Avery Anniversary Fourteen

Formerly brewed at Avery Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Boulder, Colorado USA

Serve in Snifter, Trappist glass

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Big tan head and big molasses aroma with a little alcohol mixed in. Both are evident in flavor along with some chocolate flavor too. Would be really good if it weren’t for the alcohol heat. Seems like good flavors are overpowered. Typical for Avery. Bugs me with the unnecessary alcohol flavor.

Poured a dark mahogany with a fizzy/frothy light tan head. Aroma of sweet grapes, orange juice, and a touch of bitter pine and grapefruit rind. Taste is quite dry with notes of dark fruits and orange rind with perhaps a bit of toffee, quickly getting overwhelmed by alcohol. Finishes dry and a tad metallic without a lot of hops in the background. Decently complex and pretty tasty, though the astringency of the alcohol could have been more controlled. This would have been better with 1-2% less ABV.

I’ve had this young and now rating it after its aged some. Chocolatey malty aroma, i remember the fresher bottle having a lot more hops in the nose. Pours very dark brown with a dense tan head that lasts with thick lacing. Strong malt flavors with strong chocolate and cola like flavors with a somewhat hoppy finish. The younger bottle definitely had stronger hop flavors, but this is really good too. It’s very smooth.

Aroma is strong, malty and yeasty with a touch of apple and a smoky hint. It pours a rich, opaque sable with a nice thick beige head that disappears slowly. Flavor has a rather strong alcohol bite like a barleywine, which tends to mask the rest of the taste, but I did pick up some good malty tones and a ribbon of chocolaty sweetness. Definitely for sipping, not slugging.

Bottled. Beer is very dark brown, nearly opaque. Head is large, off-white, frothy, slowly diminishing, mostly lasting. Tall arches of lacing on the snifter.<P> First impression on the nose: Agressive roast, pungent hop, funky/surly net. Malty with heavy notes of roasted/burnt grain, moderate coffee, light caramel and cookie; Hoppy with very heavy notes of resin (so heavy that it’s tip-toeing toward rubbery), moderate notes of grapefruit/lemon zest, light note of brewed tea; Yeasty with a light doughy note; Trace of cola, cinnamon, light-to-moderate alcohol.<P> The flavor is moderately-to-heavily sweet, moderately-to-heavily bitter, with a long, moderately bitter, lightly sweet, moderately warm finish.<P> The body is full, the texture is velvety and the carbonation is lively.

They weren’t kidding about massive maltiness. Pours dark brown with a tan head. Malt dominates the aroma with some dark fruit, I didn’t sense as much hops, but it is an older bottle. Malty throughout and it was a little creamy as well. Decent brew, almost a little too sweet for me.

Bottle. Hoppy nose with lots of caramel, malty with fruit and alcohol. Near-opaque ruby pour with a thick, creamy, lovely tan head. Yeast and alcohol with dark malt, bitterness, and light curacao notes. Brown sugar and alcohol, lightly acidic, faint chocolate with malted milk balls, touch of sticky imperial stout coffee bean and vanilla. Body is medium but enjoyable, surely not watery, and the aftertaste a vanilla/beany, lightly boozy fruit fest and citrus splash which dries out with time. Again, needs to tone down or better integrate the alcohol, but a fun little go.

Avery’s commemorative beer, celebrating fourteen hard fought years in an up and coming American industry is certainly a busy one. A thick wet tree bark brown head springs up from a dastardly dark body as soon as the pour finishes its graceful bow, giving ruse to a mixed aroma. Fresh produce is the theme, with lemon, ginger, cucumber, vinegar, sweet corn, brocolli, fresh salad greens, compost, mandarin orange and even a wisp of patchouli entertaining my nose, as if I were strolling through a fresh farmer’s market. The taste is pungent as well, though not with the strand of produce scents - those appear exclusively in the finish. The flavor begins with a darker smoke and licorice combination, along with Elmer’s glue, pool chlorine and raisin. A second stage proceeds, with hops, apple acting as quick preludes to the vegetable blend aftertaste. Each of these "stages" might be good by themselves, but put together there’s too much happening and too much discord - a jumble of flavors without direction.

Bomber.

What a bizarre beer! Pours like cola but darker, red highlights, reddish-tan head. The aroma is apples and grapefruit hops, some yeasty spice as in a dubbel. Nothing in the aroma prepared me for the overbearing sweetness refined-sugar sweetness on the front end of the flavor, and though the powerfully hoppy finish was foreshadowed a bit more, it too comes on harder than expected. Add a third pinch of alcohol burn, and you’ve pretty much got the dominant attack from the flavors. A strange style, and perhaps one that is not often brewed for good reason. But there’s a lot of complexity under that, and these are both enticing and interesting. Ample dates, some interesting spices, syrupy mouthfeel.

I can’t say that this one is a favorite, but I have to give Avery credit for trying something interesting with their fourteenth anniversary brew. That’s what one should do, after all, with a special edition beer.

The best thing about this brew is its pour, a huge, rocky beige head resting atop a deep ruby body. The aroma is tangerine peels, worty malt, and some chewy dried fruits. It tastes of dark caramel, bitter citrus zest, molasses, and some brown spices. The study ABV is pretty well hidden throughout the drink. Just okay.

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