Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

Sweet and syrupy flavor. Opaque black with tan head. Complex sweetness, hoppiness, and roastiness. A bit of dried fruit and molasses with a strong roasty/hop finish and a bit of an alcohol kick. Very good.

Pitch black, thin but lasting lacey head. Huge aroma of seared malts, licorice, raisons, other fruits, booze, soy sauce, a bit of smoke, chocolate, coffee and others that emerge that Im too impatient to wait for. Smooth body, thick but not as syrupy as I thought it would be, the carbonation is perfect. Huge, chewy flavors of alcohol soaked raisons, sweet caramelly seared malt, boozy alcohol but not oppressive, burning or harsh. (i thought DFH 23% was more of a burner) You feel it in the belly but what do you expect? Beautiful hoppy, expresso finish, balances it out a more then you would think and gives it an addictive flavor. Awesome impy here and I am impressed. World class I have to say. Maybe a little nap to meld and this will be perfect. Thank you Ernest!

Holy shit, this bad boy hit my head like a fucking bowling bwol- A MORE succint rate to follow, but this mferer hit right up side the head. shit/

Bottle. Deep black in color with a tan head. Malty and roasty aroma. Chocolate and caramel notes. Fruity. Raisiny, Plums. Malty and roasty flavor. Thick and rich tasting. Finish is chocolatety. Full bodied. Nice beer. Very drinkable.

No light can get through this beer, with a espresso head. Aroma is a ton of butterscotch, caramel, chocolate, mollases, and raspberries. Taste is very fruity, with chocolate, raspberries, coffee, espresso, strawberries covered in chocolate. An amazingly complex beer which hides the alcohol superbly well (unlike the other avery imperial stout). Super Amazing beer, and on par with Dark Lord, the only complaint is, the body is slightly to thin, but still lovely.

Appearance, black as sin itself, with a fine roasted espresso cap. Aroma spills out into the atmosphere, booze blended with coffee and motor oil. Let’s add a messy mix of plums, raisins, rusted molasses, treacle, anise underneath, snips of chocolate. Quite a ferrago indeed. Taste is thick and slick and slightly bitter, huge, sinful, decadent, rich beyond all recognition...enormous mouthfeel...molasses up the wazoo...fantastic stuff, immense ...unbelievable...unique...nothing like it. and then, boom! boom! comes the alcohol! This is the imperial stout pushed beyond all limits. Wonder why it’s not as beloved as Dark Lord? Not as thick? Not as rare? Too strong? No parties in the parking lot? A succulent dish, despite the price, not to be missed.

An OG of 1.142? Call Captain Kirk. The Enterprise has to be hauled out of mothballs to go where no man has gone before.Monsterous, high octane aroma,malt nail polish sherry, brownie ,satanically black,with a head that is immediately devoured by the alcohol. Big huge body,chewing and cloying, like a sweet port mixed with chocolate brownie mix and sweet malt wort,just to much malt and sweetness to notice much hop. One bottle could last you an hour. We have gone to the malt limit on this one. A stunning experience,to much to sort through in one bottle. It absolutely gets better as it warms or is that just the 15% kicking in.Did the Demon on the bottle talk to anyone else ?

Bottle (Batch #1, Jan 06) : Courtesy of Philip via trade. The aroma on this is huge. Just popping the cap at arms length was enough to start getting a dose of the aroma. Lots of roastiness, moderate cherry, molasses, chocolate, grapefruit hops, and alcohol. Pours a dark brown, virtually black, with a brown head that has good retention. A film of lacing clings to the side of the glass. Very sweet and malty. Lots of molasses up front with moderate chocolate. Moderate cherry and dark fruits. Roastiness is very subtle in the finish and seems to get stronger in the aftertaste once the sweetness fades. Alcohol is light in flavor and moderate in warming affect with a light burn. Just the slightest touch of grapefruit hops in the finish. Alcohol flavor increase slightly as it warms, but never becomes overbearing. Big syrupy mouthfeel, but creamy at the same time. This is impressive.

I’ve heard all sorts of rumors that this beer is not aging well. Well since it’s not bottled conditioned, I don’t how long it will hold up, but one year later it’s still damn tastey. Sweetness is real big, but has toned down just a touch. Roastiness in the finish is more pronounced along with a touch of expresso that I didn’t notice before because it was dominated by the extreme sweetness. I don’t know that it has improved numbers-wise, but it’s just as good...just a tad different than before.