Avery Oak Barrel Hog Heaven

On draft @ Falling Rock during ’06 GABF weekend Aroma is brown sugar, dark caramel, dark fruits, vanilla, & yeast. Taste is brown sugar, caramel, dark fruits to a lesser extent. Nice mouthfeel. Some oaky tannins at the end.

Draft @ Falling Rock: My least favorite of the Trinity series. The problem I had with it was the port was too subtle. Hazy red color with a tan head. The sweet and dark fruity malt had a nice mellowness from the aging. The aroma and flavor were the same. Light bitterness on the finish. Tasted fine but other than smoothing it out I don’t get too much from the barrel.

Pour is deep hazey ruddy colored with a thin off white head...smell is piney and smokey...taste is sweet and piney with a lot of the sharpness of regular Hog, subdued...the port imparted some more alcoholic sweetness I think...

Draft... Mid-GABF ’06 at the Falling Rock Tap House, Denver... Mostly clear amber ale with a small, creamy, off-white head. The complex aroma is woodsy, earthy, hoppy, malty and a bit acetic. The flavor is sweet, then woodsy and medium bitter. Full-bodied with a sticky mouthfeel and mellow carbonation. Lengthy, earthy, grassy finish.

Draft at Falling Rock. Super grassy/sawdust nose. Tawny brown body with a medium ring of bubbles and a patchy thin film of bubble. Almost no barrel aged characteristics that I can discern. The barrel aging seems to have mellowed the grassy Columbus hops and made the beer sweeter and slightly syrupy.

On tap at the Falling Rock. Small 8 oz pour...cloudy reddish/copper/brown..small off-white head. Nose was woody, some malt, but a decent smattering of hops. Yep, this spent time in a barrel....woodiness runs the show. Smooth, medium bodied with a lingering sweetness from beginning to end. Like the previous rater stated, it’s hard to find the port specific influences here. Maybe it’s because I’d been at the FR since 7pm (this stuff served at 10pm), but this didn’t impress me as much as I wanted it to.

On tap at the Falling Rock. Served with a thin white head atop a hazy copper beer. Lots of hops in the nose. Oak, but nothing that suggests port. Definate oak character in the flavor. Still lot of hoppiness. Sticky on the mouth feel. Not bad, but hoped for better.

Sampled at 4th Boulder Strong Ale Fest. the beer poured a clear, light amber with a small, frothy, off-white, mostly and quickly diminishing head. The aroma was lightly malty with notes of toasted grain and a moderate note of cookie and caramel; hoppy with moderate notes of apricot and resin/pine; yeasty with a light note of basement; miscellaneous notes of light peach, vanilla, cardboard and oak, and a heavy note of black tea. The flavor was heavily sweet, lightly bitter with an average-length, lightly sweet, trace acidic finish. Wonderfully redeeming strawberry and oak retros. The body was medium, the texture was watery-to-velvety and the carbonation was lively. My socks were left soundly on my feet, but this wasn’t bad.