Avery Mephistopheles Stout

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

do you know when you can be sure your steppparents like you ? It’s when they bring you a Mephistopheles Stout from Washington DC back to Europe ! - pours a pitch black colour under a little, brown tainted foam; a stupendous, rich and complex aroma invades the nose: dried fruits (mainly raisins), alcohol, anise and wood escort the strong notes of black chocolate; roasted but not too much; thick and enormously tasty, very sweet and full-bodied, strong bitterness; long creamy, toasted chocolatey finish with hints of cherry, licorice and molasses and a huge warming alcohol kick - this stuff is gigantic, excessive, too sweet and definitely lacking of balance but I love it !

It’s not every day that you get to have 2 beers in the Ratebeer top 15. Sandwiched around a Stone Vertical Epic 05-05-05, I had a Alesmith Speedway Stout and then the Avery Mephistopheles. Not bad, eh? Smells a lot like the Speedway. Has a sweet, hop aroma. Fully opaque body with a good-sized, light brown head. Excellent lace. Alcohol is very pronounced. In fact, although both this and the Speedway had strong alcohol at initial MF, that for the Avery lingers. There is more sweetness and some sourness perhaps than in the Speedway. Somewhat chalky. Clearly elite.

Super dense black, thick creamy lasting dark tan head. Rich and very complex nose of chocolate covered cherry, mocchachino, currant, almond biscotti, and dark bread, with faint smoky tones. Intense and bold flavors of roasted chocolate, port, candied berries and nuts, and mild espresso, with a soft kiss of hop bitterness late. Sweet, yet not annoyingly so. ABV is well hidden, warming, and not noticed until standing. Yikes! Massive full bodied, soft carbonation, bittersweet finish. Certainly worth the price of admission in my book. Right up there with Dark Lord and DFH WWS....

Bottle shared with blankboy, HogTownHarry, jerc and tupalev - courtesy of blankboy. Deep black/brown colour with a small mocha head. Big, warm, sweet aroma - lots of malt, molasses, coffee and chocolate, licorice and a bit of dark fruit. Flavour is warm and sweet as well, with a hint of spiciness from the alcohol, along with notes of chocolate, rum, black cherry, coffee, vanilla and plum. Hot damn, this is good!

Pours dark black with a thick brown head. Aroma is screaming with a roasted chocolate coffee aroma similar to Expedition. A little alcohol present in the nose. Roasted almost burnt flavor up front. Surprisingly sweet palate. Dark fruit and roasted flavor in the aftertaste makes you wanting more. Coffee, chocolate, and licorice pop up if you taste for them. The alcohol is well disguised but it warms you up from below. This is one phenomenol beer.

Pours with a fine brown head and a thick tar black body. Aroma is extreme but still very complex. Candied sweet with obvious characters of both The Beast and Samaels (same yeast?) but also a nice roastyness to back the sweetness up and a warming alcohol note that isn’t overwhelming - almost like a beer liquor. Flavor is warming from the alcohol as well, I can feel it gliding down my throat. Sweet and candied with penetrating roast and chocolate notes and a good hoppyness hiding behind the sweetness. Very chevy texture, you can really feel that this is a big one! One hell of a sipping beer and not for the weak hearted! Thanks a bunch Adam for going out of your way to get me this :-) To me, a masterpiece.

A foreboding label portends danger ahead. Out pours a sinister black elixir impenetrable by light and topped by a small brown head. The senses are assaulted by complex, multifarious aromas: dark chocolate, tart cherries, molasses, port, anise, vanilla, citrus zest, honey, roasted coffee. But wait, there’s more if the nose is willing to spend the time trying to unravel the web of essences wafting up from the glass. Cognac, prunes, hazelnut. Enticed to drink, one finds the brew full bodied, creamy, smooth. It gives a warm alcohol feel as it cascades down the throat. The aromas manifest themselves in the flavor, which is complex, rewarding, and seducing. Much is made of "doing the Trinity" with Avery. Now is the time to do the unholy trinity of The Beast, Samael, and Mephistopheles. Avery wisely bottled them in 12 ouncers and not bombers.

This was a 16% ABV version which must make it a 2007 bottling. It poured about as black as you can imagine and only a very bright light in the back showed it to be actually a garnet red that reminded me of looking through a welders mask. It raised a very robust brown head, with huge bubbles and thick lacing. Amazingly attractive for black colored beer. The nose is powerful, with ripe fruit like cherry roasted malts, nuts, chocolate, and some coffee. The mouthfeel is like velvet, and the flavors are amazingly complex with a huge amount of ripe fruit. The finish is long and bitter, and the 16% ABV is very well hidden. This is a remarkable beer, for sipping only. I loved it.