Avery The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest

Pours clear and orangish amber with a mostly receding tan head. Aroma of is surprisingly mild for this high of ABV, some notes of toasted malt, caramel, and mild estery breadiness. Taste is caramel fruity, with apparent heaviness, but remains light and transitory due to the restrained esters. Mouthfeel is full bodied and with lively carbonation. Excellent attenuation, I was hoping this wouldn’t be a sticky mess, and it was ’digestable’ enough. An impressive brew from Avery!

Amber with off-white head. Weak aroma of malts and raisins. Very "clean" (lagerlike), sweet, highly carbonated with a great mouthfeel.

Bottle at home - shared with Mette, Lars, Morten, David. Clear glowing amber - white head. Sweet malty, nice hoppy, light metallic, pine, dry - strange kind but nice.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, biegaman & mds -- courtesy of HogTownHarry. Vintage 2004. Pours a very cloudy copper with a small diminishing off-white head. Aroma of lots of caramel malt and fruit along with yeast, some wood, spices and alcohol -- nice. Caramel malt flavour with some wood, fruit, alcohol and hops and a very bitter finish. It’s boozy but not overly so. Medium bodied. Pretty good, I’m not sure how this is an Oktoberfest, it reminded me more of a Barley Wine, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Bottle. Amber with huge off white/beige head. Sweet aroma with alcohol, caramel, malt and hops. Flavours delivers what the aroma promised: it’s sweet with caramel, nuts, fruit and malt. Nice beer.

My work here is done. Tonight is the first night of "winter" in Chicago with a drone of storm advisories drowning out a clamor of salt trucks and plows. I’d prepared for this moment hours ago, chilling a Kaiser knowing full well it would be a fitting reward after a cold, wet, miserable day of chores.

To satisfy the beer nazis who think I shouldn’t be drinking a Märzen past September, let me mention that I’ve savored this beer on many occasions in the past. I’ve simply never felt the need to analyze nor defend it... much in the same way I don’t need to justify who I keep as my friends. To whomever questions my sensibilities, I’ll simply ask them politely to go to hell. Regardless (and for the sake of civility) I’ll drop a reviewer’s word or two: Deep amber bodied, yes, yes... with a long lasting head, yes.... but I’ve poured today’s beer in a huge ceramic stein in which it feels simply perfect. Thick in the mouth with ramped up hops, malts and alcohol. Balanced? Piffle. What’s the phrase? "When you have fat friends there are no see-saws, only catapults?" That’s the sense of balance you get from this fat friend. Along with the Maharaja and the Czar, The Kaiser is not a dictator to be trifled with.


Yet together we relax and laugh at the growing storm outside... and I’ll be calling on this old friend in the future, probably in the most remarkable of situations.


<font size=-4>Purchased several months ago from <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/illinois/palatine/dobby’s-worldwide-liquor/5496.htm>Dobby’s Worldwide Liquor, Palatine, IL 60067</font>

looks like an octoberfest. heady, malty. lagerish aroma. good palate. really syrupy. alcoholish at first, not so bad after acclimation. getting better as i drink it. i have no need to ever drink an octoberfest again.

22 oz bottle, 2005 version - Pours translucent copper with a very thin head. It smells malty with floral hops and alcohol also present. The flavor is of course malty, but nicely balanced with those noble hops. I also picked up some licorice notes and later in the bottle a bit of spice. One can also taste the alcohol somewhat. There’s a mildly dry finish. I appreciate the adventuresome take on the Oktoberfest style. Avery is known for pushing styles to the limit with their Dictator and Demon series and I hope they keep experimenting. They could have buried the alcohol a little more and had an even better brew, but this is nice.