Avery Brabant

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Boulder, Colorado USA

12 oz bottle shared by Enniskillen. Nose of light brett, sweat socks, winey oak, and chocolate. Dark brown with a medium beige head. Flavor is slight smoke, brett, sourness, and grapes. Tastes OK but the nose is rank!

Brown black with a thin tan head. Aroma is baby powder, light funk, caramel, alcohol. Taste is a light funk, oak, caramel, slight roastiness, light salt. Good, but the aroma is a bit off.

Two bottles, one courtesy TheCheeseMan and the other courtesy tytoanderso. This pretty brew pours an extremely dark mahogany color with a thick, lasting head of spongy, mocha colored foam. Dense rings of patchwork lacing circle the glass, coating it very well. The nose is complex and interesting. Earthy overtones hit up front, as wild and bretty as advertised. Raw cacao and pungent pipe tobacco linger underneath, hinting at scorched caramel as well. Cherry pith and juicy Zinfandel notes offer tannic, vinous character, while oaky vanilla and even hints of peppery cedar lend spicy complexity. The flavor is tart, but sufficiently balanced by the dried cocoa malt and dark, earthy fruit. Fig comes through a bit more, replacing some of the more sour, tannic fruits that show on the nose. The oak gives of heaps of vanilla, almost as though a raw vanilla bean had been steeping in this brew for a good while. The mouthfeel is big and slick up front, transitioning to a more lively, dry, bretty finish. It’s not often you’ll run across something as complex as this, and it’s a drastic improvement over Avery’s first foray into bottled wild ales (Fifteen had a very band-aid like, chemical character). Very nice stuff!

Pretty dark brown pour with solid two fingers of head. There’s so much going on with the aroma that I don’t know where to begin. Everything from tart cherry and plum to oak to caramel. There’s a lot going on with the flavor too. Very woody and rather tart with a strange dark fruit clash in the middle. This is interesting but there’s too much going on for me to really get into it.

Very dark brown, nice big brown head. Woodsy, smokey, bready aroma. Big mix of flavors - woodsy, blueberry, winey, some coffee, too. Surprisingly crisp finish. Silky smooth, though. Really good.

12oz bottle from batch number one. Bottle conditioned. Poured a dark brown with a finger of brown head. Hello brett in the aroma. Fruity as well. Also some dark sugar in the aroma as it warms. Light bodied. Nice tart flavor with a bit of cherry. Some dark malt flavor. There is a bit of sweetness. I really didn’t get a lot of wood flavors which was a little disappointing. Very drinkable and refreshing. If this were half the price it would be a regular.

Pours a dark ruby - the aroma is mostly dominated by the wine barrel, with the tannins coming through strong - the brett is apparent, but secondary, and there is not much of a "funkiness" to it - the flavor is dry, with a mild funk, and some herbs (thyme, rosemary) - the red wine is not as apparent as in the aroma, but the oak is much stronger - some fruity sweetness arrives late, but is tempered by a mild note of red wine vinegar - it’s been a while since I bought an Avery beer without regretting it later - it figures it was the expensive one.

12oz. Bottle: Thanks waolsen! Sour aroma of Brett, red wine, grapes, light funk, and slight fruit. Poured very dark brown with a hint of ruby in color and small, rocky, beige head that largely diminished but lasted throughout. Opaque. Sparkling. Flavor is lightly sweet. Tastes of Brett, malts, light sour fruit, slight caramel, acid, slight cherry, and some vinous notes. Medium body. Tingly, dry texture. Average carbonation. Slightly tart, slight caramel finish. I was kinda underwhelmed, though I had high expectations.