Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

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.

Rating #100! Poured pitch black with no head. Smelled like rum soaked fruits and caramel. Taste was the same with some chocolate , coffee and smoke. There was a taste that hit the back of my throat that I couldn’t put my finger on. Really sticky, stuck to the side of the glass. Big and nice beer.

12 oz bottle. Pours a pitch black with a half-finger mahogany head. The aroma is of coffee, malt, chocolate, raisins, etc. The flavor is VERY sweet and creamy of roasted coffee and chocolate. Smooth with medium carbonation and a very apparent warming (alcohol). Very good.

Bottle. Batch 2. Wow, nothing subtle about this beer. Charcoal is the strongest aroma after the alcohol. With that is toasted, dark chocolate, strong coffee, molasses, resin and leather. Head is small, milk chocolate colored, between creamy and fizzy, mostly diminishing and has good lacing. Color is black. Flavor starts heavily sweet and the extra long finish is moderately sweet, lightly acidic and heavily bitter. Palate is full, syrupy with soft carbonation and it coats a snifter like thinned motor oil. It also finishes heavily alcoholic. Definitely a "take the rest of the night off" kind of beer.

Bottle, Batch 3. Pours like viscous, black motor oil. The dark tan head is abundant and easy to stir up with a swirl. The lacing is just gorgeous. The aroma is very dry and smoky with hints of molasses and coffee. There are subtle plums and cherries. Alcohol is pretty noticeable in the after-nose and creates a warming sensation in the sinuses. Wow, the flavour has a lot going on here. It starts off with a nice, well-rounded mixture of sweet molasses and light-citrus sweet plums and cherries. As it proceeds to the esophagus, the alcohol becomes very apparent. It almost tastes of rum. Towards the finish, very bitter cocoa almost instantly massacres the taste buds as lots of smoke accompanies. The finish is very smoky with lots of coffee and cocoa. Sweet molasses and dark fruit become overpowered, but still noticeable. Alcohol creates a warming sensation. Mmm, this is such a big beer.

Batch #2 bottle, picked up from Blue Max, in Burnsville, MN. Pours an opaque dark brown brew with an awesome tan head that slowly dissolves. Very thick and chewy lacing. Aroma is sweet molasses, tawny port, dark Belgian chocolate, vanilla, some currants and plums. Taste is, oooh man, smooth, dark chocolate, over ripe oranges, and dark blackberries. Palate is lightly carbonated, thick, chewy, and so much warmth from the alcohol. Finish is a sweet bitterness that makes this sipping type well remembered. Well done!

Thick black with a tan nice head. Great aromas of coffee and chocolate. Smooth on the palate. Rich complex flavors of smoky malt, chocolate and alcohol. Definitely sipping time with this alcohol content.