Avery Out of Bounds Stout

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

Almost black pour with a big tan head. Aroma is of coffee, malts, cocoa. Flavor is sort of metallic malts, roast, coffee and bitter chocolates. Body is a tad thin but still an overall decent stout.

12 oz. bottle - jet black with almost no head upon pouring; sweet malty aromas that drinks smooth w/ a bitter aftertaste

Appearance: Pours dark chestnut brown with some faint reddish hues around the edges. Sturdy tan head settles slowly with sporadic lacing throughout. Smell: Full of French Roast coffee and rich carob. Handful of black walnuts. Boiled sugar. Also, there’s a vague, but noticeable blueberry fruitiness. Taste: Gah! The bitter, roasted flavors border on tasting unpleasantly ’burnt’; its like charcoal, and I find it thoroughly contemptable. Don’t look for sweetness in the flavor, for you will find none. Mouthfeel: Medium-thin, though some ashy qualities keep it from going down smooth. The finish overshoots past simply being dry and ends up considerably coarse. Drinkability: Well, I suppose. "But," I’d quickly retort, "There’s a vast world of superior stouts out there to be had."

Bottle. 12 fl. oz. Black beer with frothy, tan head and good lacing. Roasted malt aroma of coffee grinds and chocolate. Nice, smooth, full bodied mouthfeel with a dry finish. Flavor is light sweet with a heavy bitter end.

12 0z bottle. First a musty then a roasty chocolate coffee smell. Pour is dark and opaque. Inspired, good dark beer impact. Not a really hard hitter but it does have a gallant back of throat burnt impact. carbonation is very good for this type of beer. Overall, not as good as Bell’s Kalamazoo or Yards Love Stout. Better than Old Dominion and Youngs Double Chocolate. Bitter chocolate interesting initial input but develops into an almost distrustful bitter finish, nearly impy. Repeat, good carbonation on the palate. IMHO this makes for a better beer over similar beers that are flat.

I’m not sure if I got a bad bottle of this or not. It had an extremely old, sour coffee aroma and taste to it that seemed off. At this point I can’t recommend this, but I’m hoping it was just a fluke. Avery products haven’t let me down yet, so I’ll pick up another bottle some other time and rerate.

Perhaps I did this beer a diservice by trying it after my first Lion Stout (which I was very impressed by). It struck me as occupying a weird middle ground - its flavor was neither sweet nor exceptionally dry. Depending what kind of stout I’m in the mood for (roasty or sweet) I could find better examples of both. This beer satisfies a need for stouts I just don’t have. This beer pours an attractive inky black with lots of fluffy white head that fades on the surface of the liquid, but clings aggressively to the glass. Aroma is very lightly sweet and roasted, like coffee with condensed milk in it. Flavor is rather roasty, but occupies an unsatisfying ground that is neither exceptionally dry and roasty (no "burned pizza crust") nor sweet like the aroma would indicate. Mouthfeel is not bad, but just a bit watery up front. Not bad, but not great.

A very good Stout. Dark in color and rich in taste. Molassas, figs and chocolate. Also coffee and carmel can be detected. Nice head and lacing. Just a little dry which adds to the experence.