Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

Black as black can be on the pour, thick head that lingered for a while. Aroma of coffee, and some bittersweet chocolate. The alcohol does seep through in both taste and aroma, but it doesn’t overpower anything. Flavor is quite interesting, coffe, some nice bitterness, cherries and other dark fruits. As the beer warms up, you do get a bit of an alcohol burn that would probably mellow nicely with some age on it.

Pours thick and black with a tan head. Aroma of coffee, chocolate, rum, and malts. Oily feel left in the mouth. Powerful flavor-of chocolate, espresso, rum and alcohol. Bit too much of a hot edge. Interested in seeing how this ages.

I tried this the day after trying Avery’s potent Grand Cru of the same line, and was much more impressed by this offering. This beer concealed its potent (16%) alcohol content far better than the Grand Cru, was far more drinkable, and offered a much more pleasant drinking experience. The beer poured only slightly viscous into my goblet, with a small amount of tan head despite a pretty hard pour. I got a lot of toffee in the aroma, with a surprisingly mild amount dark "burned pizza crust" character and only a hint of roasting coffee. Flavor was also surprisingly mild, smooth and balanced. Flavor was very complex, with notes of raisin, toffee, and coffee all intermingling in a very harmonius way. I don’t think it’s easy to make a beer this high in alcohol this drinkable, and I would say this beer is a brewing achievement, although it makes me think far less of its sister product, the Grand Cru.

It is lamentable, I think, that the whole of the earth has been explored. The bygone days of adventurers and explorers will forever remain in textbooks and in the dreams of cartographers. Still, there is room for us to do more than wax romantic of the golden days; we still find legends and precious artifacts even where man has erected civilization. At least, I did so, and in a most unexpected place. My family and I were shopping at Whole Foods, enjoying the free samples and gawking at the elegant displays of high life culinary treats. After awhile I sauntered off to the affiliated wine store and started browsing their beer selection, assured from past experiences that nothing exciting would be present on the shelf. As I scanned the bottom rows I came across the Avery stouts, covered in their trademark non-descript silver visages. As I skimmed the selection my brain triggered an alarm flare, and reversed course until I was once again examining the Avery beers. Sure enough, there were two bottles of Mephistopheles, sitting placidly in their own overlooked glory. I gathered them up in my arms like a father cradling his long lost children, purchased them from the cashier (who was sad to see them go) and left, my feet jubilantly dancing in between steps. The trip from the store to home was a quick one, filled with all the fanfare of a parade, marking the victory of my acquisition. At home the beer matched up to its reputation, proving why all the wise Ratebeerians were clamoring for it. It’s rusty red ferrous soil colored head is an elegant crown to the thick, oily textured and unctuously black base of the beer. Base and pensive flavors like soy sauce, licorice, molasses, smoke and even broccoli rule the aroma, wrapped in the strong smell of the alcohol. It slithers down the tongue creepily, leaving its distinct trail of earthen flavors. The mouth feel is thick and full, and edges from the tongue out towards the cheeks in an effort to effuse to freedom. It begins with an easy flowing semi-sweetness, then crashes into a chasm of hickory flavors. Also present are sweet raisins and a distinct fig taste. This is indeed a legendary beer, worthy of the attention that so many adventure seekers are giving to it. It proves that we need not gather our spelunking equipment or apply to NASA to find long sought after treasures or push the boundaries of our human understanding. This gem from Avery was only a half hour drive away, and did all that and more.

Rating 500. Someone better tell me congrats in the forums, or else I’ll be pissed. 12oz, Bottled in JAN 2006, Batch 1. Pours an oily black with a 1/2 finger dark brown head. Aroma of grapes and juicy raisins at the same time, a little soy, red wine, dark chocolate, nondescript wood and earthiness, ETOH, light roasty malts and coffee, some brown sugar sweetness. Woo, complex. Flavor is much more sweet (brown sugar and molasses) than expected (the whole flavor, really)--almost like an English barleywine--with some soy and booze coming on fairly strong . Finish is boozy with earth and wood, fairly sweet. After the finish the roasty coffee bitterness shows up, though not terribly strong. This is very different from most of the impy stouts I’ve tried. I wondered why the roasty malts and coffee were so far in the background in the aroma, now I know. Full bodied, moderate carbonation for the style. Very good, just not what I was expecting.

Bottle -Batch 1 (01/06). Pours syrupy black in my snifter with a frothy bubbly light-brown head. Aroma is very malty with hints of dark chocolate, roasted nuts and alcohol. Initial sweet flavor has kind of bite but for 15.1% the alcohol is pretty well hidden. Each sip it seems I taste something different like licorice, cherry and wine. This was a very satisfying sipping brew sitting outside on my lanai in Florida on a Friday evening.

Pours black with a small dark brown head. Strong aroma of booze, raisins, coffee, and some slight chocolate. Flavor follows the aroma quite well with lots of raisin and coffee, a bit of vanilla, and warming alcohol.

Bottle, Batch 2. Pours an oily/syrupy black color with tan head. Aroma is roasted malt, fruit, and caramel. Taste is also an explosive blend of dark fruit, caramel, chocolate, and coffee. This is definitely a beer to savor with 16% abv. Finish is long and goes from sweet to bitter. Very complex beer.