Avery The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest

Red-amber color accompanied by a small white head. Malty aroma, toast and caramel. Moderately sweet, some malty caramel notes. Well balanced and not overly alcoholic. Not bad.

Bottle sampled with Stegosaurus. Pours amber with an off-white head. Aroma of caramel, citrus, and sweetness. Flavor is malty, sweet, and alcohol.

Pours a nice deep dark amber color. Aromas of bread, caramel, fruit and nut. Flavor has a nice big malty taste with a almost noticable hop finish.

Beer pours a clear, medium brown-amber color with a small, frothy, white, mostly and quickly and diminishing. The aroma is bold, bitter-sweet and estery: Heavily malty with notes of toasted grain, cookie and caramel; Sharply hoppy with heavy notes of resin/pine, dried apricot and herbs; Light yeasty note of bread dough; Miscellaneous notes of heavy sherry, raisin, moderate notes of alcohol, peach, white pepper. The flavor is heavily sweet, moderately-to-heavily bitter with a long, lightly bitter, lightly acidic finish full of tummy-warming alcohol. The body is light-to-medium, the texture is almost velvety and the carbonation is lively.

Appearance: Pours a rusty orange color that is nearly completely opaque. Light tan minimal head that fades quick, but leaves some residual lacing that sticks around. Aroma: Sweet malty nose, slightly pungent and rich like candied plums but not too fruity. Flavor profile: Big sweet syrupy malt, but not overpowering. A slight understated hop smell and a bread-dough mouthfeel and texture. Big flavor, big presence, and at 8.9% its got a big alcohol kick to it. Palate: Wet and quenching, thick but not too much, warming and overall not too bad. I think this would be a killer ale if it was oak barrel aged.

The aroma of this beer is of oak, fruit/berries, and hints of vanilla. It is a copper colored solution with a thick off-white head that dissolves slowly leaving moderate lacing behind. This moderately thick beer has mildly bitter taste of fruit, oak, and caramel with a biscuit taste in the background. It fades a little hot with the flavors of oak and caramel lingering.

2006 release: Brew pours a burnt orange, firey copper color w/ a full, semi creamy froth. Good head retention receding to a fluffy ring of lace / a full dusty canopy. Aromas of earthy, sweet cherry malts. Full nectar w/ creamy residual effers. The creamy texture turns squeaky like moving around on a raft in the pool while sun bathing. Big ripe cherry malts push forward stealing the show away, but from whom ? Theres no competition here. Like rushing to be first in line and no one else shows up. Theres a defined yet mild hop component that gives its all to help balance it out but it’s efforts are futile. The gobby caramel runnith over and drown thine hoppy stickers. Other nuances of sweet maple, sugar cane, tree bark, soft leather, ripe red apple milk. The finish never ends and barely bitters, just a faint acidic twitch. Alcohol is well hidden like a poisoned apple. The 2006 release is much better than the 2005. ******************2005 release: Amber honey in color. Smells like fresh cut bailed hay. Pours a thick, clumpy froth with long hang time. Full nectar up front yet finishes thin and runny. Smooth with a slight sweetness. Big bread and malted hay flavors w/ a spicey, slight bitter finish. Alcohol is well hidden. Score: 3.3

2005. Ruby amber. Malty, surprisingly maerzen-y aroma, with loads of sweet malts and some melanoidins, with some noble hops and sharp alcohol. Medium bodied. Long malty flavor, rich and warming, some persistant alcohol, but thats understood for its nearly 9% alcohol. This is extremely drinkable and surprisingly octoberfest-y for the imperial label and alcohol content. I’m pleasantly surprised.