Avery Hog Heaven

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Boulder, Colorado USA

Deep copp in color with a generous head. Extreme hoppiness with fruity and floral overtones that lead to the same in the taste. Some alcohol warmth.

Amber-red pour, fairly transparent with solid head retention. Burnt fruit and candy nose. Hints of nougat, toffee, pears, gingerbread and orange. Tired, lightly charred taste like a scotch-dipped cigar at the end of its life. Crystal and dry hops with wet graham crackers. Caramel, a hint of red pepper, and molasses precede an unpleasantly dry paper finish. Bitterness powers through with a clumsy strength. It succeeds on some level with a reasonable degree of smoothness. The heat on the palate is undeniable, alongside a marginal under-attenuated grit. Distant salt and fund-raiser chocolate in a dirty pulse. The unique quality of this brewer is its broad capacity to achieve utter banality, almost every time. Certainly bold, it’s just poorly done.

Ummm this is good. This is just the type of Barleywine I like but it’s not traditional at all. It teeters pretty close to being a double IPA--very hoppy, in the nose and in the flavor. So why don’t I just buy IIPAs? Because even Barleywines like this have are way sweeter and smoother with all of that malt. Nice warming alchohol too.

12oz bottle-Had this a while ago but if my memory serves me it was a medium to dark amber body with a small head and an aroma of hops and a little malt. the taste was way hoppy and not enough malt which I think of when it comes to barleywine style. It seems to not fit the style.

Had this beer on 10/12/1998. Color is a deep golden but quite light for a Barleywine. Carbonation is light as well as the head. Aroma is wonderfully full of the scent of fresh hops. Taste is much lighter than expected for a Barleywine and finish is more like a Pale Ale. It starts off with a medium body and a slightly sweet feel, this goes down with a gentle bite at the back of your throat. The finish is bitter with a light twang to it, there isn’t much hop flavor like you would think from the aroma. I don’t feel its rich enough to be a true Barleywine but it is an interestingly tasty brew.

From memory: not your average barley wine. Very sweet and malty. Yes, of course, barley wines have malty tastes...but I remember this one as having a caramel taste to it. Maybe I’m wrong.

Bottle. Light orange head, thick foam, filtered red colored liquid. The strong aroma of hobs is very much pressent. A little to hobby Barlywine if you ask me. But it’s kind of what the bottle says, Barlywine-style Ale.

This beer was truly aweful. I was so amazingly over-the-top hoppy that I couldn’t drink more than 2 swollows. And it was the good hoppy either, all it had was the bitterness aspect of it. This is what I would imagine chew on raw hop flowers would taste like.