Avery Fifteen

Wow I can’t believe the low scores for this beer! Bright amber with light/white head. Fruity and herbish on the nose. Not a shocking flavor at all. Not your typical beer/ale taste, but not overly sweet or puckery either. Taste moved around a lot in my mouth. Bobbly with carbonation making it light and cheery, bursting with flavor at first taste. A quick, sharp bitterness flashed for a moment, like tonic water in the ginntonic. Leather poked about too. Can’t exactly taste the figs, but I can taste the essence of them. Fruity and swee while still being tart. Maybe it’s not for everyone, but it was definitely for me. NOT a session beer.

(Bottled) Clear golden with a small, vanishing head. Aroma of honey-toffeeish malt spiced with bretty sourness and a touch of fruit. Very interesting and pleasant flavor of honey-toffeeish malt, some acidity, moderate bretty sourness. Medium body with low, soft carbonation. An interesting try, and surprisingly balanced.

Medium head with a funky smell, similar to first-aid cream covered by a band-aid. Flavor was similar with a heavy yeast feel. Sticky aftertaste.

Shoe. Outdoors. Leather. And lots of carbonation. The tart and sour are perfectly fine with me. The beer is a bit carbonated, though. Lots of mixed thoughts on this one....but I’ll stick with the pro side. Not the best sour, but not as bad as some people make it out to be. It’s like their Karma (too sweet) with some funk thrown in.

Bottle from State Line! The pour was decent, golden to amber in color, decent initial head and lacing. The aroma was bretty, funky, light fruits. Flavor was pretty nice, but a bit too malty sweet to be crisp and clean, grapes adding to the aroma elements, along with a finishing spice. The hops and bret notes were just overcome by the extra maltiness. For an Avery brew, quite nice stuff. Not a bad shot at the style, although several others stand above it. Mouthfeel was moderate, and a little errant on the sticky side. (Unfortunately, my brother in-law, during either the opening NFL game or as the RNC McCain speech started, exclaimed that it reminded him of mussel juice, that stuff in which the mussels cook - YIKES!)

22 ounce bottle split in Duvel glass. Clear golden orange with flat white head in just-rinsed glass. Funky white wine mead and spicy farts aroma. Sweet and fruity melon honey anise flavors with spciy carbonated funky brett finish. Medium body, medium high carbonation. I like the funkiness. I am not a huge Avery fan but I like this one a lot. I am getting more and more into funk. This may not be as good as Jolly Pumpkin Oro or Interlude, but it is pretty good in its own right and definitely underrated, I think.

Thin head of bright white bubbles. Awesome carbonation which dances up the sides of the glass to reform the head. Hypnotic to watch. Light fruit and wheat in the aroma with a bit of tart raspberry and some spices. Color looks like dark apple juice. Crisp and clean palate. LOADS of spices in there. Lots of herbal notes, mint, juniper and some other floral flavor which I cannot place. Lots of strange flavors in there. Probably some flavors of things that you were not intended to eat. Rather light body with a bit of alcohol kick. Finishes spicy and fruity. Not really my kind of brew. Not bad just not what I want to drink.

Bottle which I bought locally. Jesus Christ this is probably the worst beer I have ever consumed from Avery. Smells like horse piss (not in a good way for all your lambic guys), and a little bit of sour notes. Taste is sour at first which is great, and then in about a half a second it tastes like a metal can that was dipped in vomit. This beer is rancid, horrible, and a complete waste of money. I usually praise Avery beers and think they are usually underrated. This one, on the other hand, is completely over rated. But I guess it proves that on ratebeer, if you put some Brett in a bottle of shit, it will get good reviews. This beer is an absolute drain pour.