Avery Mephistopheles Stout

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Boulder, Colorado USA

Serve in Snifter

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Bottle. Pours very dark, but not quite completely opaque. The head is brown and considerable in size for such a big stout. The initial aroma strikes me as slighlty sour like a Belgian, but this is soon surpassed by hints of chocolate and molasses. The flavor starts with a big alcohol/dry burst, but changes to malt sweetness. This brew is very young and needs to age some. My expectations were high and while good, it did not meet them as I wished. Maybe a year or two in the bottle will improve things.

Super dense black, thick creamy lasting dark tan head. Rich and very complex nose of chocolate covered cherry, mocchachino, currant, almond biscotti, and dark bread, with faint smoky tones. Intense and bold flavors of roasted chocolate, port, candied berries and nuts, and mild espresso, with a soft kiss of hop bitterness late. Sweet, yet not annoyingly so. ABV is well hidden, warming, and not noticed until standing. Yikes! Massive full bodied, soft carbonation, bittersweet finish. Certainly worth the price of admission in my book. Right up there with Dark Lord and DFH WWS....

UPDATED: SEP 22, 2006 Big big thanks to Philip for being the generous guy he is, and hooking me up with this! Wow, great stuff. Opaque motor oil pour, topped with a medium sized mochachino head. Good retention present, and there’s some pretty lacing. The nose is a huge kick of anise infused booze, stirred with dark chocolate, espresso beans and some fig. Indeed! The flavours in thisguy are so huge, that you HAVE to sip it. This one small bottle is plenty for 3 people. Flavours are caramalized fig, tripple espresso bean, dark bitter chocolate, with booze and dark rum. Wow, this is good, great, grand. Thanks so much to Philip for hooking me up.

Bottle, Batch #1 (Jan. 2006). Poures a dark brown with a bit of deep tan head that dissapears quick. The aroma hit me before i had the cap off all the way, which made me even more excited for this beer. Chocolate, roasted coffee, molasses and a hint of dark fruit with some alcohol as well. The flavor is no let down. Has a nice roasted flavor to it, chocolate, alcohol, molasses and the dark fruit is there as well. The alcohol is noticeable but not overpowering. Gives it a nice warm finish but doesn’t kill the flavor. The mouth is smooth and thick. Well done, Avery.

UPDATED: FEB 18, 2007 bottle. thanks for sharing, Len. This is great stuff - pours a deep dark black with a medium mocha-brown head. the aroma is all that you would expect in a nice imperial and more. tobacco, chocolate roast, toffee, cake, and alcohol. huge body and certainly presents itself as a slow sipper. flavours of roasty raisins, grape, and chocolate. lots of overpowering alcohol warm at times. BIG is one word to describe such a beast. I’d like to give this a try again sometime. Top notch. 9/4/8/4/16

Alright, so I’m trying this again almost a year later and I have to say that I don’t enjoy much anymore (same batch). The aroma is very heavy with chocolate, bourbon, and burnt caramel. The flavour is very ridiculously sweet, nearly medicinal, and quite harsh in terms of alcohol. After a few swigs I was still feeling the burn after a few minutes. 7/4/5/2/11

UPDATED: FEB 2, 2007 Bottle (Batch #1, Jan 06) : Courtesy of Philip via trade. The aroma on this is huge. Just popping the cap at arms length was enough to start getting a dose of the aroma. Lots of roastiness, moderate cherry, molasses, chocolate, grapefruit hops, and alcohol. Pours a dark brown, virtually black, with a brown head that has good retention. A film of lacing clings to the side of the glass. Very sweet and malty. Lots of molasses up front with moderate chocolate. Moderate cherry and dark fruits. Roastiness is very subtle in the finish and seems to get stronger in the aftertaste once the sweetness fades. Alcohol is light in flavor and moderate in warming affect with a light burn. Just the slightest touch of grapefruit hops in the finish. Alcohol flavor increase slightly as it warms, but never becomes overbearing. Big syrupy mouthfeel, but creamy at the same time. This is impressive.

I’ve heard all sorts of rumors that this beer is not aging well. Well since it’s not bottled conditioned, I don’t how long it will hold up, but one year later it’s still damn tastey. Sweetness is real big, but has toned down just a touch. Roastiness in the finish is more pronounced along with a touch of expresso that I didn’t notice before because it was dominated by the extreme sweetness. I don’t know that it has improved numbers-wise, but it’s just as good...just a tad different than before.

UPDATED: FEB 27, 2008 Ok, let’s see what this bad boy has going. A hard pour gives me a nicebrown head over a dark oily black liquid. The aroma is more like the flemish sour I had a week ago than your average imperial stout...a sweet sour aroma, some sherry in the mix..odd for the style. The flavor is on the sweet side...sherry, soy sauce,alcohol, toffee, cherry, some coffee, and some chocolate...this beer has a lot going on at once...it’s almost confusing! The beer is thick and syrupy on the tounge...a little clumpy at times, but I’m sure that will change with age(though there’s no denying its presence). This wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was worth the price of admission. I would really like to re-rate this when it has aged for a while...we shall see how long I can hold out with my other bottle. I did, and it doesn’t age well.

Very black in color with a nice tan head. Pungent, still good, aroma of dark chocolate. Almost smells like a german chocolate cake. As in the aroma the taste is very sweet. Hard sherry , slight burning sensation. Velvety cherry flavor, quite intriguing, cough syrup anyone? Dark roast aftertaste, lingering coffee finishes it out. Take small sips and steps drinking this one, the devil is watching.

Pours deep black with a cherry/chestnut foam measuring about two fingers high. (You know, they call them fingers but I’ve never actually seen them fing.) The aroma reminded me a bit of a dry merlot after eating a Hershey bar. The flavor was so huge, that the small sip I started off with felt like it was to big to fit in my mouth. Sweet Sherry and chocolate covered cherries dominate the flavor with a slight alcohol feel in the finish but barely any alcohol flavor. Almost too sweet.

UPDATED: FEB 18, 2008 Batch 1. Alright. I’m redoing this rating because I had this scored way high. It is a good beer. It’s not complex. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s kinda chocolaty and roasty, little hop bitterness in there. The alcohol kick, I think works well with the other flavors. It’s strong beer and you can tell. It’s certainly a sipper. It’s a well made beer though, being what it is. I like it, not as much as I thought when I first tasted it.
At 2 years I think Batch 1 has held up well. It’s very strong, but the alcohol isn’t hot or all that unpleasant. There is a flavor going on here that I’ve never found in any other beer, and I like it quite a bit.