Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Boulder, Colorado USA

Rating #666. Batch 4, Bottle 2006. Dark earthy brown with a nice lasting cover of light tan head. Big alcohol soaked fruits, raisins, plums, nice maltiness for the aroma. For the taste, it has a nice syrupy feel, brown sugar and more raisins, plums, then a warming but balanced alcohol finish.

Bottle - Batch 6 (2008) - Poured a dark reddish-amber in color with an almost nonexistent head and very low carbonation. Aroma is malty and sweet with dark fruit (prunes, dates and raisins), bready Belgian-style yeast and brown sugar. Flavor is malty sweet with *lots* of alcohol up front. Once you get past that, the flavors of the dark fruit and brown sugar come through. This would be even an over the top barley wine with the alcohol tonnage that this beer carries. Mind you, I like very strong beers and I do understand that being "The Beast" carries a powerful connotation, but this is not subtle at all and it does detract from what would otherwise be a favorable overall experience... the flavors are very good, but the alcohol is much too apparent and/or overwhelming. There are quite a few other beers I’ve had that approach this beer’s ABV strength that do a much better job of hiding this. Maybe some cellaring would mellow it out some... Too bad as it shows a lot of promise and I really do think that Avery is a top notch brewer.

Red in color with a decent head. Malt and caramel aromas with some prune like aromas as well. Sweet very sweet malty flavor of candy sugar, raisons, molasses, and prunes. Very thick body.

Bottle, Batch 5. Dark amber pour with a medium size head. Wonderful aroma of caramel, raisins, sweet malt with very little alcohol coming through. Alcohol definitely comes through in flavor however, considering it’s 16.42% it’s very easy to drink. A little sip rolled over the tongue goes a long way with this one. Notes of sweet malt, raisin, brown sugar, caramel, some bitter hops and, as I said, alcohol. As a few others have stated, this definitely comes across more as a barley wine to me. Just one with more hops and alcohol. Damn good stuff!

Batch 5 (2007): Cellared for 12 months. Pours a DARK amber, with a massive, slick, frothy ivory head. Very nice looking beer. Aroma is excellent and complex...heavy pit fruit, dates, port and strawberry, with just a touch of alcohol. Flavor is extra sweet, malt, brown sugar, and port. Palate is light/med bodied, slightly fizzy. Overall this was an interesting brew, but too sweet for my tastes. Would make a fantastic after-dinner alternative to brandy, port or scotch. The sweetness and richness of this beer is a bit much for one person. Can probably be shared amongst a couple.

Bottle batch 4. Red/brown clear body, with a small off-white head. Aroma i dark fruits, especially raisins, caramel, yeast and alcohol. Flavor is dark fruits, brown sugar/caramel, sweet malt and alcohol. This is a very very nice beer. I love it.

Aroma hits the nose as soon as the bottle I opened, before I even pour it into the glass. Extremely enticing aroma of appleas, dark fruits, bread yeast, malts, spices, and strong alcohol. Smell of honey present after a minute or so as well. The appearance is very murky brown, very thin off-white head. The flavor is very sweet and fruity up front, honey, brown sugar, almost like a marinade. The finish is strictly an alcohol burn, which lingers in the whole mouthand is overall enjoyable. Very little in the way of hops. This really strikes me as more of a barley wine. Very enjoyable. The alcohol lends an enjoyable quality to the taste and aroma of this beer, and is not at all overpowering, as it was for the Mephistopheles).

Batch 5 bottle at my 1000 Rates Celebratory tasting, bought at Ølbutikken in September 2008 and shared with Mes and tashi. Smells of salt & vinegar crisps, in a really good way! (turns to just malt) Wow, barley wine, to the max. The full court press from the malt, lots of warmth, a sweet aroma. However, the elephant in the room is the alcohol content. It swamps the flavours, compared to say JW Lees Harvest Ale. It doesn’t keep giving new flavours in the way that I feel that the brewer could have achieved the same with 9 or 10%. A very American beer - big is better.