Avery Mephistopheles Stout

I performed the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram tonight and this is what happened. I released his spirit. Demon was angry. Poured thick tar black. No light in his soul. Tan head. Smelled like yeast, grandma’s prune juice mixed with vodka, and a little bit of applesauce. Like a jilted lover, he became totally bestial but could not disguise a childlike sweetness. Immature and pretentious, he came on strong for strong’s sake like a college kid on steroids. Simpleminded fratboy who can’t hold your liquor! I screamed in Enochian and said that he’d have to wait at least five years before the next time I popped his cap. Then I succumbed (why can’t I say succame?). I had an incubus in the house...

Batch 1: BBB63 Thanks! Much better than the Batch 3, less burn and the aging helped smooth this one out. Poured really dark just like the bottle, and had a hazy brown head. Aroma is roasted malt and alcohol. The taste is mostly alcohol, but still drinkable. I think in a blind taste test this beer would do better than most people think. Good solid stout, just a little overpriced.

12oz. bottle Nov 2007 Batch 3 (from Ledger’s Liquors, Berkeley, CA). This pours one seriously thick head, especially considering the amount of alcohol in this!! Very thick body. Wonderful "dark" malty aroma that pours up from the glass. Flavor is one for the ages too. Obviously packed with lots of alcohol, but not an unpleasant alcohol. Warms the tongue just by rolling some of it over the tongue. Flavors like dark brown sugar and raisins. Reminds me of a burnt Meyer’s Rum even, though not as sugary. Says its an imperial stout, but has lots in common, flavor-wise, to a Belgian Quad. Lots of hops on the palate in the aftertaste, which is perhaps the only achiles Heel for me. I wish it was a little software in the aftertaste.It if weren’t so blasted expensive ($10/btl!!!) I’d buy several to put away and age as I think this one is going to mellow over a few years.

Goooood Stout. Very black and very thick. Aroma of a sweet malt. Heavy mouth with tastes of figs, plums, raisins, coffee and chocolate. The alcohol is a hair loud though.

Bottle, batch 2. Aroma of very earthy, dried pears and apples, some coffee integrated with these light but very vinous, tough fruit scents. Flavor more heavily coffee with more fruits coming on, still the apple and pear at the beginning, but more fig, raisin, some prune later, even some dark cherry/plum if you really search. Much sweeter and less chocolate/coffee dominated than your average imperial stout, but then again this beer can hardly be categorized. Definitely a sipper, but I didn’t find it at all boozy, all the richness and appropriate but not shining hops really do away with that 16%. A great beer, flat out.

2006 vintage. Pours dark black with a surprisingly thick beautiful dark tan/reddish head. Aroma of light fruits- apple and pear. Tastes initially of dark fruits (more apple, pear, fig, prune, raisin), alcohol, and I got some sweet carmelly nougat in the swallow. Very thick and sweet and heavy. I thought it was very good for the high alcohol content, but the sweetness/heaviness was still a bit much for me.

Several Batch 1 bottle samples at Stogies and Stouts 2008. Thanks a ton, Travis. Will update rating asap when my head stops pounding.

12oz bottle from Bev4less in Santee. Pours an opaque black color with a two finger tan head that receded to 1/4 inch. Aroma of coffee, chocolate, raspberries, molasses and alcohol. The Taste was true to the aroma with a fair amount of biter hops thrown in for good measure. The mouthfeel is smooth, full and creamy. The finish is long and surprisingly clean. Overall: This stout would be more enjoyable to me if the alcohol did not show through quite so much. Still it is a respectable and formidable drink. Recommended.