Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

Thanks to KAggie97 for the beer. Bottled 2006. The bottle looks really good. The beer in the glass also, quite dark, not much foam. The beer starts strong-alcoholic, quite malty. Warming and intense finish, sweet notes. Very good beer!

bottle - batch 3 ’05. solid Belgian Strong / Barley Wine hybrid... this stuff is really tasty.... a sipper for sure and is quite sweet. The sugars really come through strong. It pours a deep red/brown with a 1/4" head. Huge aromas coming out of the bottle and the glass. Lots of candy sugar, molasses and some dark fruit notes... but mainly sweet sugar. Huge full body, with the alcohol making itself known on the sides. Sticky and sweet on the tip of the tongue, while more strong on the back. The finish is almost numbing and sticks with you for a bit. Overall, an excellent offering from Avery... this is not something you would want to drink often given the pure sweetness to it, but occasionally it is a wonderful treat.

Bottle from 2004 shared by strelnikov. Thanks!
Pours a rich, murky brownish color and smells very sweet, aged and rounded. Taste is smooth, tart, maple like sweetness and the 18.1% ABV is hidden surprisingly well by this point. A twinge of alcohol in the end, but not bad. Rich syrupy body with light carbonation and an intense sweetness in the flavor. Drinkability is pretty low, however. Interesing brew.

Have to agree with the last rater, More of a barley wine than a belguim strong ale.Very strange, a little to over the top. Not sure what they were trying to do. But tasty anyway.

12 oz bottle. Does not state which batch, but it does say it was bottled in 2006. Belgian strong ale? More like a barley wine. Where do I begin with this one, awesome beer. Pours a cloudy brown with a big frothy head, huge lacing. Aroma of alcohol, sweet malt, and molasses. Flavor is similiar, but much more complex. The commercial description is dead on, flavors of Belgian candy sugar, raisins, dates, etc. I loved this beer. The ABV on the bottle was 14.6% and it was almost undetectable. Velvety mouthfeel. I am going to keep a few 2006 bottles cellared for a few more years.

I’m not sure which batch this beer is, but it’s probably Batch 5. Doesn’t really matter though. This is such a teeth gnashing, snarling beer that no amount of change could produce a subtle difference in the recipe from year to year. I mean, this beer is actually liquid insane. I had a friend who swore off beer just by sipping The Beast, no joke. At one point in the night the beer actually rammed the wall of the glass and threw itself over the edge and onto the floor. Luckily I had a rag, blessed by the regional cardinal and imbued with holy water, which I used to balk the slinking puddle of booze before it escaped under my door. Jeez. The body is a dark, burnt crimson with a misleading soft, fuzzy cedar colored head. The aroma is fruity and verdant, and very appealing with its harvest of fig, cranberries, raspberries, Coca cola, dark chocolate, teriyaki sauce, steamed brocolli and wet brown sugar. The taste is equally powerful and rich. It may even be too rich. Raisin, soy sauce, copious handfuls of brown sugar, all-spice, teriyaki, smoked apple wood, green apple skins and a tiny pinch of cinnamon in a ruinous dervish of buzzing, cacophonous and swarming carbonation.

Apple cider colored pour. Decent lightened, tan head. Semi-frothy. Huge alcohol, fruit medley nose. Apples, apricots, peaches, some cherries, and molasses. I thought that I was on to something of a barleywine. Stop! This is where our journey into this brew should end. Overwhelming sweet flavor. Hell..this is a bottle of molasses with a touch of water. The alcohol macerated apples and peaches were there too, as well as a splash of cherry almond, but the honey, molasses and dried fruit was over the top. I must commend Avery on the attempt to create something big and strong. However, somewhere along the way..... they lost their minds. I drank it all...I made myself drink it all. At $9 a bottle I felt I didn’t have much choice. Never again.

This is an amazing Grand Cru. It’s balanced is a bit swayed toward a sweetness and alcohol presence, but it is still excellent. It pours a dark amber color with a strong raisin and cany sugar aroma. It has The taste is very sweet with the same flavors present at swallow as are in the aroma. The alcohol presence warms as it goes down and makes up for the lack of head and carbonation.