Avery Anniversary Thirteen

Formerly brewed at Avery Brewing Company
Style: Weizen Bock
Boulder, Colorado USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Stein, Weizen

Bottle. Poured hazy brown color with an average frothy off-white head that mostly lasted with good lacing. Moderate toasted caramel malty aroma. Medium body with a sticky texture. Medium blanced flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate duration.

Dark brown coloured, small off white head. Sweet coffee-caramel fruity aroma with some yeasty alcoholic touches. Full body, strong caramel fruity and yeasty alcoholic finish. Good one, although rather sweet.

Tap @ FS Houston: Pours a dark black color, almost no head, tan colored, quickly diminishing. Strong aroma of malt, chocolate, strong flower aroma. Aroma of dark fruit. Full taste of dark fruit, chocolate, sweet fruit.

UPDATED: APR 22, 2007 Rerate. My other bomber is going to be rated now, both from boboski as bonuses in a trade. Pours a clear mahogany with a half finger quickly fading brown head. Aroma of chocolate covered bananas, yeast, spicy alcohol, sugar cookie, and light soy. Flavor is slighly saltier with the soy, but the chocolate covered banana is still there. Spicy alcohol has mellowed a bit, and some raisins and sugar cookie are present. Medium to full body with low carbonation. Still pretty decent, but I’m not sad that I have no more of this. Old Rating follows. 22oz bomber, Brewed in 2006. Pours a deep ruby with a one finger tan head. Aroma of some chocolate and roasty malts, light banana and wheat, some dark fruits (figs and dates). Maybe a little ETOH as well. Flavor has some faint bananas and yeast that are blown away by strong roasty and chocolate malts, a little soy sauce and a little too much warming alcohol almost to the point of being harsh. There are also caramel malts in there. Moderate soy/bitter lingering finish. Full bodied with moderate sharp carbonation. Letting this lie down for at least another six months wouldn’t be a bad idea, but maybe I dunno what I’m talking about. I’m having trouble rating this one--I can’t tell if I do or don’t like it--for now it’s staying as a 3.4 7-4-7-3-13--3.4

Pours a warm reddish clear brown black with a greyish tan head of small even bubbles. The nose is sweet and lightly alcoholic. A bit of roast, fruity esters. Dark malt character. A bit of chocolate, largely clean. Creamy full mouthfeel, rather pleasant. Rather substantial, not watery, nice and creamy. The flavor is in line with the nose. Big ass malt sweetness ala Avery. The alcohol is Avery also. A bit too sweet, but that’s not my main problem. Diacetyl. Creamy dark fruit, alcohol, fruity esters. This is really like a weizen bock on crack. The sweetness toned back and the alcohol reigned in and this could be a nice enough beer. A bit of banana, alcohol, and bread in the finish. Enjoyable enough, but I’m happy to split the bottle!

UPDATED: DEC 5, 2006 750ml bottle via Arctic Solutions. Pours a dark Marhoganey brown/almost black with a chalky beige head. Love the aroma with notes of Vanilla, Toffee, caramel, molasses and plums. And i can taste all of those in the first drink. Full bodied moutfeel, chewy finish. Lots of roasted chocolate malts and Licorice in the bittersweet aftertaste. Alcohol is there in the end as well, but not overwhelming. AWESOME.***************11/17/06 rerate-original score was 9/4/10/5/18...I am not nearly as impressed almost 3 months later. Maybe i am picker nowalmost 300 beers later?***********22 oz bottle via DocLock (thanks!). Pours a dark reDDish brown with a average beige head. Nose is of vanilla, toffee, plus, cherries. Taste is molassess, toffee, raisins, berries. Very sweet at first but with chalkyfinish. Reminds me a bit of a stronger version of Boss Kozlak but sweeter....

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.

pours a black brown with a two finger bubbly tan head. aroma is roasted malt, a little wheat, and some alcohol with a touch of hops and dark fruit. had a medium body with descent lacing and ok carbonation. flavor is roasted malt, a little wheat, and dark fruit with a touch of hops and alcohol. as it warms there is a yeasty bread aroma and flavor. not bad i guess for my first weizen dopplebock. little bit of black licorice aroma and flavor and coffee as well. very complex especially on the second glass. definitely feel a little warmth going down and body wise.