Avery The Beast Grand Cru Ale

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

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.

This was a treat to myself on Halloween. Pours deep reddish amber with a rich rocky tan head. The aroma is sweet and caramely with a lot going on. Picking up musty malt, tons of richness, some alcohol, molasses, dark fruits. A lot is going on. Thick slick body that glides down. This is definitely as sipper. Taste starts with sweetness that has honey, brown sugar, dates, raisins, a ton of candi sugar and some alcohol burn. The finish has some alcohol burn with the boatload of sweetness. Belgium earthiness starts coming out further down the glass. This strikes me a Belgium made American style Barleywine. Good beer, but don’t know how often I would want it.

Pours a deep reddish brown with just a tiny little white head. Aromas of brown sugar, and dough with flavors exploding on the palate. A little thick on the tongue, the fisrt flavors are of an overbearing sweetness, nit alcohol. As it warms, more flavors come through; very barelywinish with hints of a belgian strong ale.

2004 18.1% Bottle. 2 years old. I could smell this baby as soon as the cap came off. Aroma is very rich with sweet malts. Couple sips of this stuff and the heat begins to hit you. The heat is very prominant but overall the beast is pretty smooth. A nice job with the alcohol but it still a little tough to drink a 22. Needs a 10oz bottle.

Alcohol is, of course, very present throughout this brew -- from the nose to the taste, and dominates a lot of the other flavors. Definitely a lot of the "darker" malt flavors being kicked around here. For me it seemed to thick, syrupy, and lacked some of the fruit flavors to really be a grand cru belgian ale. Actually, thought it to be more of a imp. stout; not that this really diminishes anything from this brew. Overall, quite enjoyable to drink.

Bottle (2005) shared with blankboy, jerc, HogTownHarry & tupalev - courtesy of HogTownHarry. Beautiful burnished ruby-amber colour. Big aroma of sweet malt, buckwheat honey, brown sugar and alcohol. Flavour has lots of alcohol heat, along with sour cherry, wood, molasses and dried dark fruit. Good stuff, but I sure couldn’t imagine drinking a whole bottle myself.

12/3/04. On draft at Pizza Port Strong Ale Fest ’04 in Carlsbad, CA 12/3/04. What a crazy beer. I’ve had it several times and I’ve given it about eleventeen "second chances." I decided to give it the benefit of some considerable doubt and finally log this rating that marked the far-and-away *best* time I’ve ever had the beer, perhaps the only time I’ve ever actually enjoyed it. Clear red-orange in color on this fresh sample. Good light tan, lasting and somewhat misleading head-- nothing can survive in this beer, but the head is surprisingly resilient. Good lacing, even. Aroma betrays the intensity of this crazy concoction-- big alcohol and some welcome date-toffee notes, but also some strange oxidized undertones. Taste is incredibly harsh with alcohol, but it’s surrounded by some redeeming noble hops and spiciness. Most of the fruit delicateness is gone, but some raisin and date flavors linger. The body is nicely oily with some intriguing sweetness that gets its ass smashed to the netherworld in the burning alcohol finish. Surprisingly good depth on this sample, but it’s still masked quite a lot by the horrifying alcohol. Other tastes have been ridiculously fuselly and even hotter than this one was, to the degree that I thought someone was playing a practical joke on me and serving some other whack shit in a Beast bottle the first time I tried it. I couldn’t understand how that beer had corresponded to the generally high ratings on here. After this impressively decent and tolerable sample to realign my general feelings of dismay, I sort of understand, but I still fight the belief in my heart of hearts that the whack shit, in general, is actually The Beast.

I’ve had about four sips and I’m drunk. Initial sip was REALLY strong, but I’m starting to get used to it. It has a nice ruby-orange color with a slight bit of brown. No head at all. Aroma is alcahol, alcahol, alcahol, raisin, slight bit of dark red fruit and sweet malt, and alcahol. Taste has a lot of alcahol warmth with raisin and a slight roastiness. A little chocolate, caramel, molasses, and slightly acidic cherries also. Belgian yeastiness and spiciness in the aroma and flavor. I wish it was a little sweeter. Rerate: Much better at the San Diego Strong Ale Festival.