Avery Thirteen

A dark clear brown bock with a thin off white head. A sweet banana aroma, with licorice, maple and alcohol. In mouth, a rather striking licorice, sweet candy malt with caramel, burned roasted notes, a bit of alcohol and lactic acids. Rich and intense. Tasted April 2007.

A rich deep amber, but definitely filtered, topped with a succulent foam of a tanned marshmallow hue. Hot and creamy aroma of munich malts and furious alcohol-dizzy citrus syrups. Dry hops seem to bounce off the walls of oozing caramel, smashed raisins, and vanilla extract; as typical, the intricacies of the malt tones and the aggressive punch of bitterness each seem indescribably hollow; needlessly sugary, and burdensomely warm. Melted toffee, apple skins, cotton candy, cocoa bread; so many nuances, and so little of central substance; the core is mostly a bland bitter alcohol, which even once surpassed by all these details can’t really be rectified.

Flavor, similarly, is creamy and dense, but the heat subsides somewhat, if not to be so blatantly searing, still to be quite oppressive to the other tastes on offer; almonds, bananas, cloves, and pine-like bittersweetness are the foremost impressions, and this might purport to be a slightly darkened and certainly dry-hopped strong hefeweizen. Alcohol really amps up the impact of that greenish, bitter character of still-kicking hops. The malts carry it through, though, and briefly offer a rich dried cherry and toffee flavor to outlast the initial bitterness. But further in, some floral characters still point conspicuously to the reckless level of hopping here given the style; given also, though, that their character is consistently soft and fragrant, it tends to work in an agreeable tandem with the fruit and floral qualities of the wheat and weizen yeast. So, at turns it’s smoothly aromatic to sip, flowers and spices and muscly malts all wrapped up neatly and with pristine aesthetic, while at others it’s simple and hot and overly sweet.

The body is full and slick, finishing on an absurd stickiness that unfortunately rushes the flavors toward their latter impression of generally cloying, alcohol-swamped sweetness. A flavor of bubblegum and lavender precedes that most viscous of final smacks, and then in finality there’s a bit of mango skin to make the alcohol less plain.

Ultimately this is the last Avery beer I will ever purchase, barring a miracle of some kind, and it really defines my experience with this brewery when it attempts styles that aren’t inherently "extreme." While this is a mostly-fine and often flavorful beer, it struggles to capture the essence of what it claims to be, and even if it does so with some ostentatious, violent americanized approach, it just can’t compete with the real thing. Still, the decency of this offering is reassuring; while I can know in the future that my money will be far better spent on other things, at least I can also know that such a widely appreciated brewer actually can produce something difficult, that isn’t too difficult to drink.

stored for two years by 99 bottles, in federal way, washington.
pours a dark brown with a magenta tint, a large tan head, good lacing.
smell is of malt, cocoa, bread dough, roastiness, touch of dark fruit.
taste is cream, syrup, malt, brown sugar, chocolate, roasted almonds, toffee, sticky mouth-feel, slight bitterness ending.

Cellared bottle from By The Bottle in Vancouver, WA--Poured a murky brown-black body. Small almost non-existent beige head. Chocolate, nutty, gnarley, malty, spry nose. Big wheat flavor. Bright full mouthfeel. Thanks, Dave. ’Twas yummy.

A nice and good tasting beer. Had it on draft at the 15th aniversary. A very smooth and good tasting beer