Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

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.

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.

At the 2007 Big Beer, Belgians, & Barleywines Festival in Vail. OUCH!!! My god. This is as black as my soul. The brown head is dramatically perched atop this abyss. Here’s how freakin’ awesome this beer is: it kicks ass at a big beer festival where all the other beers usually kick ass. This is like a coffee/molasses/vanilla Jello shot. On wheels. Flying down a dead-end street at 90 miles an hour. I got a slight bit of soy, but mostly a killer roasted tobacco blast of alcohol followed by a sweet creamy wave of malt smoothness. Lord have mercy.

Bottle shared with Blankboy, Hogtown Harry, and Dave, courtesy of a very generous Harry. Very interesting milk chocolate aroma - no booze. Natural cocoa sweetness, wood, and some hops. Impressive. Pitch black, decent brown head, bubbles near the surface. Very frothy creamy mouthfeel. Taste: first impression was lots of roast and very sweet. Mid-to end: more roast, lots of coffee, licorice and dark fruit. Alcohol is present and eye watering / nose hair burning but compliments and is balanced. Very sweet, almost syrup like, but again, does not detract somehow. Wow.

I remember cracking this that merry night, pouring it, then sipping that first sip and knowing that i had run into something great! Pours with a big beautiful brown lasting head....lacing is all that!-coco head sticks....Alcohol is very well masked for such a large abv....quite sweet!....not much balanced when it comes to sweet/bitters but for a massive beer like this, it doesn’t detract....is very intense + delicous....mouthfeel is amazing...sometimes you have to spoil yourself-..spoil yourself-..spoil yourself.......

Third or fourth time I’ve tasted this and I’m pulled deeper into it every time. Everything about it is exemplory and seductive.<P> Beer pours an opaque, warm, dark-brown color with a small, light-brown colored, frothy, mostly lasting head.<P> The aroma is a sweet, dark, plush wall: Heavy malt notes of sweet, deeply roasted grain, almost-burned caramel, milk chocolate and strong coffee; Pointed moderate hop notes of pine, a light note of herb; Light yeasty notes of fresh bread and basement; Myriad miscellaneous, intoxicatingly pretty notes that shift and develop with every passing minute—raisin, rum, sherry dried stone fruit, wood, ginger, vanilla. There’s a faint note of alcohol—but not 15% worth! This wicked thing could have my knees out from under me before I realized what I;’d done to myself.<P> The flavor is very heavily sweet, heavily bitter, lightly acidic with a long, moderately citric-acidic, lightly bitter, moderately sweet finish with a gorgeous amount of tummy-warmth.<P> The body is full, the texutre is velvety-syrupy and the carbonation is soft. Very lovely and very dangerous! Bravo Avery!

wow;what a stout!!!! dark black color with chocolate-coffee colored head. nose of raisons,maple and who knows what else! very sweet,creamey mouthfeel with a taste of sherry wine and hugh alcohol as it warms up. WHEW! THIS IS GREAT!!!!

Avery has been putting out some pretty impressive beers, and Mephistopheles Stout, does not dissapoint. This beer as an Imperial Stout is huge in every way, and reminds me much of Dogfish Head World Wide Stout. Pours to an ink black color, with a slight tan head, that fades, and a soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is complex and intoxicating. Vinous aromas of sherry, and sour cherry, marry with aromas of licorice, espresso coffee, and peppery alcohol. The palate is slick and oily, with flavors of prune, raisin, fig, licorice, sherry, and espresso. This beer finishes with more huge vinous, prune, fig, and espresso flavors up front, then ends with lots of warming, peppery alcohol that lingers. At 15.1% abv, this is a type of beer you will want to slowly sip, and savor with a good book or movie. Phenomenal winter brew, and a really fantastic Imperial Stout.