Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

Thanks Jason! The beer pours to a dark brown/black body with a light brown head. The aroma is very strong. Chocolate, star anise, molasses, light alcohol but mostly just "vapor", espresso. The flavor is dry roasted malts, deep sweet molasses, chocolate, espresso, rum, dark fruits. The palate is full bodied, rich, coating, delicious. This is really damn good. I’ll be buying a bunch of this.

Aroma of a wet wooden whiskey barrel. Some sweetness also. Black body with dark tan head. Flavor of sugar and a mild sweet caramel. Some rich chocolate that made this a full bodied beer. Smooth on palate and somewhat dry. I may have to shake the money tree as my friend says and get another of this one.

16.0% version. A roasty slightly nutty oatmeal aroma. Just all over the place. Very bittersweet and thick thick thick. A nice finish of both thick and thin and strong and grainy. An intense crazy beer.

Batch #2:
Pitch black coloured body with a nice-sized brown head that stays atop the beer nicely. Fully opaque without the slightest hint of light going through the body. Aroma of roasted malt, coffee, figs, cherries, blueberries and even more fruit - not bad at all. Full-bodied; Super thick mouthful; Very strong sweetness shows up first with cherries and brown sugar dominating everything. Aftertaste is more rounded, a good maltiness on top of a coffee and milk chocolate flavour. Overall, a really good Imperial Stout - shows more sweetness than I’d expect, but the flavour goes well and lasts quite a while. Worth sampling if you can find it...no really ’downs’ about this one at all. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased at Grape & Gourmet in Virginia Beach, Virginia on 17 November 2007.

Bottle shared with blankboy, HogTownHarry, jerc and tupalev - courtesy of blankboy. Deep black/brown colour with a small mocha head. Big, warm, sweet aroma - lots of malt, molasses, coffee and chocolate, licorice and a bit of dark fruit. Flavour is warm and sweet as well, with a hint of spiciness from the alcohol, along with notes of chocolate, rum, black cherry, coffee, vanilla and plum. Hot damn, this is good!

12oz bottle via trades with slob, hopscotch, and Brock_Landers! - Thanks guys! - Pours black and thick with a pretty large fluffy mocha head that fades back quickly to a ring but laces from there. Aroma is coffee, chocolate, liccorice, molasses, some dark fruit, and just a touch of alcohol Flavor is chocolate, caramel, plum, raisin, liccorice, toffee, roasted and even burnt malts, and even a touch of hops on the back. Very complex. Palate is full bodied, and somewhat slick like oil yet warming and mouthcoating. Lots of sugar remaining. Seems almost sticky at points. Alcohol is covered pretty well considering how big this is. I think this is one to put away for a while and see how those flavors blend.. I think it will be fantastic in a year! It is pretty amazing now..

Bottled January 2006, Sampled March 2006
Pours with a rich, creamy-chocolate brown colored head that is initially two-fingers thick. The beer is simply midnight black in color. An interesting aroma; initially I get notes of dates and alcohol. There is a rich, malty, almost salty note; a sort of umami kind of notes that could perhaps evoke thoughts of soy sauce, though not really. When you go in for a good, long draught of the aroma your nose gets just a bit singed by hot alcohol notes. There are some hints of chocolate aromatics here, a definite roast-acidity & I have a feeling this is a bit too cold right now.

Thick, almost syrupy, no it definitely is syrupy. It is quite sweet, almost in a sugar-like fashion (as opposed to the richer malt derived sweetness found in many strong beers). The finish has a certain, almost astringent, and lightly hot alcoholic note, that is not really all that detracting, in fact it is almost needed to cut thought the sweetness. Definitely rich and decadent, in fact it is a malt bomb up front, it is not until the middle that a detracting, sugary sweetness takes hold. The finish has a lingering roast bitterness, as well as a hop derived bitterness. My impression up to this point is that this beer is too sweet, and that it seems like filtration has robbed this beer of a lot of complexity.

I am really surprise at how subtle the roast character is; it is definitely here, but is completely dominated by the sweetness. There is a touch of coffee ice-cream here, perhaps some chalky roasted malt, and a bit of burnt acidity in the finish. Put another way, there is a ton of roast character here, it just plays second fiddle to the sweet notes. Fairly drinkable for all its concentrated flavors and thickness, though I certainly won’t be pounding this any time soon. In the end this beer ends up being a bit too cloying, after the first 4oz it becomes a chore, even a 12oz bottle of this is too much. I think there is some potential here; I can actually see this getting quite a bit better with age, what complexity this beer currently lacks, will be added to and made better by some years of aging and subtle oxidation. Even though this is filtered, with the alcohol this beer will age for quite some time; perhaps I will sample this vintage again in 5 years or so.

The last of six bottles (not in the same night!). Pours a dark fluffy head, reasonably well retained. Very alcoholic nose (I feel like I’m getting drunk just inhaling), with lots of raisins and caramel present. Sticky-sweet mouthfeel shows caramel and hops and perhaps a hint of chocolate, but really not much else. A disappointing finish, lacking any sort of coffee or chocolate background to keep this soul-selling ship afloat - it ends all too sweetly. Slightly unbalanced.