Avery The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Boulder, Colorado USA

Bottle @ Københavnske Øldage 2007 in Copenhagen. Alc. 9,3% Clear amber color with a small fizzy fair lacing off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, caramel, moderate hoppy, fruity, vintage like BW. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and moderate bitter with a average to long duration. Body is medium to full, texture is oily, syrupy, carbonation is soft, finish feel is light alcoholic.

White head on dark golden body; Big malty sweet almost BW like nose; Very soft and sweet body, a bit of bitterness gives it some depth; Long a little bitter finish, soft and malty sweet. Oktober what?

2006 Bottle (9.1%). Pretty happy about finding one of these in PartyPak, hoping it’s held up well. Aroma is a load of caramel malt with good toasted notes and, yes, a touch of alcohol. Clear copper body with medium carbonation and a medium, soapy beige head. Body is just massive - loaded with bittersweet, slick, delicious malt. Alcohol actually gives needed backbone to a style with the potential to be very weak - and then goes a little bit further into burning territory. But only subtly. Actually, the heat is nearly indistinguishable from the prickling spice at the back of the throat and lingering into the aftertaste. Mangled German on the label is EXTREMELY ANNOYING, but the product is good enough - a malt bomb, yes, but a successful experiment.

Bottle @ Copenhagen Øl Festival 2007. Small fizzy off-white head that mostly diminished. Spar lacing. Clear flat amber colour. Rye bread, caramel, grain, fruit, medium bodied with an average carbonation. Moderated sweet flavour with some toasted bitter notes. Sweet finish.

Slight unclear gold with ful lasting head. Malty grain & hop aroma. Full fruity and spicy taste - filling body. Slight warmth from alcohol. Sweetness (malty caramel) and very good lacings

2006, this pumped up marzen is a tad toasted malts and even a drop of smokiness. It is drinkable and fine with food, but a bomber is way too much. I get a lot of carmel offset by hops. Well done, but Maybe 6 oz. is all I want to drink.

Sampled at a gathering of TN Ratebeerians a couple months ago; thanks to Springslicker for bringing it. Almost clear orange in the glass, with a fuzzy sudsy white head of medium size and retention. Smells creamy at first, giving way to some funky bread yeast; in all, reminds me of a biere de garde farmhouse smell in its maltiness. Thickish in the mouth, warming. I insisted in my tasting notes on describing it as syrupy, but with qualifiers like "soft" and "not too sweet" to debase that word’s pejorative meaning. Flavors are like overripe fruits (mainly, glowing apricot) in a silo full of year-old maize and Indian corn.

2006 bottle. Slightly hazy copper, cap of butter-color foam. Tons of melanoidan aroma--very exaggerated bread. Rounded out with toffee and rummy fruit cake. A rich full aroma. Toasted caramel flavor, a fair amount of alcohol heat, but in the same general direction as the flavor. I liked this. Like Samiclaus, except good. It feels like an idea carried to it’s logical end, without getting stupid and undrinkable. I enjoyed the ride once, though I can’t say this would be a regular pick. I think the beauty of a true Marzen is subtly, and this is not that.