Wild Ale

The way I heard the story behind this beer is that Eric was a lowly junior brewer at New Belgium and this was his Longshot moment (a la Sam Adams). This was relayed to me by someone who claims to have heard it first hand while on tour in Fort Collins, so make of that what you will. What I do know for a fact is that this beer is an ale aged on wood for "up to three years" and fermented with peach juice. All of that sounds great... but not all of that comes through in the end.

Avery's Brabant is really a beer unlike any other that I've had. Avery describes this beer as a Wild Ale that has been aged in Zinfandel barrels. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, front the first pour of the Brabant I could tell Avery wasn't joking about the Zinfandel barrels. This beer is dark, almost black, and when pouring it into the glass you can see a dark red, almost purplish, tint to the beer... not unlike a dark red wine. The Zinfandel did rub off on this beer quite a bit. Every time you put the glass up to your lips you get a nose full of rich red wine with just a faint hint of caramel malt. As the beer warms to room temperature you can really pick up on the Zinfandel flavor. While chilled this beer is a bit more complex. Straight out of a lightly chilled bottle the Brabant is light and bubbly with a tart cherry twang and a dark chocolate aftertaste. The beer remains dark throughout drinking and retains all of the sweet malts and chocolate flavor, even as the Zinfandel flavors intensify exponentially with each degree on the thermometer. The combination of flavors in this beer is definitely different compared to Avery's other 12 ounce bottles. If I had to compare this Wild Ale to any other beer I've had before it'd have to be a quadrupel or a barley wine... only lighter.