Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

Bottle. Thanks for swapping, hallinghansen. Black as coal with a small tan head. Roasty aroma with lots of dark fruits, brown sugar, sweet malt, tobacco and chocolate. The mouthfeel is medium creamy. Loads of sweet malt, chocolate, caramel, dark fruits and rum and it ends up sweet and alcoholic.

Bière d’un noir profond, aux arômes intense d’alcool. Légères notes de chocolat, mais surtout d’alcool intense. Termine très bien une soirée.

12 Oz bottle of batch numero 3 purchased at Knightly Spirits in Orlando. First off, I should note the biases here. One, I really like Avery for beers like this. Like the Beast, yeah, it burned like hell, but had character, lots of it. Two, I just finished a 120 minute and a WWS, and was traveling for 14 hours today, so where is my mind? I couldn’t say. Three: I had no bottle opener, so I had to carefully pry open these beers with the back of the giant metal clips on the hotel coat hangers. And four: I am drinking this out of a plastic hotel cup. The aroma of this is so overpowering. It just wreaks of heavy malt, chocolate, coffee, licorice andddd.... alcohol (surprise). This doesn’t have the sugary malt smell that the WWS has, it has more of a spicy alcohol scent, which actually, isn’t that bad. The flavor...well, that’s just devilish. It hurts the mouth. The coffee flavors are the most painful at first. Then its the alcohol and dark fruits. You would have to boil down some dried blueberries, strawberries, raisins, and figs- then puree them to get this sort of shenanigans. The really good thing about this is the palate. If you can get by the strength of the booziness, it is very velvety and smooth. But in the end, this just, well, it just hurts. It feels too raw. Its strong enough that it should be mandated by the state to stick it in some charred oak for X amount of months. Regardless, it is a memorable beer to finish off this long day.

This was a 16% ABV version which must make it a 2007 bottling. It poured about as black as you can imagine and only a very bright light in the back showed it to be actually a garnet red that reminded me of looking through a welders mask. It raised a very robust brown head, with huge bubbles and thick lacing. Amazingly attractive for black colored beer. The nose is powerful, with ripe fruit like cherry roasted malts, nuts, chocolate, and some coffee. The mouthfeel is like velvet, and the flavors are amazingly complex with a huge amount of ripe fruit. The finish is long and bitter, and the 16% ABV is very well hidden. This is a remarkable beer, for sipping only. I loved it.

Poured pitch black with a brown head. Raisin and dark fruit aroma. Very sweet. Creamy chocolate, roast malt and dark fruit. Rich and complex. Maybe a bit too sweet, but I love sweets.

pours jet black with a thin beige head, and some lacing. smell of cocoa, coffee, roasted nuts, and a touch of sour malt. taste is dry, thick, dark and milk chocolate, licorice, sour malt, and roasted walnuts, ends on the dry side with and alcohol bite.

Batch #3 Bottle from trade with HOPSHUNTER. Pours to a thick black with a respectable tan head that laces beautifully. Nose is bitter chocolate, alcohol and roasty malts. This beast warms all the way down and is bitter as it is bold. It’s complex character reveals licorice, brandy, chocolate, roasted malts and coffee. Would love to have this one again.

(12 oz btl) Oily black and opaque w/ a one-finger tan head . Aroma is rich w/ notes of unsweetened chocolate, black licorice and alcohol. Espresso, black licorice, dark chocolate and and earthy bitterness give way to a slightly phenolic (medicinal) finish. Smooth and slightly sticky on the palate w/ a pleasant warming alcohol finish. Can’t help but think of Nietzche while sipping this: "If you stare into the abyss long enough..."