Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

Bottle sampled with Stegosaurus 14.9% version. Pours bronze with a tan head. Aroma of citrus, fruit, sweet, and alcohol. The flavor is smooth, citrus, fruit, syrupy, sweet, and spices. Great beer.

Batch 3 2005. Popped off the cap looked into the neck of the bottle to see a ghostly aura suspended above the beer. Strange. Poured clear amber color (except tiny sediment particles) with tan head. Most of the sediment stayed pancaked to the bottom of the bottle. First aroma while still in the bottle was mostly alcohol and a bit of candy sugar. Just after the pour was strong candy sugar sharing the aroma with the alcohol. A few minutes later the sweet malts and very subtle malt notes began to surface. First impression of the taste is sweetness from the malt, molasses, and a bit of dark fruity sweetness. About midway something cuts the sweetness but I can’t describe the flavor. Nearing the finish some hop bitterness shows up and stays until the next sip along with a growing alcohol warmth. Thick viscous mouth feel. This beer may need another year or two to allow the more subtle flavors to be heard. Still, nice smooth tasting beer right now.

batch #3; courtesy of fiulijn - cloudy ruby in colour; little head; powerful and complex whisky-like aroma showing notes of sour cherries, prunes, alcohol, yeast and toffees; strong initial sweetness sonn met by a very robust bitterness; sticky, syrupy and full-bodied, very long dry and bitter peppery, herbal finish with notes of licorice ... and of course a big burning alcohol kick - very good and enormous beer which is still quite raw and would probably benefit of some ageing

Yikes! What a beer! Definitely the biggest most pungent and robust nose on a beer I’ve ever had. Super rich with brandy/vinuous notes, coconut rum, dark fruits, banana, burnt sugar, alcohols. Mostly sweet but surprisingly not cloying, big on fruits and burnt sugar, some spicy hops. Lightly carbonated but still smooth and easy on the palate, almost slick, certainly heavy bodied. Slight alcohol burn in the finish, pretty well balanced for the strength. Dark amber color, no head. Lingering chest warming.

It gets where the Belgians from Avery just are indistinguishable for me from the others. Way sweet and hot, with alcohol dominating flavor and aroma. A sweet horehound candy front that was strange but pleasant. Root beer like flavor on the end with a pronounced burn.

Bottled (14,9 % ABV) Dark brown colour with a beige head. Aroma is sweet malt, alcohol, raisin, stock, licorice.. Flavour is sweet malt, alcohol, raisin, stock, licorice. I think this is a world class beer.

Pours a rich deep mahogany red with a brown head that disappears completely quickly. Smells sickingly sweet. Tastes as sweet as it smells. Reminds me of the old cough syrup before technology improved it. Not much hop flavor, no bitter aftertaste. Has a very nice creamy feel to it. Not worth the price

12 oz bottle batch # 3: Medium coppery brown w/ a small lighter tan head. Peppery yeast and solventy hairspray alcohol notes. Highly raisiny and lightly bready malts, muted by mostly alcoholic notes. toasted malt a bit when it warms. Highly estery flavor and balanced to sweet toasty and bready malt. Big time raisiny dark fruit flavor and an alcoholic, sweet, very malty finish. Some sherry notes as well, but alcohol is throughout the flavor and aroma profile. Actually a bit of a turn off. There is also a little honey sweetness in the aftertaste as well. Full body, thick, chewy m/f, low carb., hot alcoholic m/f. Not a favorite of mine from them, they seem to do the smaller beers pretty well, but the only really big beer I’ve liked from them so far has been the Mephistophiles.