Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

12 oz. bottle Batch 3 via my Secret Santa - Pours a murky light brown color with a thin light tan head. Little to none lacing or carbonation. Aroma is strong. Lots of dark esters, doughy malt, and spice. Flavor is fruity sweet. Full body. A real sipper. Alcohol isn’t overbearing with this one. Thanks Santa.

2005 12 oz. bottle courtesy of slob. Dude...you rock. Took me two nights to come up with anything approaching close to describe this critter. Pours a flat muddy brown with a huge fruity port wine like nose. No carbonation. Plums and some rasin like tones. I figured that this would relax me do I could get to sleep. I was right...and I was wrong. I stared at the ceiling attempting to figure out what I had tasted since this fell out of the normal mundane realm of nose/body hops/finish/ appearance hoo-hah. I figyred I’d give the second half of the bottle a go the following night after work. Complicated, sweet and deadly are my lowest common denominators with this sumbitch. Bert....you suck.

Name: The Beast
Date: 02/21/2004
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, RateBeer SE Gathering, 2004

clear copper, rich sweet malt aroma, big strong malt flavor, nice sweetness, thin body, warming from the first sip, spicy bitter finish, too much lingering alcohol in the finish
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Name: The Beast
Date: 01/07/2006
Vintage: 2004

huge sweet aroma and a bit alcoholic, very hot and alcoholic, huge sweetness, needs much more time
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Name: The Beast
Date: 08/20/2006
Source: tasting
Vintage: 2004

still all alcohol, picking up some carmel sweetness as the only thing that can fight the alcohol
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Name: The Beast
Date: 04/29/2007
Source: tasting
Vintage: 2004

still hot caramel
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Name: The Beast
Date: 11/25/2007
Mode: bottle
Source: tasting
Vintage: 2007

never gets better

Aroma: 5/10; Appearance: 5/10; Flavor: 4/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 8/20
Rating: 2.3/5.0
Drinkability: 5/10
Score: *4

2006 bottle. Insanely sweet - but for whatever reason, I like this! Maybe the year-plus of age did it some good. I didn’t have any high hopes at all - in fact, figured I would end up dumping it. But sure enough, the heavy warming effect is very enjoyable (why can’t I be drinking this in the snow instead of the summer sun!?!?) Flavor is mostly black currant with some toffee, honey, and caramel. What a surpise! I always seem to like the ass kicker beers but I can definitely see this being a love-hate.

Bottled in 2007. The aroma is huge - dark fruits, honey, spice, a few other things which are difficult to characterize. The color is bright orange ruby, and the bubbles are like champagne. The head is non-existent. Medium in body, very mild in carbonation. The flavors are raisin, dates, and definitely other things. It starts pretty sweet, and it ends not dry. Bottom line: Heavy alcohol, lots of sugars, lots of dark flavors; something like super barleywine. Killer.

2005 (Batch 3) fridged since purchase at my folks house in Washington DC. Pours thick reddish brown with a thin tan head. The nose was markedly large when i poured it and when I get close for a sniff, it smells like a sweet barley wine with something extra. The taste is sweet and full bodied with a deep alcoholic tickle. Its thick and syrupy but holds carbonation. Overall its a pretty interesting mix of beer types and its not half bad either.

im in love! sigh! batch 5 poured a cloudy dark brown with a small head that dissipates but lingered throughout our time together. the head was somewhat tan. the aroma hit me as soon as i opened the bottle and was even better in the glass. it smelled of dates, roasted malts, molasses, either honey or suger and alchohol. mouthfeel is quite syrupy and creamy very nice warming sensation on the throat but not strong. alchohol is ever present but is very smooth going down and goes away after a few sips the flavor ends up hiding the alchohol taste. i was left with a nice sweet taste on my lips, a slight bitterness on my tongue and a warmth in my throat that welcomed another mouthful.

Poured from a 06 bottle. Poured a deep garnett color with a fluffy off-white head. Strong nose of sugars and alcohol. Taste was equally as strong, with sweet candy flavors dominating with underlying fruit and oak notes. Alcohol was definitely present, and it would probably would be even more enjoyable if it was given time to age. Complex brew that probably isn’t everyones cup of tea, but I enjoyed it.