Avery Barrel-Aged Series 1 - Brabant

Formerly brewed at Avery Brewing Company
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Boulder, Colorado USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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Bottle poured a clear dark brown with a small lingering tan head. Aromas of horseblanket, leather, tobacco, toffee, cherry, vanilla and multiple layers of funk. Palate was light bodied and crisp with a lightly tart finish. Flavors of toffee, cherry, horseblanket, leather, light vanilla, oak, some light vinous notes and multiple layers of tasty funk with a crisp tart funky fruity finish.

Bottle from Binnys. Pours a brown/reddish color with a small head. Man the aroma leads me to believe that this is going to be sour, complex, fruity and yummy. I get cherries, red wine, funk, earthy notes, oak, grapes, currants and brett. Flavor is not nearly as complex and sour as I expected. The wood seems to take over the brew. I taste some of the vinous notes and some of the brett. It hink this needs a lot more time. I would like to try it in a year or so.

Bottled. Poured deep brown with a spotty cap of tan head. The aroma picked up sour vinous and oaky notes paired with dry, earthy Brett and some vinegar.. the underlying malts were seemingly irrelevant because this was so barrel-forward.. drew me in, though. The flavor found vinous notes, fruity Brett, and tart oak upfront with not a whole lot of substance behind.. just some prickly carbonation, more wine, and Brett back there.. not satisfying. Less sour on the palate than the nose indicated.. bone dry with tart barrel and wine sticking around on the finish.. I’d love to see similar barrels & bugs used on a more hearty underlying beer.

UPDATED: APR 4, 2009 Draft at EBF. Pour a dark amber body with an off white lacing. Fruity cherry, plum, and vinous aroma. Dry with some brett but nothing over the top. Some lemon decent brew. 3.6 Had this out of the bottle and it reminded me of a nice bottle of CL SFTO wine. Quite good gonna have to bump this up some. "Think about the kidney failing cat" 4.0

Bottle from Lighthouse, enjoyed in their beer garden. Bottled 2-10-2009. Very dark maroon, beige head. Aroma of sour apple and lemon peel. Taste has aggressive brett sourness, caramel and earth. Nice stuff.

Bottle from Pat’s Liquors in Porter, Indiana: This pours a dark brown body, mahogany around the edges, with a short-lived beige head that soon reduces to nothingness. No lace, of course. The nose is full of Brett funk with tart plums, vinegar, raisins, some berries, and dark malt. A light dab of chocolate is added to the flavor along with a taste of cold iron and a splash of alcohol. The finish is sourly dry with a bit of dark juicy stone fruit. Very nice and probably would age well, but I’m too old to wait.

12 ounce bottle from Wine Warehouse in Charlottesville, VA. Pours a hazy ruby tinted brown color with a large tan head. Poor head retention and decent lacing. Very tart aroma with musty notes, tart cherries and berries and some other fruit notes. Taste is dry with a bretty mustiness, some tannic notes as well as the same cherries and berries from the aroma, as well as an earthy tone. Full bodied and feels quite heavy on the palate.

Bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is dark brown to black. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (roasted grain, cocoa powder), lightly yeasty (horseblanket), with notes of burnt wood, sulfur, sour cherry, anise. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately to heavily bitter. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation, lightly to moderately alcoholic, moderately astringent. An odd one, and not quite what I expected/hoped. Some nice notes in the nose, but very charred/woody which brings things down a bit. Overly bitter and astringent in the mouth...very tannic/rough. I just couldn’t get much joy out of it from chilled all the way up to room temp. More sourness, less bitterness and astringency, less burnt smell, and this might be high 3’s for me.

Bottle at EBF. Wow- I was surprised by how good this one turned out. Pours a deep woody amber brown with a nice fluffy lasting head. Aroma is instant pedio- cherry pie, with lots of wood and other funky things- horse blanket and manure- with cobwebby dough and earth mixing with a grape-like tannic acidic red wine. Flavor is a bit sweet upfront- cherry pit, and skin, nutty dark toast, light caramel, funk and pedio- also lots of tannic red wine grapes, and some oak- with a lactic acid tartness in the end to rip through the other residual sugars. Good lactic acid around the tongue and an especially nice sharp zesty tartaric grape acid on the very tip edge of my tongue makes for a nice finish - also tannic and a bit astringent in the back of the palate. Nice!

Bottle. Dark brown body with a medium off white head. Lacto and brett acidic aroma with heavy fruity notes and some light roasted malt. Lovely and complex. The flavour is dark fruity, oaky and light acidic. Could be awesome in a few years of cellaring.