Avery Anniversary Fourteen

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

Serve in Snifter, Trappist glass

2007 bottle from Eagle River Liquor in Fulton, IL. Pours a slightly hazy dark chocolate brown with and absoutely huge rocky tan head that lasts forever and just looks beautiful. Aroma is of lots of dark fruit, toffee, caramel, fresh taffy, a decent amount of floral and citrus hops and a hint of alcohol. Flavor is caramel, toffee, roast, lots and lots of candied dates, overripe banana, a little raisin, molasses, burnt sugar, and some pine and citrus hops. FInish is dried fruit, a belgian like yeastiness, and some nice citrus, bitter and maybe some herbal hops. Body is medium, rather slick and very clean, this brew hides 9.5% really well. I would love to compare this to a fresh bottle, I bet this is better.

Very sweet Malty strong ale, hops do a fairly decent job of attempting to balance this out, very yeasty, bottled 2007, opened 2011.

Pours a dark brown, that shows as a clear garnet when held to the light, topped with a dense, pitted, frothy beige head. The aroma is a rich, deep malty blend of dark fruits, pineapple, white pepper and both floral and faint piney hops. Full-bodied and creamy-smooth with a nice bitter hop finish. Sweet yet almost smoky malts up front with an immediate hit of hop bitterness following, some citrus some spruce-like, with notes of dark fruits and a dry, lightly bitter and peppery finish. There’s a lot going on with this one and while I’m not sure that it’s entirely well integrated, it’s definitely interesting and worth a try should you get your hands on a bottle. I’d bet that this one would mellow and blend much better with a little more age on it.

Bottle at Butters Big Cellar Blowout! Thanks Butters for letting me choose what I wanted for this 400th rating. Pours a lacing, tan head with a dark brown body. Smells of molasses, dark bread, citrus, spice hops, ginger, and alcohol. Flavors the same but with some vanilla notes. The alcohol, hops, and sweetness are balanced very well.

Pours a dark copper color with a light tan head. Aroma is of molasses, citrus hops, caramel, dark fruits, and some alcohol. Very complex aroma. Starts of with sweet malts, molasses, citrus hops and some toasted malts. MIddle flavor is of dark fruits and nuts. Finishes with floral hops and alcohol to give it a delicious ending. I really enjoyed this brew.

22oz bottle: Pours to a deep brown body with a huge dark tan/mocha colored head that lasts and leaves nice lacing around the glass. When held to the light the body appears clear and a very deep garnet color. The aroma shows some sweet malts, some caramel, plums, prunes, and some fresh hops that show some grassy bitterness as well as hints of spicy floral hops. There’s also a slight sharp and astringent aroma that comes through, though I’m not even sure that "astringent" works to describe a scent. Taste is strange and makes me wonder if there’s a problem with the bottle and/or age, but looking at others ratings, what I’m tasting seems to match up. The first sip gives a very earthy hop, dirt, and an astringent cocoa malt flavor. After the first sip my palate gets past the bitterness and more aromas and flavors of chocolate come out. Flavors of wet moss, light wet spruce, the molasses is there but it’s nowhere near as sweet as molasses - I’d describe the flavor as more of a bitter dried chocolate/oak/bourbon. The alcohol definitely comes through on this one and at times I wonder if they used oak chips soaked in bourbon to brew this one. There’s also plenty of bitterness from the dry-hopping here which is quite noticeable on the palate but there’s only a mild strawberry flavor coming through from the hops. Finishes with an slight alcohol burn and some lingering hop bitterness. Medium bodied, medium-lively carbonation. At first sip I would describe this one as "bad" but after a few sips my palate adjusts and is better able to take the onslaught of bitterness. The best way I can describe this one is 2 parts amber ale, 1 part dry stout, 3 parts double-super-imperial-dry-hopped ipa. Interesting.

Bottled. Beer is very dark brown, nearly opaque. Head is large, off-white, frothy, slowly diminishing, mostly lasting. Tall arches of lacing on the snifter.<P> First impression on the nose: Agressive roast, pungent hop, funky/surly net. Malty with heavy notes of roasted/burnt grain, moderate coffee, light caramel and cookie; Hoppy with very heavy notes of resin (so heavy that it’s tip-toeing toward rubbery), moderate notes of grapefruit/lemon zest, light note of brewed tea; Yeasty with a light doughy note; Trace of cola, cinnamon, light-to-moderate alcohol.<P> The flavor is moderately-to-heavily sweet, moderately-to-heavily bitter, with a long, moderately bitter, lightly sweet, moderately warm finish.<P> The body is full, the texture is velvety and the carbonation is lively.

Thanks to rsamayoa. Bottle: @ rateberians informal gathering. malty, smokey, earhty and woody, nice balance conplex and well balanced.