Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

Poured black with a brown head. Aroma of roasted coffee, caramel, and BOOZE. Very strong alcohol start and finish with hints of coffee trying to come through but couldn’t. This thing is angry and needs time to chill out.

300th rating...make it a strong one!!!! 12 oz. bottle batch #2 - poured coal black as the commercial description states. Medium tan head. Aroma - damn this beer smells good!! a mixture of almaretto and grapejuice with chocolate, coffee. Flavor - chocolate covered cherries, dark fruits, coffee and many other flavors. Palate - Medium mouthfeel with good carbonation for such a high abv. Slight alcohol burn on the way down with dry finish. Aftertaste is smokey and lingers. Overall - This is the beer the devil would drink!! It is so complex and highbrow, it almost makes you feel more powerful drinking it!!!! This is one fine crafted brew and the $7.49 I paid for the bottle was well worth it. NOT FOR THE WEAK!!!!

Bottle. Batch 3. Creamy lightbrown good fully lasting head. Black colour. Heavy malty and hoppy aroma. Intense vinius and perfect balanced flavor. Loads of vanilla. Alcohol well hidden. Long fantastic complex finish. Creamy palate.

A very good and strong imperial stout. Extreme. Nice dark chocolate and dark bitter fruit blend. Definitely a hint of dark cherry as well. Pours black as night.

Bottle. Batch 3 Nov. 2007. Pours pitch black with chocolate tan head. Aroma is complex. Dark roasted malts. Chocolate. Oxidation is just starting to set in. Coffee notes as well. Heavy mouthfeel. Flavor is more wet cardboard, dark roast, coffee, chocolate, and hides the alcohol really well. This is a really strong brew as it seems to numb my mouth as I drink it. But its really good. Too bad oxidation is setting in. Drink ’em if you got ’em!

Batch 1. Pours a thin looking black syrup with some red hints and a nice tan head despite the alc and age. Aroma is huge roasty malt, big alcohol, chocolate, very vinuous, some anise and licorice. Taste is a bit of oxidation up front, sherry, taste is a nice big chocolate with an oily body, roasty body, lightly bitter finish and alcohol warmth.

Bottle. Pours as black as any I’ve had with almost no head. I should start by saying that this is not my first Avery beer and that I’m not a big fan. Typically these things are just floating in fusel alcohols as if they were fermented way way way too hot. But here goes. Aroma is of, well, grapes, anise, chocolate, cherries, rum, overripe fruit, and coffee (it’s all in the brewer’s description). But these overripe fruits are common in all their beers. Usually it tends toward rotting fruit, but in this case it is covered up by the enormous ammounts of roasted malt and no doubt coffee. This is more tolerable than some of their others, but probably the second worst imperial stout I’ve had.

A very enjoyable stout. I had no idea it was 16% abv, but it certainly has that warm alcohol flavor that hints at high abv. Batch 4 bottled in 2008. Served from bottle. Pours pure black with a tan head that leaves spotty lacing. Malty aroma with hints of alcohol. Flavor is very alcoholic up front with bits of chocolate and coffee. Roasted malts and hops balance well. Mouthfeel is very warming. Intriguing imperial stout!