Avery Sixteen

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Saison
Boulder, Colorado USA

This is world-class. Hate to say it. Huge sour-brown profile, so much so that I thought it to be mislabeled. Underrated here.

Tap at Capones. Pours a milky golden yellow with a full creamy white head that laced. Aroma of tropical fruits, peach, saison spicy yeast notes, bready and fruity hop character. Flavor of bready malt, tropical fruits, orange, fresh picked peaches, pepper, saison esters, dry like a saison should be.

22 oz bottle provided by both Gregis and JB. Pour is murky hazed yellow with a smallish off white head. Aroma of big honey, floral, spice, clove, green pepper (vegetal) yeastiness, some mild peach and apricot. There is also some plastic and "port a potty" odor in there as well that detracts. A ton going on in this weird nose. Taste is more subtle and mild than the nose, grainy wheat, long clove and spice element. Big honey and mild fruit sweetness. Palate is medium, quite mouth coating. Low carbonation. Overall a pretty weird beer, though it turned around quite a bit on the taste. Thanks for opening these, Greg and John.

Damned if I can taste a peach in there anywhere, but it’s tasty all the same. Definitely has all the characteristics of a good saison. Maybe I just got a tiny bit of peach on the last burp, but that was a stretch. Smells very grainy, with hints of belgian yeast. Tastes like a pretty good saison. I do detect honey and it’s a tiny bit floral, so I suspect that’s the jasmine. But no peach. All the same, solid. Would go into rotation at normal bomber prices, but seeing this is an anniversary beer, I’m glad to say I tried it and it was pretty good.

Tap at Capone’s. Pours out a murky golden/straw color with a small lacing white head. Aroma of some sweet fruits, flowers and grass. Taste is well balanced and definitely interesting, floral notes, sweet fruits, some tartness, grass, yeast and a slight hop bitterness, definitely makes for a good summer brew.

Draft at Coles in Buffalo. Pours gold with a thin head. Very floral aroma. I don’t know what jasmine smells like but I’m guessing that’s what I’m smelling. Some bready malt and spice as well. The flavor follows with nice floral notes, a hint of honey sweetness, floral hops, and a dash of spice. Dry finish. Different but pretty good.

Reviewed on 6/25/2009...bomber into Ommegang chalice with a mild pffft of the cap. Jasmine, peach and honey, they say... Very pale...like white grapefruit juice and maybe a little straw. But there’s a decent ½ - 2/3 finger of head that drops pretty quickly but half of it sticks around. There’s a lot of active carbonation here...after a while there are a fair amount of yeasty wisps up top. It’s a little translucent but not hazy - the glare from the lighting in the house isn’t helping, either...but that’s irrelevant. Definitely honey, and some kind of flower - I guess it’s the jasmine. Sort of a cross between gardenia and chamomile. A faint hint of peach essence. Yeast electricity is there, as is a bit of austere, light grains. Hop profile is pretty latent and nondescript. At first there’s a little metallic bite - after this goes away (quickly), there’s a nice carbonation bite that works in sync with the jasmine, the significant dryness and the peach essence...along with a fair amount of honey. Hop bite comes around a little bit - Styrian Goldings, maybe? Yeast electricity does its job, as does a little light Belgian candi sugar. Solid if not spectacular without the peculiar adjuncts, but I gotta be honest - they mess this one up quite a bit. Palate feel is, as mentioned before, a little dry and tinny. Not a huge fan of the jasmine. Or the peaches. In this case, not even the honey. It’s well-constructed but personally I could do without a lot of sweetness in a Saison...just a bit of candi sugar and go on with yo’ bad seff. Yeast electricity dries it up nicely with a little Styrian Goldngs hop pine. Finish benefits from the carbonation, which fortunately cuts through the sweetness. Given the ingredients this is definitely well-constructed, but I don’t dig the extra-sweet and floral adjuncts in here. It drinks a bit on the light side even with the sweetness, so I imagine if you took all that stuff out you’d have a pretty damn good Saison.

Bottle. Light amber beer with a whitish head. Spice and light malt aroma with some yeastiness. Orange-honey flavor with sweet malt and yeasty spice. Medium bodied. Sweet malt and orange lingers with some yeast and spice.