Avery The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest

22oz bottle that I picked up while in Denver at the 2006 GABF. 9.1%. There are about 6oz left and the bottle has been open for an hour. Pretty copper color and a small persistant head. Aroma is tons of malt with honey and brown sugar hints. The alcohol and grassy, earthy hops stick out too. A bit of spice as well. The initial taste is very sweet and malty, almost like pure wildflower honey followed by a rush of warming, but appropriate alcohol and a moderate bitterness. The finish is spicy with lingering noble hops flavor. Nice mouthfeel. Pretty tasty and certainly unique.

Bottle. Not a typical Oktoberfest. Very full bodied. Murky and deep orange on the pour. Less malt flavor and more hop and alcohol flavors than traditional Oktobers. That being said - very delicious and unique. Give it a try for sure.

Pours amber into a shaker. Significant white micro head leaves no lacing as it slowly recedes. Malt and alcohol aromas. More alcohol than Oktoberfest in from front to back.

Poured a dark orange with a large white head. Unappealing aroma... slight spiciness masked by a tart, alcoholic bitterness. Full bodied and rich on the palate for an "oktoberfest." Taste is lightly hoppy with a spicy pumpkin finish.

2006 bottle, 9.1%. Good-sized, fluffy, white head that lasts and leaves great lacing; body is clear and orange. Nose is sweet, toasty caramel, with faint noble hops noted. Flavor is intersting and not what I expected. Big, sweet malt flavor is dominate with toasty, caramel, brown sugar, and maybe apricot? Alcohol is present and powerful but well hidden. Palate is medium bodied and lively with a creamy texture, but lacking the crisp lager palate usually noted in OFests. Finish is still sweet with only a slight hop bitterness emerging. This one is too young and needs some time to complex, but lacks the hop character to make a great ’Imperial.’ Such a great hybrid syle, but never meets its expectations.

2006 bottle, 9.1%. Pours orange with a lasting white head. Aroma of malt and a few spices. Taste is of malt and alcohol which is not so well hidden. Rather thick and oily palate. Balanced finish, slightly dry. A decent and respectable offering, but could be a bit better.

The people of Germany, their kin and their adoring fans have much to be proud of in Germany’s cultural heritage. It bore the birthing pains of Protestantism, is marked by an acute proficiency in engineering and philosophy and is responsible for the manufacture and export of some of the finest seasoned and cured sausages. And anybody who treats meat and its consumers with that kind of respect is okay in my book. But let’s face it; the Kaiser was a fool. I distinctly remember my A.P. European History teacher praising the practical and often cruel genius of Otto von Bismarck, then relegating Kaiser Wilhelm II as the “Shtoopid shtoopid boy” that messed up Bismarck’s calculated plans. It seems unflattering for Avery to christen one of those beers as one of Europe’s most celebrated regal dunces, but the name is fitting. Avery’s Kaiser is altogether inadequate; it fails to live up to a loftier legacy of brewmanship with the same flare of ineptness that marked Wilhelm’s catastrophic statesmanship. It is a typical pumpkin colored beer with a defiantly large head that compresses, developing a center of bigger bubbles and a periphery of smaller ones. Beneath the optical delectation is a deceptively full aroma – pumpkin, brown sugar, vanilla, hops, malt, orange and coriander twist and turn amongst themselves to develop a candied sweet sniff. And there, even further is the truly fulsome taste. It’s a plain and humble flavor, but proud of its humility; the worst kind of humble. It seems flat and tamed, like an ESB with a delicate touch of pumpkin, pumpkin pie’s brown sugary sweetness and an enveloping smooth texture. These qualities, though pleasant, deny the Kaiser any level of complexity it’d need to be a defining beer experience. That aside, it’s a reasonable well brewed beer for casual company on a casual day, in the same way that Germany would have been better off having their Kaiser a casual man working in a casual profession in a casual town as far away from Berlin as Bismarck could have booted him. We can’t loathe either the beer or the man, but we know there’s better, and that’s my take on Avery as much as it’s a historical judgment of the perils of monarchy in 19th century Europe.

Just got trough with a current vintage and last years as well. First of all, this beer, with a year of age is amazingly dangerous. The light touch of alcohol bite is completely gone and has given way to a malt cream that smooths the beer down the throat. The label decries exactly what it is, a big Marzen. Apricots and other dried fruit acompanied by a sensational hop spice really make this one a moutful. This is worth your money.