Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

This was big and crass, a classic Avery special. Loaded with pleasure-inducing features, from the port-like sweetness to the warm but surprisingly controlled alcohol, the beer was also a bit thinner than other bad boys in the Impy Stout league. Great hops helping the flavor, which wasn’t that deep on the roast/chocolate dimensions, instead driving a lot of fruit, rum, and vanilla candy themes. A very interesting beer and one I’d like to drink more of, but even given how much I like Impies, I was surprised with how "ho hum" I felt about it. A big thanks to Jim at Blue Max, who sold his last bottle to me.

Thanks to LeopoldStoch for this in a Drakes Barleywine trade. Batch 1 Jan 06. Opaque ebony black with a small brown head. Aroma is of smoky malt, with a dark friuty hint and a bit of chocolate. The taste immediately hits of coffee, plums, and chocolate malts. The finish is of alcohol, more plums, and a slight hop bitterness.

12oz. Bottle: The aroma was on the sweet side. Smelled liked floral hops, sugary fruits, and alcohol. Poured dark black with a big, brown, head that lasted throughout. Good lacing. Very opaque. Very pretty beer. Flavor was very sweet. Tasted of roasted malts, alcohol, and smoke. Full body. Thick texture. Soft carbonation. Short malty finish. Overall, good, but too sweet and malty.

I performed the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram tonight and this is what happened. I released his spirit. Demon was angry. Poured thick tar black. No light in his soul. Tan head. Smelled like yeast, grandma’s prune juice mixed with vodka, and a little bit of applesauce. Like a jilted lover, he became totally bestial but could not disguise a childlike sweetness. Immature and pretentious, he came on strong for strong’s sake like a college kid on steroids. Simpleminded fratboy who can’t hold your liquor! I screamed in Enochian and said that he’d have to wait at least five years before the next time I popped his cap. Then I succumbed (why can’t I say succame?). I had an incubus in the house...

Bottle. Pitch black colour with a nice head. Aroma of chocolate, coffee, roastedness and little sour. Sweet flavour of roastedness, sugar, some alcohol finish. Very nice endeed.

[cracked a jan ’06 bottle tonight (7/07), and I really don’t know what I was thinking - tastes like burnt brown sugar mixed with week old coffee - just not very complex, an quite boozy] Black as pitch, with foamy, dark brown lace - aroma of brown sugar, rum, anise, licorice, alcohol - thick, oily mouthfeel - a little overyly sweet at first, but a nice espresso bitterness comes in to try and balance it out (which it will probably do a better job of once the beer has aged) - huge flavor - port is most prevalent at first, then some doughy, almost spicy flavors (like freshly made cookies) - rum-soaked cherries, a hint of oak, some brown sugar and cinnamon - a little sweet and a tiny bit hot right now, but give it a year or so to balance out and I would give this a 5.

The aroma is very chocolaty, with burnt malt, molasses, grapes, and coffee. The appearance is so dark brown that it’s almost black.The head is is large and tan. The flavor is like the aroma with lots of alcohol. The palate is super thick. This beer is so strong it has more in common with a liquor than a beer. It’s truly a demon in strength which is what does it in for me. Nice flavors but the alcohol is too hot and needs to be dialed down a bit.

The beer emerges from the 12-ounce brown bottle a soot black, the head Bunyanesque, the color a nice deep tan, the consistency thick and creamy, after its slow demise, the lace forms a glutinous blanket to obfuscate the glass. Ah that smell, toasted and roasted grain, sweet molasses, rich malt, a real foretoken of things to come, start is cotton candy sweet, the malt profile thick, the top full. Finish is merciful in its acidity; the hops mingle nicely with the 15.10 percent ABV, but a good thing to cut the sweetness, a belly warmer, and another hit for Avery.