Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

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

Batch 4: The first thing I notice is a definate yest smell, then there is a more of a sweet brown sugar smell to it. It is a pleasent medium-dark brown color with small bubbles throughout. Medium head, which is slowly deminishing. As others have said, very sweet, almost too much so. The strong sweet taste sticks to your mouth for some time. It feels rather syrupy, almost like a slightly flat soda. Alcohol is slightly noticable, but nothing like the 14.6% would suggest. Altogether a good beer, but too much for one sitting. It would be good shared with a friend or two to cut down on the volume you drink.

Very, very sweet and syrupy. Almost sickening. Pours a dirty honey color. Very sweet and slimey, I don’t know if I can finish this without getting sick. I think this may be my first drain pour, I just can’t do this. Fruity with some metal and lots of alcohol and LOTS of solvent flavors. It’s making me want to throw up, I have to stop. Gross. To put it in technical terms, EFFING GROSS. Call me narrow-minded but this is just horrid. I guess I admire what they’re trying to do, but I can’t help but hate this beer.

Cloyingly sweet is the best description I can conjure up for this drink. It is similar to Raison D Extra without the nuances. Time to pour this out and have a beer.

Deep mahogany in colour, dissipating beige coloured head, average retention, some lacing. The aroma was of cookies, cake, dark fruits, cherries, toffee, alcohol and was quite rich. The flavour was of alcohol upfront, lots of christmas cake, creamy, toffee, dark fruits. Highly alcoholic mouthfeel, hugh body, high carbonation. Finishes all alcohol, burning, quite sweet. I liked the richness of this beer but the alcohol flavours coming out of this are intense. This gives over-the-top a whole new meaning. I don’t think that the alcohol will ever mellow in this beer.

650ml bottle obtained in a trade with <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/ViewUser.asp?U target=blank>snowtiger, thanks Scott.
Batch #1.

Bomber, Batch 2 (18.1%). Kinda scary when the first thing that comes to your mind from both the aroma and the flavor is "drunkening". Poured a transparent reddish-brown with a quickly-receding tan head.. left a film and a light ring. Aroma was hot with alcohol.. molasses, honey, more alcohol, sweet candi sugar, and floral notes in there, too. The flavor began with booz, finished with booz, and carried a heaping dose of booz across the middle... very sweet with too many different sugars.. molasses and honey stand out with grainy wheat notes, and darker fruits in there. Sharp alcohol pairs with a syrupy consistency to ooze across the palate and singe all of the taste buds. Dries out the back of the mouth. Too much focus on making a huge beer.. not very enjoyable and not enough people sitting here to help me finish the bomber.

From a 12oz Bottle, Batch 4. Deep, translucent shades of cherry highlight clear ruddy amber body, atop which sits a marvelous sustaining head of thin bubbled cream. Fruity aromas of strawberries and peach cream waft from the glass, spiced by some fruity esters and celery-ish hops. Very perfumy with some sherry notes. Prolunged exposure reveals a tickling of alcohol heat in the nose. Full bodied, very sweet mouthfeel with a tickling carbonation. Lots of light port notes come through at first, along with some sweet strawberry fruits. There’s definitely a dark cugar component too - tastes a bit like brown sugar covered raisins soaked in spiced rum. Some tobacco molasses character as well. This is complex and interesting, but a difficult one for me to get into. Its definitely too sweet for my tastes up front; the light spicy fruits aren’t tamed by a dark or dry enough malt base, creamting a bit of an unbalance for my palate. After the initial sweetness fades, the earthier, spicier, more intriguing characters take over - this is the stage I enjoyed the most. Sadly, the third wave of flavor left an unpleasant medicinal cherry residue on the tongue, replacing the fleeting stage of enjoyment. Interesting overall, but not a good fit for my tastes.

’05 vintage batch #3, sampled from drewbeerme. so why do they call this the beast. Well let me give it a try oh right, i remember, its a big terribly mean thing that calls itself beer. Last time I had it I ate spicy food the same night and the combination of the two gave me gastritis where I tasted aluminum after everything I consumed for two weeks. so lets try this again. .... Amber orange in color with a tan ring of a head. Syruppy red fruit thick malt aroma with a distinctive background of alcohol. Sweet sweet flavors syruppy, red fruit, a hop bite and lots of alcohol underneath. I think I like it at first few sips but the sweetness becomes too much, the alcohol, the sugar, maple syrup straight from Aunt Jemima, .... this is getting worse as it warms but i can’t drink it any faster ... points dropping, points dropping ... i can’t finish this.

Bomber courtesy of ford9719. Batch 2. Smells very sweet with some brown sugar, and some dark chocholate. Taste is very smooth, hides the alcohol quite well, but a bit of a metallic aftertaste. Overall a pretty well made beer, but i think time may have taken its toll a bit.