Avery Thirteen

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

Big smooth banana bread, coco, pepper, and a spike of alcohol in the nose. Dark chestnut body with a persistant fine tan head. Uncooked banana bread, cream, pepper, dough, coco, malted milk, roasted malts, and a touch of alcoholic heat at the end. Mouthfeel is smooth with a touch of spiceyness running into a bready coco finish like a piece of banana bread dipped in porter.

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.

On tap at Brewski’s in Fayetteville AR. Dark, dark, brown with a thin quickly dying light brown head. Plums and raisins. The sweetness is big. No lacing here. A meaty beer. Big malt. As it warms, you get a slight chocolate aroma. Big alcohol nose with a big mouth. The side of your tongue actually burns. This furnace has heat.

22 oz bomber. Pours a brownish mahogany reddish color with a thick creamy beige head. Aroma is pleasantly malty with hints of dark chocolate,winter spices,dark fruit and freshly baked wheat bread. Taste is malty from the beginning with hints of dark fruit-dates,plums,prunes,dark chocolate,toffee,warm dough bread and fresh yeast. Excellent overall and quite different.

out of the bottle. fantastic color. dark, mohagany brown with scarlet highlights and a small frothy beige head. smells of fruit and alcohol and wheat. tastes sweet and slightly bitter. tastes of nuts and dark fruits and wheat and cubed sugar and leather. the alcohol really comes out at the end. wowza this is good!

Bottle. Clear, ruby body, with a beige head. Quite complex nose, with alcohol, licorice, some cellar, sweetness, dried fruits and some coffee. The flavor isn’t as enjoyable as the aroma, but still nice, with dried fruits, a little oxidation and roasted malt. Full body. There’s dried fruits in the finish, as well as a little oxidation, spices, malt and alcohol. The oxidation in the beer actually suited the beer quite nice. Definately a beer that should be available on a regular basis. Rating: 8-4-7-4-15-3-8 (070705)

Bottle, 22oz. Pours a clear, ruby color with a dense, quite small, beige head. The aroma is rather complex and heavy, with dried fruits, blackcurrant, some salty licorice, roasted malt, beefstock and alcohol. A little touch of oxidation too, just enough to be pleasing, and it’s there in the flavor too. It’s quite warming in the mouth, full-bodied and slightly sticky, releasing flavors of sugar, roasted malt, lots of dried fruits, some salty licorice, alcohol and a fruity bitterness with citrus and resin. The hoppy flavors are quite subdued, and so is the bitterness, but it’s sure there. I didn’t see any information on the IBU on the label, but I’m sure it’s not at the level of the average pale lager. In the finish there’s a little touch of coffee, as well as the sweet, malty flavors and dried fruits. Quite evident hoppy bitterness too. As the beer warms up, the alcohol becomes more evident, but it’s not reaching the point of unpleasantness, it’s just giving the beer a delicate warmth adecvate for the season, and it also gives me a relaxed feeling. I had some rather fatty, crafted sausages as a snack to go with it, and it deals pretty good with the fat, but on the other hand, it’s sweet enough to cover the roof of my mouth with a layer of sugar instead of fat. I think I prefer the sugars :-). There’s also a little spicy touch to the beer, but it took some time before I noticed, at least there’s cloves, but there’s something more, cardamom I think. I love these beers with layers and layers of flavors, they make me sit back, relax, forget about everything, and just trying to dissect the beer. Speak of the devil, (regarding layers of flavors) chocolate is also one of the aromas in this beer, or maybe just cocoa. Points deducted for too evident alcohol, but I sure doesn’t destroy the beer. By the way, a 22oz bottle is more (?) than enough for one person, easily giving joy for over one hour. And I still don’t understand why this one isn’t a regular Avery beer... Or is it just me? Judging from the ratings, it isn’t. (080306)