Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

Pours close to oil black with a soapy deep brown head. The aroma has a mix mainly of deep roasted malts and alcohol warmth. There is also dark fruits and red wine impressions as well as some vanilla and dark chocolate. Thich rich mouthfeel that is velvety and syrupy and not much carbonation to speak of. Taste is like roasty syrup. There is some brown sugar, mollases, vanilla, dark fruits and some vanillas along with the vineous aspect from the aroma. The finish definitely has some warmth to it, but not too much considering it is 15.1%.

bottle, batch 1, jan 2006 - Pours thick and black with a thin, enduring head. The aroma is of coffee, really dark roasted malts, and alcohol. The palate is incredibly full. The 15% alcohol is hardly noticeable in the taste because this brew is so very sweet. Besides the malts, chocolate notes were the most obvious in the flavor, along with coffee and maybe some dark fruits. There’s some alcohol burn in the finish and a long, lingering taste. If there’s a flaw it’s that this one is bit too sweet and it’s certainly expensive. Very nice.

Thanks to hopscotch for this terrible experience. Should have had a friend around to give this to after I tasted it. Scary rude off aroma. Smells like rotting vegetable matter. Volatile chocolate. Very dark yet has no gunk on the bottom of the bottle. Black coffee with chocolate and whiskey. Ooooh. Ugh. Chocolate mousse head. Flat oily coating palate. Gaggingly oppressive and one of the worst beers I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting. Frightening from the first sip. This is just plain yucky stuff! Brutal! Dude! WTF! Over the top. Forget about it? What did I say? Can’t remember. I think I’ll go to sleep now........ zzzzz.......did I mention that it hides it’s 16% well? Goodnight. The apex of imperial stouts! Opposite of old heathen. Ignore my numbers and I hope my enjoyability rating does not hurt the stature of this percentile.

Bottle trade with boboski: Poured a dark black brown color with a thing beige head. The aroma was alcoholy with hits of rum, fruit, and coffee. The flavor was very exciting to my tongue. I could taste the sweet rum and dried fruit, but also finished with a zippy tangy alcoholic grape/wine.

Thanks to Degarth for sending this one which was shared at our Tennessee tasting! Black and syrupy with a diminishing tan head. Complex aroma with coffee chocolate, licorice and alcohol. Overly sweet and horribly out of balance. This would have improved with some time in the cellar. Lots of good parts in here, but they need more time to smooth out and fit together as one instead of coming off separately.

Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured thick, black and oily with a medium sized dark brown head. The aroma was sweet bourbon, roasty malts and floral hops. Very complex on the nose but a bit of the alcohol shows through. The flavor was richly complex and intense with notes of port wine, cherry, licorice, roasty malts and honey. There is an incredibly intense and long finish of port and licorice. The flavors practically sear themselves on to your tongue. Almost too intense. Remarkable!

Bottle shared with after4ever. Pours an opaque blackish brown with a thick brown head. Aroma of chocolate cherries. The taste is very sweet (maybe a bit too sweet) with molasses, chocolate, prunes, that somehow gets to a reasonably dry finish.

12oz. bottle, Jan. ’06 vintage - Batch #1. Rich, sumptuous, sugary aroma of dark chocolate, candied cherries, deeply roasted malts and toffee, along with lighter nuances of cream, black walnut, old wood, dark bread and wafts of alcohol. Thoroughly impenetrable black color with a medium brown, subsiding head that nonetheless leaves an intricate galactic pattern behind. Complex and undeniably full flavor profile, with an omni-present, thickly sweet, sugary, truly dark, chocolatey and roasty malt presence blanketing the lighter notes of faint smoke, plum, vanilla, earthiness and spicy hop bitterness, also featuring a peppery, fiery alcohol character from about midpoint onwards, joining with an increasing espresso presence at the finish, which is quite powerful and lengthy. Smooth, syrupy, warming mouthfeel with a decidedly ample body. Quite a bit here in this treat to wrap your head around.