Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

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

Deep reddish appearance, creamy head formation. Aromatic berry, cranberry aroma, fairly heavy bitter citrus. Acidic flavor with thickish cranberry and blackcurrant. Heavily hopped, bitting finish.

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!

12oz, Bottled in 2005. I’ve got a Batch 2 Bomber, but I refuse to drink her yet. This pours a slightly hazy reddish brown with a ring of small beige bubbles. Aroma of raisins, sour cherries, honey, vanilla, misc spices, and fairly vinous. Bone dry finish. Very syrupy body, lighter carbonation. Very port wine-like. Flavor is very sweet with all of the aforementioned aromas. This is a carbonated port wine, as far as I’m concerned, and I happen to like port wines, but I don’t believe those should be consumed in more than 2oz. Due to the sweetness of this brew, I might stand by that same rule for this one. This doesn’t seem Belgian at all to me. Update--having this a year later, and another 12ozer of Batch 3, and it’s much the same. It might be slightly mellower, but I can still tell its strong. And again, 12oz is enough for 4 people.

Right away once I opened the bottle I could smell the strong alcohol scent. has kind of a fruity smell with strong alcohol. Pours a dark red with light white head. Has kind of a bitter fruity, oak taste with extremely strong alcohol. This is definitely a sipping beer. Very intense!!

18.1% Version, rereview. Bottle bought last night and consumed with a friend. The Beast still has a lovely color and shows good head retention considering its size. I also think that the aroma is still pretty appealing with a nice sugary, fruity, malty (butter toffee, dough), raisins smell. But the taste is horrible. An eventual drainpour and I even tried this with a few friends. Just way too hot and the alcohol takes over everything. Disgusting to me. The 15.7% version which I rated fairly high, but it was over 10 months ago, tasted much better than this. Perhaps my palate has changed since then and I don’t automatically give high alcoholic beers high scores.

Batch # 3. Wow, a huge improvement. I would provide some notes, but its getting me to drunk to think.

Orange/mahogany pour with a medium tan head. Very intense alcohol nose, with sweet roasted malt backbone. Intensely sweet, syrupy, vinous and alcoholic flavors cling cloyingly, strangle each and every last tastebud, and then linger to coat every square inch of mouth, teeth, tongue, tonsil, throat, and esophagus, and I presume all the rest of the pathway down and out! Very strong and pervasive dried fruit and burnt sugar notes. Tastes like equal parts date paste, sweet sherry, and rubber skid mark. Might be a bit over the top, you think?

Dark mahogany pour with a thick and creamy off white head with sheets of beer. Strong fruits and alcohol in the aroma. Big hops along with sweet malts. Hoppy flavors with strong malts as well. Clove or coriander making an appearence. Fruits aplenty. Raisins and molasses are the strongest fruits. And of course, alcohol is present. Huge body, strong palate of spice and alcohol, and a huge hoppy finish. The beast lives up to it's name.

I am convinced after looking at these ratings that people on this site will rate any strong beer high. This was a drain pour for me. Pour was a flat light brown with no head. Aroma of alcohol and cinamon. Taste was incredibly sweet and hot. Can’t pick up much other than alcohol and sweet and sticky malt with sugar being strong as well. This beer makes a hot day seem hotter and wetter. Blah. I guess some people think strong = good but I don’t.