Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

Bottle. Poured brown in color with tan head. Aroma was sweet, malty, and oak. Taste was similar with strong alcohol finish. Maybe a little too strong for my liking. Just ok.

A lovely SWEET and malty beer from the good people at Avery makers of one of the world’s great brown ales. Stylistically I would put this close to a barley wine.

Amber and clear. Has an off-white head, mostly lasting. Aroma is malty, sherry, caramel, alcohol, real strong. Flavor is heavy sweet, moderate bitter. Warming alcohol.

12 oz. bottle from Binny’s (Orland Park, IL) 2006 Batch 4 vintage shared with a friend. This brew poured a very interesting browish red with tan head and a nose that could be smelled a long way away. Aromas of sweet sugars, dried fruits, and alcohol. A sugary sweet mess on first smell. However, this beer was pretty deep on further inspection. A very sweet (Not quite cloying though) brew, filled with dark dried fruits, sugary candy, honey and molasses, but with a decent bitter hop finish that wins me back. I personally didn’t feel this alcohol was hidden. The sweetness didn’t hide it, although I expected it to. Sweet malt heavy but vindicated by a persistant bitter hop finish A very interesting beer that I am sure ages uniquely. Cheers!

Bottle, batch 2, 2004. Sampled summer 2008.
Reddish deep amber, a little carb at first provides a tan head which then fades fast. On the nose, raisins, butterscotch, very malty and sweet, alcohol, impressions of brandy. This seems to have aged alright. Malty and sweet flavor, a little spicy, candi sugar and alcohol are apparent. Still had some carb, verging on syrupy.

12 oz. bottle, batch 5. Pours a nice creamy tan head, good brown colors, nice lacing....nose very complex with malts yeasts, phenols, molasses, raisin, cherry....tastes initially of molasses then the fruit flavors, with a huge load of sweetness, and finally hops come in leading to hop bitter finish...heavy on the tongue...alcohol present but hidden as in a sherry. There is a problem with balance overall and this beer may be too big to predictably control.

2006: A massive beer that would compare favorably with some of the better aged sherries from Spain or Portugal. It is bold, imaginative and definately a sipper, 12oz is too much for a single person, and this beast should be shared with company so that it can sink it’s teeth into more people. almost Jamaican rum like - rich, colorful, flavorful, bold and assertive, incredible mouthfeel... a good substitute for a rum cocktail.

2008 bottle, batch 6. Pours deep amber brown, with a thin off-white head, little if any lacing. Strong odor of dates, raisins, alcohol, earth, and leather. Thick body, a little sticky. Intensely sweet carmel and alcohol flavor, almost a bourbon flavor, spicy, and fruity. Amazingly flavorful and potent.