Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

Opaque brown-black body with a foamy, light brown head of considerable size, especially for such a high gravity beer. Rich and strong aroma of caramel, sweet chocolate, molasses and vanilla. Flavor is dominated by syrupy, underattenuated malts and potent alcohol. Also has abundant caramel plus chocolate-pancake syrup and discordant citric hop flavors. Harsh, alcoholic finish and syrupy texture leave you reluctant to take another sip. The alcohol has little effect besides your usual hootin’ and hollerin’ amid some follies with Uncle Spike’s double-coil animal traps. An off-kiltered beer, easily outclassed by most imperial stouts.

This the second Meph vintage I’ve tried. The beer poored a dark crude oil color and had a pleasant aroma and the body tasted of coffee with hints of chocolate. This years was much hoppier than last years.

9/5/9/4/19: 4.6 Just cracked a year and a half old batch one with abberverator and another coworker and this has become truly sublime. Rich malty color with chocolates and port in the body. The hops has pretty much died off, yielding a truly delicious score. Upping this to a 4.9. Now to find more batch 1, since I’m down to a six pack.

Aroma:alcohol,light rosted malt and chocolate... Appearance:Dark,good tan head.. Flavor:rhum,alcohol and dark chocolate.....Strong but to mutch alcohol flavor...

Batch Numero Uno. I slaved away like a dog doing back breaking grunt work for Matta to score this beer. I hope it is worth the hernia I’m sure to develop. <P> Aroma is quite strong. Burnt, caramelized sugars, burnt malts and something meaty almost like meat roasting on a spit. Some dark roasted chocolate lies beneath that aroma. Handsome beer this one. Deep black color that poured thick, though not gloppy. Thumb thick tan head is lasting and creamy with only a few mild bubbles. Very sweet prune/molasses fore followed by a massive bitter dark chocolate barrage. Then the alcohol wafts in burning the throat. The initial sweetness carries through hinting at cherries, papaya, grapes, fat ripe blackberries, premium esspresso and gobs and gobs of black licorice. <P> You really have to slip this slow. The alcohol can burn out some of the other flavors, but as you sit with it and sip tons of different flavors pop out. There is complexity to spare, but personally the alcohol isn’t well hidden. It really hammers the throat and that is hard for someone who is naturally a fast drinker. That and the vaguely meaty aroma are the only off points.

bottle, black pour with short lived tqn head, aromas of oak and plums, flavor is very sweet with a strong alcohol bite, finish is sweet and metallic

Many thanks to drewbeerme for this bottle. Opaque brown-black body, medium tight ochre head. Potent, sweet aroma of honey, soy, and molasses, with alcohol and hints of almond. Starts sweet, with honey, soy, red grapes, and burnt sugars, with a sharp warming alcohol bite. These flavors subside to a long, roasty finish, a pleasant surprise in a beer of this ABV and sweetness. Heavy body, syrupy and sticky. I like the finish, which dries out the cloying sticky sweetness present at the beginning and middle of the palate. However, this beer is another case of too much sugar and soy, though the alcohol is reasonably subdued. In the bid to be extreme, Mephistopheles overreaches what it could have been. Still, this is worth acquiring and perhaps cellaring for a bit.

(bottle - 12 oz: Batch 2) Dark black oily pour with a very thin tan head. Aroma is very roasty and dark. Lots of dark fruits mixed with alcohol, chocolate, malts, and wine. Some sherry as well and a little oak. Flavor explodes in your mouth. Very roasty and dark with a lot of burnt and toasted malts, chocolate, oak chips, and cherries. Tons of flavors all rolled up into one with a strong alcohol burn at the end. This thing could use some more aging.

Bottled. Pitch black with a small brown head. Quite vinous with notes of prunes, plums, brown sugar, raisins and hits of coffee and chocolate.