Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

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

2004 (18.1%) bottle. Pours clear reddish amber with little off white head. The aroma involves some sweet tobacco, plums, apricots, perfume, caramel, raisins, and honey. The flavor is not as complex as I’d expected, but good - sweet malt like crazy, ginger, honey, alcohol, caramel, and malt bitterness. The mouthfeel is moderate and warming. Overall this is a ridiculously big beer that is very good when shared with many people.

A Mes rate. Bottle thanks hugely to Casper. A lovely pale amber brown colour with a good beige head. A totally bonkers smell of salt and vinegar crisps. Huge, almost sickly, malt and obviously some alcohol but not as hardcore as you would expect. Jesus Christ this is a glorious tasting beer. It’s a barley wine with some serious knobs on. Massive malty hit, gorgeous chewy alcohol, huuuuge hop complexity, slight card and a fantastic caramel and bitter finish. The flavours are utterly fantastic but the alcohol kills it far too much. Although it’s hugely complex, it would benefit so much from a little restraint. I know that’s not what it’s about but I don’t think it deserves any plus points from being labelled acurately. Cut the abv in half and this has incredible depth and barrel loads of excitement. As it is, it’s just an over the top booze fest. Very good indeed but a far cry from the journey you get from a JW Lees harvest or a Westy. To sum it all up, amazing stuff, could be even better.

Batch 6, 2008 bottle. Poured a nice amber color with nittle head. Aroma was HUGE malt. You had to pick your way through the malt to get to the underlying smells but there were some nice hints of fruit, molasses, some cherry, some good yeast phenols. . . there was a lot going on here. Unfortunately a little of that got killed in the flavor because of the alcohol. The burn from the alcohol killed a little of the subtle flavor of this beer. It was not as bad after a few sips, but the first impression was pure boozy. Mouth feel was super thick.

Wow. Amber pour with a half-inch off-white head. Big malty nose with a spicy, floral character. Rich and complex flavors of dark fruits, sugar, honey, molasses and tons of other sweet things. Big alcohol bite. Great beer.

2005 Bottle from Eagle River Liquor in Fulton,Il. Pours murky nutmeg brown with tons of light tan little particulates, a decent sized beige head that fades after a minute or so to form a skin, and leaves specks of lacing. Aroma is full of dark fruits, yeast, roast, caramel, apricot, molasses, date bread, candied nuts, floral and spice hops. Oh and of course a decent amount of sweet boozy alcohol, but not too much for the abv of this bad boy. Flavor is sweet, very sweet, has a candied yams with tons of roasted marshmallows taste that I noticed in Samael, and Kaiser as well. I love candied yams so thats o.k. by me. Molasses, baby carrots, prunes, raisins, dates, candi sugar, a hint of roast, honey, plenty of sweet grainy malt, toasted french bread, pitted fruits, fried apples, floral and spicy hops, plenty of peppery yeast and some musty wet leaf notes. Theres more in there, I just dont have the ambition to type more. Obviously a comlex beer, the age might have something to do with the overally smoothness. Definitely a sipper and a good warmer, probably 1000 calories a bottle too. I liked this beer alot. Probably too syrupy, spicy and sticky for most.

Sampled at the brewery, the batch 2 at 18,1%, cloudy amber hue, with a thick beige head, yeasty, sweet honeyed caramel malt, spicy, fruity, raisiny, date nose, with some alcoholic effluvia, hints of candied apricot, orange peel esters, with a molasses, candi sugar, fruitcake aroma follows through a full-bodied palate with a yeasty, sweet fruity raisiny, figgy, plummy, caramelized, toasted malt , syrupy warm character, with some date, sultana, dark molasses, candi sugar flavors, with a mild flowery hop leafy, candied tangerine,orange peel, apricot accent, leading towards a malty, raisiny, plummy, warming finish.

12oz bottle-pours a thin tan head and pink tint and red/orange color. Aroma is sweet dark malt-molasses/ashy, dark fruit-prune/raisin/fig, alcohol. Taste is very sweet cane sugar/candy sugar, woody, sweet dark malt-molasses/ashy, dark fruit-prune/raisin/fig, alcohol, some hops partially offsets the sweet. Occasional. Thanks jwc215 for picking this out.

Bottle from Total Wine. Brown pour. Aromas of vanilla, caramel, raisins, honey and good solid malt with a hint of hops. Flavor is sweet with caramel, toffee, dried fruits and a good hit of hops.