Avery Thirteen

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

750ml bottle. Pours to a murky, deep ruby to red color, with a thick, creamy, head, and a moderate to lively carbonation. The nose on this beer is pleasing, with good aromas of caramel, toffee, and fruity estery aromas. The palate is firm, with good sweet malt, toffee, nuts, and estery fruit flavor. This beer finishes with good malt and fruit flavor up front, then ends with some peppery alchol, and a vinous note that lingers. A very tasty, delicious beer, but a bit lacking as a weizenbock. It lacks the signature aromas and flavors of a beer brewed with the Weihenstaphaner yeast strain. Avery states they use it, but it is lost in this beer. Again tasty enough beer, but not as authentic as I would have liked.

Pours thick and black with almost no head. Big chocolate malt, roasted malt, wheat, and port aroma. Smooth thick chocolate malt roasted malt taste with an after dinner drink smoothness reminiscent of port. Finishes nice and dry, this ages very nicely.

1 pint bottle. Dark brown color, lovely beige head. Sweet malt, hints of coffee, dark chocolate, liqorice and roasted malt. Sweet, with bitter finish. Vinous. Very good.

Deep burgundy with a frothy, light tan head and lingering lace. Very inviting nose. Like fresh-baked chocolate bread. Creamy and super-smooth texture; deceivingly lightish weight. Complex malts, with notes of chocolate, cookie and fresh sourdough bread. Very balanced bitterness (dark chocolate, clove and a hint of tart fruit). Banana is far in the background, but it’s a pleasant addition. At first, aromas didn’t seem so strong; but given a little time to breath and warm up, they began to loft about nicely. Not over-the-top by any means, but it had a mellow complexity that was nice. Not my favorite style, but I enjoyed this stuff.

Dark brown with a small tan head. Aroma of roasted malt, wheat, raisons, dark fruits and alcohol. Flavors of dark fruits, wheat, rye, and maple syrup.

Bottle purchased at Knightly Spirits in Orlando. One of the last bottles left on the shelf and the clerk (he’s on here, I forget his name sadly). I wish I could have had this sample when it came out, because now it smells a little rough and old. One the plus side, the aroma has developed into this very earthy, raisin, soy sauce, with a good funky yeast, and at this age, its real funky. The flavor, well, now I know how it’s been drinking well. Man, I love this earthy bocky flavor. It reminds me of Sam Adams Triple Bock in the nose (not over-the-top however,) but the flavor is rich and full. The texture is slightly gritty, earthy and ends velvety. Man, I love the flavor of this, it is richwith a mild bit of fruity grain. Man, top notch stuff.

<i><b>Rating #1300!</b> Bomber bottle rated on Halloween Night!</i> Big sweetness in the nose. Smells of juicy raisins and sugar-coated plums. Poured into a Sam glass, it’s dark brown at the thinner bottom, then turns black in the middle. A big, sudsy tan head leaves clumps of bubbles on the glass. Taste is this and sticky, with bits of licorice, weizen yeast, cherry, plum again, coffee candy and some pipe tobacco. Weizen spiciness conflicts with sugary sweetness, so no one dominates. Licorice is replaced in the middle by strong stout malt taste. Leaves a rime of malt sugar on the lips. Complex flavors just help disguise alcohol intoxication. If only those lights swirling outside my window would stop their incessant buzzing, I could enjoy this.

Dark, this one, opaque and nearly ebony. ("Ruby red" says the label. Nope, not mine, anyway.) Slim ring of cocoa tan on top. Aroma is sweet from the start, caramel, toffee, maple, hints of anise...wait, there’s more!...butterscotch and coffee. Quite an intriquing blend, here. Taste: hmmmm. this is a tough one, very complex and flavorful. Brimming with dark fruits, nuts, thick malt, molasses and carob...maybe. Very full in the mouth, long lasting on the palate, sits a spell in the mouth, and you like it there. Slippery texture, unrelenting flavor, very solid doppel, but it evades my expectations, based on the tastes of other wheaten doppels. Nothing wrong with a unique interpretation, though. This did dumbfound me from the start, as I didn’t detect the wheat, (actually, now I can taste it...it’s coming to the fore, and it’s tasty...why didn’t I taste it earlier?) and it comes of as more of a melding of a doppelbock and an Imperial Stout. Alcohol doesn’t bear down on the drinker, at least this one, until we hit the middle and that may be too late. Enough of this and I’m too numb to care, though.