RateBeer
   Home Sign Up or Login Advanced Search
   People Ratings Events Places Forums Shop Magazine
      Top By Category  RateBeer Best  Latest Ratings  Top 50    

Home > Brewers > Colorado > Avery Brewing Company >

Avery Samaels Oak-Aged Ale

Avery Samaels Oak-Aged Ale

* picture credits
copyright may apply

 Percentile 
88
overall
A Barley Wine brewed by
Avery Brewing Company

Boulder, Colorado USA

bottled
common

on tap
available

Broad Distribution
Find this beer

Add Distribution Data
Send Corrections

 Ratings  Average  Score  Seasonal  ABV  Style Pctl  Serve in  Advanced 
5133.57/5.03.57/5.0Special15.53%50.6 Snifter P  Stats

Commercial Description:
Samael is the prince of demons, the angel of death, accuser and destroyer. Filled with enmity towards man, he planted the vine, the forbidden tree of paradise. Behold his venom and vengeance, both sweet and tempting, enticing you, his spellbound victim, within his wings.

Samael’s Ale is a super-caramelly, oak aged English-style strong ale. Perhaps the least hoppy (sacrilege here at Avery!!) beer we’ve brewed, to accentuate the malt. The oak is very apparent in this rich and high gravity ale, adding additional depth and complexity with a woody and cask-like nose and a pronounced vanilla flavor on the palate. This potent ale is the second installment, along with The Beast, of our “Demons of Ale Series”.

Brewed with Rocky Mountain water, malted barley, turbinado sugar, hops, yeast, and American oak chips.

Most RecentTop RatersHighest Ratings Who's Rated This?
 JohnQPublic (162), Brooklyn, New York, USA
3.2 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
6/103/56/103/514/20

May 21, 2008    Updated: Jun 22, 2008
Bottle, 2005. Pours brown-amber, with the faintest whispy hint of white head. Aroma is vanilla, oak, rich, sweet toffee, alcohol. Taste starts off with a huge cloying sweetness, toffee and caramel, raisins, goes down with a hint of oak and and a big hit of alcohol warmth. Finish is a syrupy sweetness, mouthfeel is pure syrup, sticky, with a very mild, tingly carbonation. This one felt a bit young let it sit for another 3-5 years. 12 oz may be a bit much as well.

 robinvboyer (1007), Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, Canada
3.6 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
9/103/56/103/515/20
Sep 7, 2008  
batch #3 very dark ruby pour, small off white head, and lots of floaters.The aroma of LOADED with caramel malt, huge notes of oak, and lots of vanilla. This is the perfect example of a beer that realy benefits from the oak, and really brings out the natural vanilla that oak adds. Now for the flavour.........WHOA this is a HUGE beer. This is the definition of extreme beer. Right off the bat you get SMACKED in the face with booze! A huge warm boozy note warms my mouth and throat. After the initial shock, there are some really nice notes of oak, and vanilla finished with some great caramel malt. This is a sipper, and i think will be tough to finish the whole bottle. This beer was bottled in April of 07, but it could still easily benefit from some age. THIS IS EXTREME BEER.


TearsforBeers (3), Ohio, USA
does not count click to see why this rating of Avery Samaels Oak-Aged Ale does not count
4.1 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
8/104/58/104/517/20
Sep 5, 2008  
Aroma was boozy caramel with a bit of oak. Nearly opaque orange-amber appearance. Flavor is strong strong strong on malt, very sweet. Body is thick, mouthfeel is syrupy. Overall a great powerful, desert beer.


 CaptBier (252), Birmingham, Alabama, USA
4 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
7/105/58/104/516/20
Aug 31, 2008  
An amber beer with a thin orange head. The aroma is sweet with very strong notes of caramel, but also lesser notes of alcohol and cardamom. The flavor is very sweet and quite strong with a good hop presence as well as strong notes of both cardamom and cinnamon and a huge alcohol warming, leading to a dry spiced and alcohol end. The mouth feel is thick like drinking syrup. One sip of this actually drove my gf crazy, and gag, and thats hard to do.


IPALover (56), Carlsbad, California, USA
3 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
4/104/54/104/514/20
Aug 29, 2008  
Aroma was overwhelming of oak with almost a bourbon scent. This was too strong for me. Color was a nice medium red color with a white creamy head. The taste was too hot and syrupy. Would have preferred it be alittle drier and with less fusil alcohol. Generally not one of my preferred barleywines as it has too much port and hot alcohol influence.


 Drink4Satan (468), Bristol, Rhode Island, USA
3.4 Aroma Appearance Flavor Palate Overall
7/103/56/104/514/20
Aug 22, 2008  
Pours a deep amber colour with a small, quickly fading off-white head that fades to a small ring. The aroma is extremely rich, with notes of fig and port, vinous malts, molasses, vanilla, wood and overripe fruits. The flavour is cloyingly sweet with a massive vanilla/oak presence, chewy caramel and turbinado. It is noticeably boozy and the fig and port complex is also huge in the taste. The palate is syrupy and full, obviously, with fine and lightly tingly carbonation. It’s not too intense, because I would never admit to that, but it is definitely overly sweet.




WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ MORE RATINGS?
Then join us! RateBeer is made by beer enthusiasts for the craft beer community. Your basic membership is free and allows you to read all beer ratings.

Desired User Name
*
Valid Email (Needed to verify your account)
*
Relax. RateBeer is 100%, guaranteed spam-free. That's our promise to you.

I agree to the terms of the RateBeer User Agreement

RATE THIS BEER

Aroma

rating assistance

Appearance

rating assistance

Flavor

rating assistance

Palate

rating assistance

Overall impression

rating assistance

TOTAL SCORE

Comments

More Barley Wines

Hair of the Dog Dave (4.47)

Lost Abbey The Angels Share (4.27)

Lost Abbey The Angels Share (Bourbon Barrel) (4.25)

North Coast Old Stock Cellar Reserve Brandy Barrel (4.18)

AleSmith Barrel Aged Old Numbskull (4.17)

21st Amendment Bourbon Barrel Lower da Boom Barleywine (4.15)

Stone Bourbon Barrel Old Guardian Barley Wine (4.13)

Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine (4.11)

Kuhnhenn Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine (4.08)

Barley Johns Barrel-Aged Rosies Ale (Batch 2) (4.07)

More Colorado Brewers

Silverton Brewery
  Silverton
Crested Butte Brewing
  Englewood
SKA Brewing
  Durango
Spruce Mountain Meadery
  Larkspur
The Eldo
  Crested Butte
Estes Park Brewery
  Estes Park
Crabtree Brewing Company
  Greeley
Rock Bottom South Denver
  Englewood
Steamworks Brewing Co. (US)
  Durango
Dry Dock Brewing Co.
  Aurora
Fort Collins Brewery
  Fort Collins
Wolf Rock Brewing
  Keystone
Pagosa Brewing Company
  Pagosa Springs
Bristol Brewing Company
  Colorado Springs

About RateBeer | Add A Beer | Add A Brewer | Edit Personal Info | 100 Beer Club | FAQ | Log out | Feedback? | Copyright 2000-2008, RateBeer LLC