Avery Anniversary Fifteen

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

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

Bottled. Frothy white head, good lace, hazy yellow pour. Lemon, dough, and a little barnyard in flavor and aroma. Medium bodied with a pleasingly dry finish. I think Avery did a great job with this one and was surprised it’s percentile was so low. I thought it was quite excellent.

Avery Fifteen is a golden bodied, white headed farmhouse style brewed with figs, hibiscus flowers, and white pepper. Funky, fruity, sour, and bitter, it is a surprising ale with a fantastic and generous dark finish.

It tastes and smells so unique from the combo of sweetness and white pepper. It has a perfect cloudy dark lemon saison color. The white pepper is the only thing I don’t enjoy on the palate, but the figs and hibiscus are subtle and delicious.

Bomber poured into Trappist glass. Bottled in April 2008. Drank in May 2010. Aroma is so pungently funky with Brett, it’s almost overbearing! I love it! (Sorry, Brenn79, I know you hate it when I use the word funky in all my reviews of beers involving Brettanomyces. No other word fits as well!!) Sour sour aroma with notes of figs. Pours a hazy yellowish orange with a medium head and foamy lacework. Taste starts out a little sweet, but the sourness dominates. Very little bitterness. This is one of the fullest bodied beers I’ve ever had. Finishes with a floral acidic mouth-filling aftertaste. Carbonation is medium; oily and creamy texture. I’m surprised at the average score here. I’m blown away by this one. Perhaps the reviewers who ranked it fresh should rerank it now that it’s aged a little? One other thing--the category this beer is under on here is "Belgian Ale" which isn’t very specific. It definitely fits the description of a sour ale.

Bottled in april 08. Now at a year old this one is hitting it’s stride fellas. Golden hazy pour with a white head that quickly dissipates. Aroma is mangos and band aids with the funk coming on nice. Flavor is a little sweet up front with a great medicinal barnyard flavor that coats the tongue long after a swallow. Aside from the absent hop profile this really reminds me of an orval with about a year on it or the first year oro with about a year on it. I actually was so impressed with this beer that after trying it yesterday I went out and bought some more just to be sure it was that good. It is. Cheers JON

UPDATED: JUL 6, 2010 got to try this on tap at papago before i cracked a bomber... looks like it’s gonna be cool when the brett takes over... pours a hazy orange golden with a white head and light drippy lacing. the aroma is strange... rather biere de garde-ish... orange, cinnamon, clove, lots of yeast, light apple cider vinegar/sour fruit without the harshness, minerals, wood, funky and weird. the flavor is a bit strange... it’s very medicinal and mineral-y akin to vitamin pills, wood, musty funk, cinnamon/clove/spice, lots of weird and a spicy dry finish. light to medium body. prickly mouth feel from high carbonation seems to work... i’m confused...7/4/7/3/15/3.6

bottle sampled one year after release... this has been sitting at room temperature the entire time! it has almost a pure bretty stink on the nose!... ok, there are some notes of malty sweetness, flowers, earth and fruit... peaches and oranges but not figs. again, on the palate there is a fruitiness but fo’ sho’ not figs... flavors of sweet juicy apricots?, oranges, cement, flowers and an herbaceous bretty finish. it is pretty dry throughout and at times shows some tartness. it is medium bodied with a light airy carbonation... refreshingly weird and impressive... hitting its stride.9/4/8/4/17/4.2

1/2/2010 this thing has turned to pure doo doo... yep, brilliant baby diaper galore! dry, funky and an udder pleasure to drink. 9/4/9/4/18/4.4

hazy yellow tangerine body, big white head, aroma is all brett, flavor is magnificent arrangement of tropical fruits and wild funky brett, very soft and hardly acidic or sour at all, all funk which is exactly what I hope for every time I read brettanomyces on a label, some citrus rind bitters that hang back and meld with the wild funk perfectly... I think I saw three more bottles of this at the shop, I’m going back tomorrow and I’m buying them all, seriously, that good

Once in a while, a beer comes along with an outrageous premise. Avery fifteen, with its use of figs, white pepper, hibiscus flowers, and 100% brettanomyces fermentation appears to be one such beer. I chose to pour it into a Duvel tulip, which it graced with clear, golden body, and a one to two finger thick head that faded over time. The smell was a mix of fruits like granny smith apples, papaya and cantaloupe, floral and herbal vegetable matter, and a milder than anticipated, but ever present funk. The taste was balanced between sour-tart and spicy-sweet. The pepper showed up only in the finish.I never did detect any fig. The mouthfeel was drying and refreshing. If I had not been told about the brewing with pure brett, I would never have guessed it. Not as wild as I have had before, but tasty nonetheless.