Avery Samaels Oak-Aged Ale

Bottle@Home. Complex aroma with leather, oak, vanilla and raisin. Orange/red color, small beige head, good lace. Very sweet, bitter, raisin, caramel, vanilla and pepper. Sticky and syrupy. Complex, nice balance, overwhelming flavors.

bottle, batch 2. excellent. Samaels fits the English Barley Wine style quite well... extreme sweet malt presence, lots of caramel and oak in the nose as well as alcohol. the alcohol in the aroma almost burns your nose... nice and smooth over the palate with a touch of spice on the tip. vanilla, caramel, oak, bourbon, and sweet malts dominate the palate. great finish with a touch of alcohol burn down the throat with a sweet heavy syrupy dark fruit presence in the back. drinks like a fine cognac. absolutely wonderful.... get some if you can.... it’s worth the $8/bottle. It is kind of like a slimmed down, cheaper Utopias.

This is one of the better beers in the line-up, definitely the best of the Demon series, because one one reason, there is not a shitload of hops in this. I really enjoy the aroma here, some dark fruits and vanilla, with just a hint of wood. A little on the sweet side, bordering on cloying, but not quite, still a bit out of balance on the alcohol, it is quite hot, I think some of this will mellow out with age though.

A very nice looking beer with a medium dark brown body and a nice froth of tan. Solids kept suspended by the carbonation. Aroma is not huge but is delightful. Dark fruit including raisins and alcohol dominate. Malt and plums are undertones. This beer is a sweet malt, alcohol, dark fruit, and caramel lover’s dream. All of those, and more, are here in force. Could we get this with a lower ABV? Please? A GREAT beer, though.

Coppery pour with a little tan head. Lightly fruity malt aroma with hints of vanilla, oak and alcohol. Potent and sweet, sugary flavor: caramel, vanilla, plum, lightly fruity. Syrupy on the palate. An awesome brew.

Thanks to somebody for bringing this to the Alesmith Release Party line tasting. Sweet sweet sweet. Sweet aromas. Sweet flavors. Sweet aftertaste. Everything about this beer is very sweet. Malty and molassesy sweetness on the aromas. Flavor follows suit and ends with a very sweet finish. I like sweet beer too, and this was crazy sweet. Not bad.

Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a cloudy rust brown color with a trace of a dark tan head. The aroma was lightly sweet and fruity with a hint of caramel. The flavor was fruity and resiny with strong notes of orange peel and caramel. There was a thick and sweet malt base. The beer was hoppy but not the least bit bitter. The finish was long, sweet and fruity with a lingering caramel element. The beer was thick with a light alcohol taste but no burn - like fine bourbon. Absolutely marvelous!

Batch 2, bottled May 06I’ve kinda almost been dreading this one, having read previous reviews and comments. Sure enough, it smells very sweet and boozy, but not as much as I’d feared. But still, a lot of rum, molassess, butterscotch and caramel. Flavor is similiar, with pretty much a laundry list of syrupy, gooey flavors. And it seems very thick and syrupy, as well. And another funny thing- I don’t know how much oak character there is when fresh, but its almost non-existant at this point. Or if its there, its covered up by honey caramel rum vanilla toffee - you get the idea.