Avery Anniversary Fourteen

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

Serve in Snifter, Trappist glass

courtesy of gunhaver. pours out dark brown with creamy golden/beige head. Aroma is just loaded with malts, molasses, dark fruits Taste really didn’t have too much hops to be noticed. Lots of roasted malts with complex dark fruits presence and underlying notes of chocolate.

Dark molasses, dark chocolate, piney, citrusy, caramel and milk chocolate jump from the nose. Full hoppy mouth, molasses, grapefruit, dark chocolate. Citrusy finish. Generally I like IBAs and this is no exception.

A- Pours a very deep, dark brown hue with over 3-fingers’ of off white creamy head and big sticky lacing all over the glass S- Nose is full of sweet sweet aromas! Belgian candy and cotton candy dominates, dark fruits in there as well, these are nicely balance with caramel/toffee/chocolate malts, a little bit of spice and hops T- Another BIG, BOLD offering from Avery (surprise!), sweet malts dominate but are kept nicely in check with underlying bitter hops (not too cloying), dark fruit jumps up in the middle and finishes with a sweet alcohol presence M- Full-bodied ale that is thick and creamy, coats the tongue nicely, very pleasing carbonation D- Great offering from Avery that requires time and focus to truly enjoy, almost a ’sipping beer’ that I would not want to drink in higher quantities particularly since it is close to 10%abv

Bottle. Pours a mahogany body with a 2 finger tan frothy head. Big malty caramel, dense fruity esters, a light floral hop bitterness drying but not cloying

<i>Bomber from BOTW (Rochester), served at cellar temperature in a tulip glass. OC09/08.</i>

<b>App.</b>: Very deep ruby, clear (?), large tan meringue. <b>Aroma</b>: Very strong C-hops – grapefruits, pine and resin; a fair bit of caramel and sticky sweet malt, slightly tangy and fruity, some dark dried fruits, a bit of meaty/brothy/savoury soy sauce. <b>Palate</b>: Full body, fairly soft carbonation, syrupy. <b>Flav.</b>: More malt than the nose – caramleized sugar, molasses, lemony citrus, some ginger and allspice, some pine and resinous hops, some minty herbals; somewhat sweet with good bitterness and lingering alcohol, ginger, a little hops and malt.

Big beer!

Poured a deep brown with a big beige head. Aroma is ripe fruit, belgian yeast, and sweet malt. Flavor is raisin, toffee, clove and bananas. Very complex. Glad I have a couple more of these to see how they age.

Bottle. Moderately sweet fruity aroma. Deep brownish red body, nice size light brown head. Flavor is sweet, with berries and malt, also some alcohol. Finish has very prominent alcohol.

The bomber decants as half completely opaque purplish brown-black liquid and half tan froth that requires minutes to subside, revealing demented op-art lace. The aroma struggles to combine thick chocolate-cocoa scents with fruity-tart impressions of blueberry, sweet cherry, and grape soda... and a new car/hot vinyl character casts an unwelcome pall. Flavors convey themselves as pure bedlam... one’s tongue is pummelled by bittersweet bakers’ chocolate and concentrated winey Costa Rican coffee, riddled with raisins and soy sauce, and underscored by phenolic clove and plastic tastes. Weirdly uber-thick milky, pasty palate. Some fetid fishty twang in the aftertaste. Promised hops are unable to emerge from this tarpit of a beer. Closer to a poorly designed imperial stout than anything else, the libation smothers the drinker with discombobulating sensory overload. Brutish and sodomizing.