Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

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

This is what being a beer lover is all about. By no means a "perfect" brew, but certainly a notable accomplishment in the brewing arts. My sample tonight is a 2004 bottling. Although it remains a bit "rough around the edges" it is warming and tasteful. Plentiful flavors of raisin, figs, honey, mollasses, caramel abound. Head is almost non-existant, but what would one expect with 18.1%!! Palate is oily and smooth with an endless pleasant bourbon-like finish. One who holds the discipline to bury a bottle or two in a cool, dark closet for 10+ years I think will be greatly rewarded. Feelin’ allright!

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.

Dark amber color; small creamy head. Nice aroma, malt, very sweet, Barley Wine-like. Medium thickness, oily; malty taste, sweet in the beginning, balanced by a quite strong bitterness later. Too warming alcohol, light metallic aftertaste and not much complex. Good anyway. And powerful, of course.

Slight caramel, almost barleywine-like aroma. Hop bite throughout with a good balance of malt, caramel, and alcohol. Should age very well.

Huge thanks to Ringo for this one. This pours clear reddish brown with a minimal head. the color is like brandy. The flavor is thick, sticky w/ no hints of alcohol. It's extremely well done. Thanks

last spring i actually got to share a few beers with adam avery, who told me tons of amazing things about the preparation of this monstrous libation and the cunning little messages concealed within both the packaging, and within the hypnotic formula of the beer itself. i’d love to share a few of them, but damned if i can remember even one. what i know is that this beer is a fusion: a beer/liqueur crossover. in rating a beer, we typically employ illustrative language: "discriptors", to grapple with flavor likenesses that the brewer has achieved with the simple ingredients of brewing. when we say a beer tastes like peat or pine or piss or leather, usually, those things aren’t really in the beer, it just SEEMS like they are. here, for the most part, the beast smells and tastes exactly like what adam literally put into it: raisins, dates, molasses, turbinado, honey, and ass-kicking proportions of biting hops and eloquent malts and enough yeast in a controlled environment to make alcohol faster than ol’ belzebub’s appalachian still. yet these things have coalesced into a sum greater than the constituent parts: it’s the most port-like non-port beverage i’ve ever tasted. for a scotch drinker, this drink may be overly sugary and even mild. to a beer drinker, used to our 7 and 8 ABVs, the alcohol swings over the goblet like a ghostly ball bat, knocking our senses a little more askew with each sip-- yet we step up again and again willingly to be pummeled by the delicious fullness of sensory engagement. the gorgeous aroma has wonderful smoky aspects, the blackened mesquite satan himself uses in his barbeque-- when he’s cooking to entice the celebrities. it’s like cane sugar resin rode in oak casks with burgandy and bourbon ’till singed by the fires of hell-- it only became denser and more complicated. the label features huge white teeth-- teeth so sharp, you won’t feel them sinking in, yet the damage will be instantaneous. the label also erroneously suggests a malevolent entity-- yet this beast comes and beguiles in the form of warmth and familiarity. true, it fucks with your mind, but this is a gentle beast-- think puff the magic dragon-- he doesn’t ask you to fly planes into buildings, he asks that you love and play, laugh at life, and let the gentle rhythms of nature wash over you-- just like this alcohol is fixin’ to do-- with a holy vengeance.

Sampled at the Pizza Port 9th Strong Ale Festival. ’05 bach listed at 14.9% Syrupy sweet-sour, quite smooth and creamy considering the strength, somewhat dry finish. Liked this very much.

Poured a clear ruby color with a thick tan head. Big malt aroma. Taste is sweet with the malt up front with a cotton candy flavor. Packs a punch. Could be a little less sweet but overall, it’s very good.