Breckenridge Avalanche Amber Reserve

Formerly brewed at Breckenridge Brewery
Style: American Strong Ale
Denver, Colorado USA

I dragged my feet on buying this one but I finally gave in. $17 (it was reduced, they weren’t moving). Bottle #1135 out of 1200. Not so great - you’d think if you’re going to make a special anniversary beer, you’d make it nice. Heavy on the malt side, with an almost bockish profile: caramel, light floral, grape candy. medium, rounded palate, dark red-amber color. Underhopped. I couldn’t finish it and didn’t want to pour it so I recapped it and got back to it the next day. I had picked up a slight buttery character that cut the cloying sweetness just a bit, and gave it some complexity. Much better that 2nd day but I’m not going to let that affect the numbers overly...

A little intimidating at $23. Poured a deep amber with little head. Aroma was malty. A pretty good blend of malt and hops although on the malty side. Caramel on the side with some Belgian fruitiness. I ejoyed this beer but hated the price.

Bottle #565/1200. Pours an amber colour with an off-white head. Malty dusty aroma with some fruity hints. Sweet malty flavor with yeasty hints and hints of caramel. Malty finish with some bitterness.

This beer was crap. Comes in a big fancy bottle and says "reserve" on it, so that beer nerds will buy it for $$$. Shared with waolsen, mpollack and others. We wanted to beat people up after trying this we were so dissapointed. Don’t bother.

Bottle. $20. Its amazing that they put this beer in a fancy bottle, bottle only 1200 of them and slap a nice label on the bottle and bam this is a $20 bottle of beer. It was smooth and bland. If this was a $5 bottle I would think the same thing. The fact that this bottle was so expensive really infuriates me. Breckenridge Brewery should be ashamed for selling this beer with such fanfare and outragous costs. I bought it when I had some friends out visiting for GABF and all of us just thought this beer was average at best. Congrats on celebrating such an average beer with a less average celebration reserve. Breckenridge. Two thumbs way way down on every level here. Do yourself a favor and don’t buy this beer.

Ruby brown. Smooth, weighty texture was kind of nice. Toasty crackers, with hints of brown sugar sweetness. Warming alcohol. Healthy bitterness. I thought it was good, but it didn’t seem to have a lot of depth.

Pours maple brown with small off-white fizzy-foamy head that goes patchy pretty quickly. Aroma is caramel malt (cookie), perfumey hops, slightly grainy, brown sugar, fruit (pear, apple). Medium bitter and acidic, malty and husky, caramel fruitiness with perfumey alcohol at the end. Medium bodied, smooth palate that ends up dry.

Head is initially small, fizzy, off-white, mostly diminishing. Body is medium to dark amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, husks), lightly hoppy (apricot). Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Medium body, creamy texture, lively carbonation, lightly alcoholic. Rather plain, but it does has a pretty nice mouthfeel.