Avery Anniversary Fifteen

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

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

Yes, it’s a bit like drinking horse sweat. Yes, it smells like someone let an old goat swim around it in as it fermented. Yes, I’m a little grossed out by the experience... but ultimately quite pleased. You just have to accept that this is a big funky wild ale, and if you’re not up for a weird ride, you probably should leave it on the shelf. It’s a golden beer with a good head. The nose is fruity and spicy with a healthy funk. The taste has bitter and sweet notes with with a lot of fruit (sort of a bittersweet lemon) and twang. In fact, it has a pretty big twang to it. The mouthfeel is pretty great. Lots of funk.

Draft at the brewery, aged a few years. Pours gazed golden yellow with white head. Nose is very phenolic, Big Brett nose, stinky farm smells, , flavors are phenols, lemon, earth, Brett. Crisp and refreshing but not that clean or tasty.

31-MAR-2010, bottle @home, from "Fish & Beer". Grabed this today just because it was from Avery. Had no Idea what it really was and did not check for a best before date, since it was new on the shelf. Unclear, very light golden with nice white head that lasts. Nose is sour. What is this? I read the description here on RB, and now I am not so surprised. So it is sour, with huge amounts of citrus. Also very sour taste. Once the tongue gets used to the tartness, more flavours emerges, and a slight sweetness is evident. The funky notes moves this drink away from being a lemonade (sour, sweet, and citrusy). Very creamy, low carbonation. All in all a fine drink. Not my favorite, and the large bottle is a bit too much for me.

Available only in a 22oz bomber size bottle, rich, hazy golds, oranges, and straw settle under a billowy blanket of whiteness also reflected in her depths. Lace crawls up the sides of my glass as her head recedes, freeing a nose of Bretty proportions to make even the most stalwart swoon in heavenly delights. Tart and funked. Floral and spiced. Dry and sweet. Saddlebags and leather. All of these delightful blessings mingle with apricot and nectarine skins. Her floral esters are spring’s finest lavender and violet while savory herbs dance merrily. A subdued dankness gives way to sawdust which in turn draws me in ever closer. Our eyes meet and resistance fails. As we become entangled in one another in a fit of passion, sweetness and bracing funk tingles and teases my tastebuds. Slightly brash, her Brett scours and cleanses my tongue in preparation for a soothing river of herbs and flower petals with a finish of tart apricot and nectarine skins. She hits hardest in the finish where sawdust, saddlebags, and leather reigns. Surprisingly soft in spite of her Brett funk, there is a subtle undercurrent of effervescent carbonation. Gentle warmth starts to permeate my bosom which is already aflame with the fires of beery lust. Further along, her herbal and floral presence grows ever prominent: thyme, rosemary, lavender, and violet. With each bitter-sweet dry quaff, the climax draws ever closer. Embracing the final dregs, her palate finishes smooth with one last moment of barnyard funk, herbs, flowers, and fruit skins.

At the time of releasing my passions upon this bottle, the Avery 15th Anniversary Ale had a year and three months to her name. She could easily go to for a solid two years old and be just as good, maybe even better. I’m not sure how much longer than that I would pursue our forbidden relationship, but some risks are worth taking.

Pours a light amber with a white head. Aroma has spices, figs, caramel, orange, barnyard, a refreshing aroma. The taste is sour, as it was spontaniously fermented, it has the barnyard here too, and the brettanomyces really comes to show. Has a bit of the same sweetness of the belgian triple.

Bottled. Dark golden coloured. Murky. Dense beige head. aroma of grape, yeast, sweetness, spice and fruits. Flavour of citrus, yeast, fruits, spice. Medium bodied.Fruity and spiced yeast end. Thx paps for this

22oz bottle that I’ve had in the cellar since... well since the only time they made it! Glad I kept it, had time to dry out and surprisingly didn’t oxidize much at all, which I was always afraid of. Pours a slightly murky duller golden orange with a fizzy white head. Aroma is strong metallic iron/blood brett, tart fruit, funky, urinal cake, not super sweet. Flavor is much the same, upfront wave of metallic brett, then subtle tart fruits and flower, touch of oxidized hops as it warms, biscuity malt, nice med/light sweetness, some woody brett character emerges too, not quite as metallic as the Brabant. Medium/light bodied, fizzy sprtizy crisp carbonation. Glad it aged well, hides the 7.5% nicely.

Pours golden with a white head. Aroma is sour, barnyard funk, fruity. Flavor is lightly sour, lemon, hay, light spice with a dry, slightly puckering finish.