Avery Hog Heaven

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Boulder, Colorado USA

Perfect true amber color, with a medium thick creamy beige head, excellent retention and heavy lacing. Strong hop aroma: pine resins and maybe a little citrus. Extraordinarily creamy palate and unbelievably well balanced. Full rich sweet caramel malt circled by tingly resiny and spicy hop flavors. Finish is strongly bitter but not unbalanced at all. Both malt and hops lingering in the mouth. One of the smoothest and most drinkable barleywines I’ve encountered.

This strikes me as more of an IPA than a barley wine. The aroma reminds me of some kinda weed I used to smoke, which is not neccesarily a bad thing. Kinda piney. Nice ruby brown color, off white head with plenty of lacing. Wonderful hop flavor. Not much malt, but thats OK. Still not convinced this is a barley wine, but very good brew.

Nice deep red color with sticky lacing. Smell is definitely hops and some sweetness. The taste is excellent, the epitome of west coast B-wine. This and Bigfoot are neck and neck in that respect. This, however, offered more complexity, with fruity esters coming through the bitterness. Huge malt to back up the 100IBUs. A damn fine B-wine, one I’ll have again for sure. Too bad they only have bombers, though...

Dark ruby amber. Thick, off-white head. Sweet hop aroma. Big hops for a barley wine. Needs to warm up a bit. Had this on draft in Dunedin,FL with DragonStout and some friends, Jason and Jen. It was unbelievably smooth and easy to drink. Back to beer. Nice lacing. A decent amount of sweet malts are overpowered by the hops. I love hoppy barley wine. Even in the bottle it is dangerously smooth at 9.2%. Excellent.

Pours rubin red with an small of white head. Aroma and taste is fruity, sweet and powerfull with lots of hops. Very soft, thick and delicious. The taste last forever.

Honestly the most drinkable barley wine that I know of. Rich crimson hue with a tan-white head. Nice carbonation. Piney and citrusy hop nose lead into a fairly dry and medium body mouthfeel. I think the reason for the popularity of this beer is that it really is a neglected beer style, Imperial Red Ale. I don’t care what the brewery calls it that’s what this is. Almost clean to the point of being refreshing. The hop is lively and not as huge and astringently bitter as many barley wines can be. There is some candied malt, but nothing like the sometimes syrupy body that some of these beers can have. Very well balanced and something that I enjoy year round.

I got this at State Line Liquor in Elkton, MD for $4 because it was the lowest priced Avery they had and it turned out to be awesome. It is quite different from the Barley Wines I’ve had. It seems to be pretty hoppy and I was thinking IPA and Tidiaguy said Double IPA. I don’t know how to go on-this beer has an awesome mix with the caramel malt, the hops and a nice finish. I would definately pick this one up again.

I had a stiff neck today all day and it was really hurting tonight so what could I find in the cellar that might help that.. This big beer looked like the answer so I gave it a try.. Pours ruby red with a beautiful IPA like offwhite head that threatens to overflow the glass then settles back and laces the glass like a spiderweb. Nice sweet malt aroma as well as some beautiful hops blend together to make this smell delicious. I could tell right away this was going to be better than the other barley wines that I had tasted prior. The taste is sticky sweet malts some cloves caramel and even a touch of citrus from the hops. The balance on this one is amazing. I could not detect the alcohol until I was finished then I knew how much it had in it.. The malts and hops do an amazing job of disguising it though. On the palate it is very full bodied and almost sticky sweet inside my mouth. Malty and heavy yet smooth and creamy from the hoppy head. Very balanced and sooo smooth for a barley wine. I was beginning to wonder if I didn’t like this style, but this one turned me into a believer. A very good brew.. It also made the pains in my neck drift away quite nicely!