Avery Thirteen

Formerly brewed at Avery Brewing Company
Style: Weizen Bock
Boulder, Colorado USA

Dark brown with a nice beige head. Aroma of dark malts, wheat, a little salty soy, and a super light amount of spice. More dopplebock than weizen bock to me anyways. Dark malts manifest them in semi sweet chocolate, fruit, salty soy, and bread with light spicy yeast in the finish. Finishes rather clean really, and is very easy to drink. An enjoyable brew.

Pours a dark ruby brown in color. Smell is all toffee and malt. Taste is incredible, I’m really loving this beer. There is a sweetness coming through that I’m thoroughly enjoying. Smooth on the mouthfeel. I’m definitely going to have to pick up another bottle of this.

Bomber. Pour is garnet red and brown. Nice lacing and a great looking oatmeal brown head settles nicely. Aroma is a little bit sweet malt, and a real nuttiness to it. Initial taste is mostly the malt with some dark chocolate. As this warms, it really opens up, both aroma and taste wise. I didn’t get much breadiness in this one, as other raters had. Finish is a touch bitter and hot alcohol, but not in an overpowering way, Nice.

THOUGHTS: Incredible, I’ve avoided this one for a while, but saw dopple bock on the lable, and I’ve been on a bit of a bock exporation recently, I figured I’d try it. Boy am I glad I did. I liked the one dunkler bock I tried last year and figured this would be similar, but this wiezen bock is light years . I need to get some more of this before it is off the shelves forever. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a dark brown that appeared black in the glass with red highlights when held to light. It had a small, off-white head that mostly diminished and left fair lacing. The aroma was chocolate and mild coffee malt, dark fruit and a little wheat. The initial flavor was moderately to heavily sweet, while the finish was heavy sweetness with an average duration. The body was medium to full and creamy with a smooth finish.

Bomber thanks to dchmela. Pours a dark ruby hue with a medium brown head. The aroma is fruity, lots of fruity German malts. Reminds me a bit of Celebrator Dopple, and that’s a good thing. The flavor is fairly fry, dusty, lots of sweet fruits, prunes, berries, strawberry, a huge malty aspect washes over it all. Bready and yeasty. Very little alcohol warmth. A very nice powerful lager. Very enjoyable.

[bottle] Pours cloudy brown with a very small tan head. Aroma is soy sauce, malt, bittersweet chocolate. Flavor is similar to the aroma. Nice, rich mouthfeel with the perfect amount of carbonation.

Bottle (bomber). Head is initially small, frothy, light brown, mostly lasting. Body is hazy dark brown. Aroma is moderately malty (cookie, chocolate, toasted bread, caramel), lightly yeasty (cobwebs), with notes of plum, raisin, date, light notes of apple, banana and alcohol, hint of clove. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium to full body, watery/velvety texture, lively carbonation, lightly to moderately alcoholic. Malty-fruity nose with the Avery thumbprint all over it, but falls a little short of the banana-clove punch I was hoping for. This is leaning more towards a straight Doppelbock to me than a Weizenbock, but that nitpick aside, it is unquestionably enjoyable. Delectable attic-like/cobwebby raw yeast smell underneath it all (delightfully devoid of vitamin B / dough smell). Great balance that is neither too sweet nor too bitter...but just a touch more tartness would be welcomed for this style. Rich, luxurious mouthfeel with fairly well-hidden alcohol. Nicely retentive head, though certainly not as voluminous as some (though this is a fresh-off-the-bottling-line, semi-agitated, low-fill bottle, so this unfiltered gem might improve on that point in a few weeks/months). A very strong contender in Avery’s arsenal and my favorite of the anniversary beers so far.

Very nicely done version. Probably lacks the palate complexity of an Aventinus, but it is also probably not fair to compare the two. Nice, warm alcohol on this 100* day, though I imagine it is still nice and cool in CO.