Avery Brewing Co

I've always had nice things to say about Avery. Though admittedly, I haven't had too many of Avery's more "extreme" beers. I visited their brewery in Boulder last year and was about to try a couple of their bigger golden Belgian series beers and I was hooked. This is the first of the darker big beers I've gotten around to reviewing. The Beast is a bit intimidating, it's 15.07% after all... That's twice the alcohol content of Avery's anniversary Saison beers! I've had stronger beers, but there was always something about the Beast... Maybe it was the name, the menacing label or just the price tag. At $8 for 12 oz it isn't cheap, but it worth every penny.

I first heard of Avery's Anniversary Saisons from a flyer hanging up in the bathroom of the Avery tasting room next door to the brewery in Boulder, Colorado. This was just last summer so the poster was advertising the Sixteenth Anniversary Saison. A couple months later I was about to get my hands on a bottle of the Sixteen and thought pretty highly of it. It wasn't my favorite beer by any means, but I enjoyed it. As time passed, my memories of the Sixteen grew fonder. About a month ago I was smaller liquor store looking for a new release when I came across a bottle of Avery's Fifteen and couldn't resist taking it home.

This is probably the strongest flavored Winter Warmer I've had this season. It also happens to be the most mellow flavored Avery beer I've had yet. The Old Jubilation is a roasty, spiced Winter Warmer that has a very warming flavor. There is a strong bitterness in this beer, but that's something you can pretty much expect with all Avery beers. That bitterness isn't overpowering, at times it even tastes a little like chocolate. The other flavors in this beer balance out the bitterness to a degree, but in the end the Old Jubilation tastes like an oaked brown ale with a touch more dry roasted malt.

The Kaiser has a lot going for it. Not the least of which is its reference to the turn of the century German monarchy. The label is thoroughly Germanic and even has a picture of Wilhelm II donning his favorite Pickelhaube. This beer speaks to me on levels that I'm uncomfortable discussing in public... and yet, I can't quite come to terms with the actual beer inside the bottle. First impressions mean a lot, even when it comes to drinking a specialty beer. The Kaiser does just about everything right, it's got a killer bottle, mouth watering appearance and aroma... but it ends up being all for naught. Well, that may be a little melodramatic, but you get the idea. There's some deceptively awesome packaging here and I really want to like this beer but the flavor falls short. Actually, it falls too far... as in, it's too strong, too alcoholic and too sugary sweet.

Here's a beer that'll warm you up a cold winter's night. Avery's Out of Bounds Stout is an incredibly dark beer that tastes like an even darker beer. There isn't anything terribly extreme about this beer, especially considering that it comes from Avery. Avery is most well known for their bigger beers and hop bombs. At 5.1% the Out of Bounds won't single handedly get anyone ripped... but it does have a strong bitter finish that tastes a vaguely like the hops in Avery's Maharaja. The combination of flavors in this beer taste a little like a Rauchbier but without quite as much smoke of course. There's plenty of roasted malt flavor in the Out of Bounds but there's also a hint of smokiness, not too strong or too obvious but it's definitely there.

First impressions of this beer were, "OK, it definitely tastes like a Saison..." When I took a drink of Avery's Anniversary Sixteen Saison I got a mouthful of yeasty, floral, spicy clove that just screams Saison. This is why Saisons aren't my favorite style of beer, it just isn't a flavor combination that I'm terribly fond of. I still like Saisons, I just hope I'm not stranded on an island with one any time soon. Back to this particular Saison... Avery released this as an anniversary beer so, of course, they took the style a little further than you might appreciate when you first hear the ingredients. For their 16th anniversary Avery brewed this beer with jasmine, honey and peaches. It may not sound too exciting, I mean honey and peaches aren't the most adventurous fermentable out there... but when you finish that first sip you really get an appreciation for what Avery has done here.

For me it really came down to just two beers... Of all the beers brewed in honor of Barack Obama's inauguration there were only two which had clever enough names that I'd bother searching for them. The first was Cambridge Brewing's The Audacity of Hops and the other was Avery's Ale to the Chief. I was less enthusiastic about drinking The Audacity of Hops because I just knew it was going to be a big I.P.A. with a name like that... A couple weeks back I was surprised to find a bottle of Ale to the Chief at the local liquor store and decided to pick one up. It wasn't until later that I find out this was an Imperial I.P.A., arguably the most audacious of the hoppy beers. But I figure I owe it to our new President, and the even the country, to drink this I.P.A. and judge it in a non-partisan way. So how was the Ale to the Chief? It's big, it smells funny and it's totally in your face. In other words, it's 100% American.