a strong roasty/hop finish and a bit of an alcohol kick. Very good.

Batch 4. Pours Dark brown with a light brown head, foamy, mostly diminishing. The aroma is sweet, figs, raisin. The mouth feel is creamy, thick, a little oily. The taste is kinda molasses, raisin, got some flavors lurking in the back, a little alcohol. I have batch 1,2, 3 and another 4 aging. I think more flavors will come out with age.

Dark. Intense. Heavy alcohol mixed with some fruit and chocolate. Well done when left to sit.

12 oz bottle from Binny’s I think (Orland Park, IL). This has been in the cellar for a long while. Pours a pitch black opaque pour, a big brown head that laces well, stays moderate size, thick pour. Aromas are roasted malts, coffee, dark chocolate and sweet molasses and caramel, sweeter without a bitter edge from tons of coffee and roasted malts, almost a syrupy sweetness. Initial is bitter, roasted malts and coffee come in stronger with a decent smokiness in the body, some dark chocolate and the bitterness really sticks to the palate. A dose of raisin, caramel, toffee, and some syrupy molasses.. chocolate really starts to come in further into the beer, roast asserts itself, with some coffee and a bit of smoke.. which fill out well a few more sips in. The aroma is a bit offputting for me, a little boozy and sweet, but the flavors help redeem those elements. Pretty tasty, looks good, just isn’t towards the upper half of it’s genre for me.. to each, their own.