Avery Thirteen

Very dark brown body with some ruby highlights at the edge. The head is yellowish khaki. The aroma is chocolate covered cherries with some cough syrup. There is some honey character. The taste is milk chocolate with some light prunes in the background. There is some noticeable alcohol in the cough syrup finish. Something I expect from Avery. Man, this is a biig beer that slaps you in the face.

Bottle. Moderate malt aromas of dark bread, toasted and mild coffee, light notes of perfume and earth for the hops and yeast, with raisin and a faint spice smell in the background. Head is small and wispy with a yellowish white color. The head is fully diminishing and has no lacing. Color is a dark brown. Flavor is heavily sweet and lightly acidic to start and finishes moderately sweet, lightly acidic and bitter, and both sour and salty. Palate is medium to full, creamy almost syrupy and has a lively carbonation. It finishes metallic, lightly astringent and moderately alcoholic. Sweet and a bit of a thin feeling at the end of each sip, a some unwanted aftertastes were downfalls, but still a good drinker.

Bottle, bought @ Ølbutikken, Cph.
[Vintage 2006]
Pours a very deep mahogany with a small creamy yellowish head. Aroma is powerful, sweet roasted malts, lots of plums, slight berries and a touch of chocolate and a rum-like feeling to it. Exceptional creaminess. Flavour is equally stunning, lots of dark dried fruits, coupled with great, weel-adjusted viniousness and a slight roasty bitterness. Chocolate abounds in the aftertaste. Really wonderful!

Thick and rich and wonderful lager. Malt bomb to be sure. Great now, and don’t know if it will continue to improve.

22 oz bottle pours a deep brown with a thin off white head. Smells of sweet malt dominate the aroma. Taste is of ripe fruits, toasty malt, and sme spicy notes. The alcohol seems to be fairly well hidden.

22 oz bomber purchased at Oak Tree. Pours a deep dark brown with ruby highlights and a small bubbly medium beige head. Fantastic sweet aroma of raisins, dark fruit, cane sugar, slight wheat, molases and dark rum. Full bodied that is slightly creamy but really fills your entire mouth and is very chewy with strong carbonation. Flavor of sugar, raisin, slight coccoa, grains and a touch of alcohol. The only thing better then drinking this beer is knowing that the Vikings are about to win the 2007 NFC wildcard spot by beating the Redskins, hopefully.

I think this one may be past its prime - Darker brown pour with a medium head (poured into an Aventinus glass). Aroma has some nice raisin, banana, wheat and strong spice. Flavor starts sweet and Weizenbocky (probably not a word), but gets flat and metallic very quickly. This one went from decent to boring to blah very quickly. Should have tried it earlier, but its not a top tier member of the style.

22. Thanks, Goldtwins! Somehow I always procrastinate the Avery specials, pass them up on beer run after beer run, and end up left behind when they sell out. Larry and I had not talked about adding this one to the trade, but he pitched it my way, and I am grateful, because when I opened the box and saw it, I realized I’d spaced this beer completely last year. Better hustle down and look for the Fourteen if I haven’t rated that yet. Anyway, this one’s got a year on the bottle on it, and that’s gotta be an interesting thing, probably even a good thing.
This one pours black with a thickish sudsy tan head. Plenty of bubbly sheets of lace. Gotta love a wheaten bock that comes out that dark and sudsy. Beasty. Clearly the grain bill for this one wasn’t hauled in by hand. Mild nose. Not much happening there at all. Soft sour wheat note that wouldn’t smell like much of anything if you didn’t know what to look for. A little bit of nuts and mild black olives creep in after some time to warm and aerate.
Nice medium, creamy body. Very smooth and supple. So drinkable right off the bat. Soft, velvety carb.
Mid-palate gets a little goin’ on with sour wheat, some brown bread and black bread notes, mild olives again, and nutty, toasty bits. Nice complexity and harmony, subtle and satisfying.
The finish goes a bit acetic and maybe a bit overly sour, but only when the beer is at its coldest. As it comes up through and past cellar cool, it opens up and gets a nice dried leaf flavor and maybe a cola note, and the acetic quality disappears. Had been meaning to dock a point from the palate for that aceticity but not it seems unjustified. This is a good beer.