Tag Archives: Avery Brewing

Avery Mephistopheles Stout & Mikkeller Black (Cognac Edition)

  By Admin | April 19, 2012 - 10:00 pm |
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Thursday. Great night of the week for bier tasting, and for some reason we both brought out the heavies!

This week Brad brought along a bottle of Avery Mephistopheles Stout from Avery Brewing (Colorado), an Imperial Stout that weighs in at 16.43% ABV.

Mephisopheles

This bier pours a dark black with a subtle red tinge, and has a nice chocolate head that leaves behind a little lacing. The aroma is oak, liquorice, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and booze. It is warming to the palate with a slight slickness to the mouthfeel. The taste starts big and chocolately, followed by some vanilla, lots of oak, a little liquorice and a bitter roast coffee finish. It has a bit too much overall booziness which makes it a little harsh, but it has a good depth and will probably age nicely.

My contribution was a bottle of Mikkeller Black (Cognac Edition). This is an imperial stout from Danish microbrewery Mikkeller, and the beer was aged for 3 months in Cognac barrels. It weighs in at a huge 17.5% ABV.

Mikkeller Black (Cognac Edition)

This bier is a thick dark black with a good chocolate head that leaves behind some great lacing. The aroma is incredible - liquorice, toffee, dates, wood, cognac, vanilla. The mouthfeel is oily and the bier has an incredible complexity on the palate – sweet to start, slowly fading to a subtle bitterness on the finish. The taste is raisins, plums, toffee, figs, chocolate and coffee. It is an amazing beer that is good for sitting back with, slowly sipping and savouring.

Avery Salvation & 8-Wired iStout

  By Admin | April 12, 2012 - 10:00 pm |
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Another week, another Thursday bier tasting.

This week we started with Brad’s bottle of Avery Salvation from Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colorado. This is a Belgian Strong Ale that the brewer describes as having “luscious apricot and peach aromas delicately interwoven with spicy suggestions of nutmeg and cinnamon”. The ABV is 9%.

Salvation

This bier’s appearance is clear golden with a pale head that leaves behind some nice lacing. The aroma is peach, apricot, marmalade, pear, hint of wet hay. It has a reasonable body, slightly syrupy mouthfeel, and is sweet on the palate with a little bitterness in the finish. The taste is stone fruits, honey, citrus.

This was enjoyable, and seemed almost like a Belgian Tripel to me.

I brought along a bottle of 8 Wired iStout, an Imperial Stout from 8 Wired Brewing in Blenheim, New Zealand. They describe it as “Brimming with luscious roasted coffee and chocolate malt flavours which are balanced by a brisk bitterness and bold freshness from the hops”. The ABV is 10.5%

iStout

This bier pours a thick, syrupy black with a chocolate head. The aroma is liquorice, chocolate, coffee, oak, vanilla, star anise, black sugar, dates, raisins. It has an oily mouthfeel, is well balanced on the palate and has a good level of complexity. The finish is slightly dry with a touch of bitterness. The taste is chocolate, roast coffee, molasses, oak.

The aroma made me salivate, and I very much enjoyed this bier. It stands up well in the very competitive style of Imperial Stout, and is definitely the best beer I have seen so far out of New Zealand.