Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

WOW! This beer was simply amazing. Out of every stout, or even dark beer, that I’ve had up to this point, this beer was the best. The malty sweetness blew me away. Absolutely amazing. I asked my friend what she thought of the beer and she said she estimated it at 6% abv--for a %16 beer, that is amazing. This beer had tons of fruity ripeness and bitter sweetness and was just about as pleasant as it could possibly be. My favorite dark beer to this day. Amazing, I will buy this whenever I see it for sale. RERATE 3/2009: WOW! Still the best dark beer I’ve ever had. Everything from before but even better. Bumped rating from 4.9 to 5 because it’s just a perfect beer; I don’t know that I could hook my brain up to a dream machine and conjure up a better glass of beer than this.

this is (as far as i’m concerned) as close to perfection as any beer will ever be.

i was in love with the first batch, so when i heard another was out, i immediately went to my favorite local brew store (yankee spirits, south attleboro, mass...if you’ve never been, go), and picked up 6, i have 3 aging, the others were enjoyed on three different nights.

now this batch definately came out with a much more powerful aroma than the last batch, now when i say powerful, i don’t mean alcoholic smells, i just mean all the same smells from batch one were present, and much more potent

first, i poured it into a brandy (style) snifter glass (one of the ones that came with the rapscallion 4 packs for a while)

the pour was beautiful, dark, black, smooth, with small reddish/tan head, (which quickly died down) leaves a nice lacing on the glass.

i give it a swirl, a deep sniff BOOM! dark chocolate, marachino (spelling?) cherries, cappucino, alot like the first batch, but with more of a chocolate smell, and far more intense.

taste...beergasm! i never thought it could get any better than batch one, god damn i was wrong. beautiful, like someone made a sam smith’s imperial stout, but doubled everything in the recipe (besides the hops), and added chocolate covered cherry flavoring.

so many suddle complexities...

if you clear the palate, and do not smoke, eat, or drink (with the exception of water of course) anything for an hour beforehand, and enjoy one of these over the course of an hour, i swear, you will discover a new flavor with every sip. espresso, cherry, chocolate covered cherry, rasin, plum, dark chcocolate, milk chcocolate, dried apricot, and cherry syrup, along with the light background flavors of brandy, bourbon and rum...it makes me shiver, i am in love with a beer.

the only huge difference in flavor is that batch one had the finish of a real strong imperial stout (as i expected), this one has the finish of a red wine...not necessarily an aftertaste, so much as just a little hint of a red wine flavor at the tail end of every sip, which is quickly replaced by a light chocolatey inhale

mouthfeel, thick, lightly syrupy, like a beer shake.

drinkability, simple...sip it, love it, enjoy it, it will last at least an hour, if you try to drink it like you would a brown session ale, or a sam adams boston lager, you will ruin the experience....but for such a strong sipper, this is perfect as far as drinkability, especially with such a low carbonation level.

Glass: snifter Purchased at: OakTree BuyRite, South Plainfield, NJ (Thanks, Jason and Matt) Price: $8.99 Size: 12 fl oz ABV: 16% IBU: no frikkin idea Estimated Calories:300 C RateBeer Rating: 99 Aural: easy opening, little carbonation, dark, pretty pour Aroma 10 out of 10 Intensity: strong Balance: sharp Impression: amazing Malt Aroma: rye, pumpernickel, sugar, cinnamon toast, peanut, chocolate, coffee Hops Aroma: moldy mud, marigold, tea, tar Other Aroma: alcohol burn Notes: A rich and deeply layered scent - if the taste is anything like the scent, I’m in for a ride. Appearance 5 out of 5 Color: black Clarity: opaque Head Retention: wispy Lace: poor Notes: A bold, deep black, sans light, plus wispy tan head. Beautiful. Flavor 10 out of 10 Intensity: strong Balance: amazingly balanced Impression: nice Malt Flavor: wheat, barley, pumpernickel, chocolate syrup, whole wheat toast, peanuts, toffee, dark chocolate, espresso roast, dark coffee Hops Flavor: dry dirt, cilantro, peppers, tar resin, lemon Other: alcohol Notes: The taste is unequaled in stouts. It has an acidic burn of alcohol, deep, dark rich chocolate, amber waves of grain, plums, apricots, ginger, soy, spinach. It’s amazing. Palate 5 out of 5 Mouthfeel Sensation: drying warming Body: full Carbonation: average Finish Length: long Intensity: strong Balance: bitter Notes: Bitter depth of finish is one of the key reasons to find this beer again. It is murky with depth and history of flavors. General Impression: 20 out of 20 Craftmanship: excellent Freshness: fresh Personal Taste: loved Notes: Perhaps outshines even Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast.

Batch 3. Poured dark with a nice head. Aroma was sweet. Tasted swet with a hint of malt. Overall this is a great full bodied beer.

Batch 2 Astonishing. Pours thick and oily with a decent head. Scents of chocolate and coffee. Black as night. From the first sip, you know this one is not to be taken lightly. YOU MUST LET THIS BEER WARM UP! A full Nelson on the palate with plums and raisins, roasty malt lurking behind well-balanced bitterness and similarly subtle alcohol warmth. As the beer warmed slightly, its flavor changed and improved with every few degrees. "Crafty shape shifter", indeed! One of the best beers I have ever had, and probably ought to be the last of the evening.

First off, a huge thanks to Ohio Dad for this one!! It’s no secret that I love big beers, be they stouts or IIPAs or anything, for that matter. The pour was blacker than a raven, so black, in fact, that it seemed to glisten in the glass. The head was minimal, as expected, and perhaps the brownest I’ve seen. The aroma was huge, with tons of dark malt, chocoff, Black strap molasses, rum-soaked plum pudding, some cherry, and some oaky bourbon. The palate was extremely dense, like molasses, throwing huge taste sensations at the taste buds. I got chocoff, dark malt, molasses, rummy black forest cake, plums, prunes, and some maple syrup. This beer is huge. The only reason I am deducting a tenth is because the final swigs get a little on the cloyingly sweet, sticky, and hot side. This is very similar to the Samael’s in that regard. By way of comparison, I had an Impy the same weekend I drank this one that was a bit better holistically, and I will rate that one shortly (and that one is from Kalamazoo).

It poured like oil from the bottle, thick and oily looking with a brown head that settled like a true stout. The aroma was wild, nose like a glass of wine, piney, sweet smelling, no hint of hops. Flavor is sticky sweet, you can really taste the cherry and grape. Chocolate notes. You can barely taste the malt and it surprisingly has no roasted taste. The mouthful is overwhelming, no heat, but you can definitely sense the heavy alcohol in this. The finish is clean, flat thick, sweet. Amazing beer. Doesn’t look like a beer, taste like a beer or feel like a beer. This is truly something else.

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.