Avery Review #17 - Salvation

Posted by: Tyler Rippeteau

Oct. 30, 2012

Salvation – An appropriate word and beer to rinse away my memories of our last review here at 20 Beers in 20 Nights.  Avery’s Salvation is also a beer with a great story.  It essentially became the mother who gave birth to Avery and Russian River’s “Collaboration Not Litigation”.  For those too lazy to click the link, the short story is that after Adam Avery and Vinnie Cilurzo (of Russian River fame) became friends they realized that both of them had a beer called Salvation in their line-up.  Rather than fight about it or choose who removed the name from their portfolio of beers, the two decided to simply brew a beer together which contained elements of both and to both retain their respective Salvations. 

As we approach the end of The Avery Project, this was a beer I had to get into The Project.  Sure, it was great to taste and review some of the rare Avery offerings, but any serious look at this brewery as a whole would be incomplete without this Boulder staple.    

Location: Ace Wine & Spirits, Boulder, CO

Cost: $7.99/22 oz. bomber

ABV: 9%

IBUs: 33

Brewery Location: Boulder, Colorado

Style: Belgian-Style Strong Pale Ale

Average Beer Advocate Rating: B+/3.82 – Very Good

My Beer Advocate Rating: B+/3.98 – Very Good

Current Number of Reviews on Beer Advocate: 482

Brewery Description: Avery Salvation

Bottled: NA

APPEARANCE:  (4.5 out of 5) Beautiful, brilliant and light golden in color, this beer is a looker.  The rich head rests gently on top and reaches about a half-inch before receding.  The head is gorgeous, but retention could be better.  The lacing is not bad at first, but it isn’t strong enough to hang on throughout the whole glass. 

SMELL:  (4 out of 5) Lemon zest, spice, other citrus (grapefruit) and that touch of funk immediately identify the Belgian yeast and noble-like, aromatic hops in this one.  Nothing out of this world or completely unique here, but this is simply a pleasant smelling beer.

TASTE:  (4 out of 5) Citrus and tropical fruits (banana in particular) lead the way here, but those fruit flavors are all complimented with some nice spice.  A little clove, maybe a touch of cinnamon and a tiny dose of brown sugar.  It oddly has many of the same flavors as a good Barleywine, but this is obviously much lighter in body and far less hoppy.  Although, the noble-like hops flavors do come through here, it is not lacking in the hop department.

MOTHFEEL:  (3.5 out of 5) As I mentioned above, the Salvation is fairly light bodied.  It is on the dryer side, but has a slightly sugary and sweet finish.  Carbonation is light and tickling, providing a crisp and clean mouthfeel.

OVERALL:  (4 out of 5) This, the third beer in Avery’s Holy Trinity Series (along with Hog Heaven and The Reverend).  While it is not as complex as some other Belgian-Style Pale Ales (to be fair Avery calls it a Belgian-Style Golden) it is nicely balanced, easy drinking, refreshing, crisp, clean and a nearly perfect beer to use to win over a Coors Light drinker.  If they’re open-minded enough to at least try this beer it will not offend them, but should pleasantly surprise them with a ton more flavor and certainly with a bigger, better buzz if they drink enough. 

Avery Review #14 - The Kaiser

Posted by: Tyler Rippeteau

Aug. 27, 2012

Before we begin Review #14 of The Avery Project I have to mention a couple of things for the sake of full disclosure.  Avery’s The Kaiser holds a special place in my heart.

For starters, last year, when Emily and I first moved here to Boulder and had very little money, our nights out were few and far between.  It was tough to explore our new home on a shoe-string budget, but one of the things we did treat ourselves to a few times last fall was a trip to The Sink to grab a couple pints (yep, pints) of this delicious beer.  So, I have some very fond memories attached to this beer.  On a side note, The Sink is also the place President Obama visited the day we saw him speak here at the University of Colorado last spring.

Second, it was at The Kaiser release party at Avery last year that I made the decision to dive into The Avery Project.  I had recently finished The DIPA Project and I was looking for something fun to dive into as a new Boulder resident.  The funny thing is that I initially predicted it would take me about two months to get through the project.  Ha!  Here we are, nearly a year later, and I am only on Beer #14.  Oh well. 

So, the point is, I might be a little biased in favor of this particular beer.  I will try not to be, but you’ll have to forgive me if I am.  Here’s some stats before we begin the review:

Location: Liquor Mart

Cost: $8.99/22 oz. bomber

ABV: 9.1%

IBUs: 24

Brewery Location: Boulder, Colorado

Style: Märzen/Oktoberfest

Average Beer Advocate Rating: B+/3.79

My Beer Advocate Rating: A-/4.05

Current Number of Reviews on Beer Advocate: 561

Description: Avery The Kaiser

Glassware: Avery 19^th Anniversary Tulip

Bottled On: August, 2012

APPEARANCE:  (4 out of 5) The color of this beer is about as rich as I expect the flavor to be – a deep, copper-penny red.  On top rests a half-inch of off-white foam, but it only lasts for a few moments.  The head quickly crashes in the middle of the glass leaving a thin lid over the beer with a thicker rim rising around the edges.  The head completely vanishes after a few sips, but some strong, patchy lacing is left behind.

SMELL:  (3.5 out of 5) Bready aromas waft out of the glass while some subtle spices give the nose some character.  I also believe I smell a faint hint of pumpkin, or at least pumpkin-like spices. 

TASTE:  (4 out of 5) The smell does not indicate how much of a malt-bomb this beer is.  Sweet caramel flavors, toffee, a touch of molasses and some earthy spiciness collaborate to make up the base of The Kaiser.  Hints of banana bread and orange serve to round it out.  This has to be in my top three Oktoberfest beers, but of course it is…it’s an imperial.

MOUTHFEEL:  (4.5 out of 5) The mouthfeel here reminds me a lot of G’Knight (a.k.a. Gordon) from Oskar Blues – sweet, sticky and a little syrupy.  The nice thing about this, though, is that despite the sweet, syrupy stickiness, the body is relatively light.  So, I guess in early 90s lingo this beer would not only taste great, but it would be less filling as well. 

OVERALL:  (4.5 out of 5) It isn’t terribly surprising that of the 779 Märzen/Oktoberfests listed on Beer Advocate this is the second highest in ABV.  That’s the way Avery does things, big and bold.  Of course, it also isn’t terribly surprising that I like it as much as I do.  As much as I love hops, I also love me some malt, and this beer has the latter in spades.  

Avery Review #12 - Ellie's Brown Ale

Posted by: Tyler Rippeteau

Aug. 14, 2012

After a string of rare Avery beers, it is time to get back to some more of the mainline stuff in The Avery Project.  So, Avery’s Ellie’s Brown Ale is up next as Beer #12.  If you happen to live in one of the states Avery distributes to, and you drink brown ales, you have probably tried this beer before.  It is arguably the second most popular beer in their lineup behind the IPA. 

Named for Adam Avery’s late Chocolate Lab, Ellie, the Brown Ale has been in production since 2002.  It is a year-round beer available in cans and bottles.

Location: Boulder Liquor Mart

Cost: About $1.89/12oz. bottle

ABV: 5.5%

IBUs: 28

Brewery Location: Boulder, Colorado

Style: American Brown Ale

Average Beer Advocate Rating: B+/3.9

My Beer Advocate Rating: B+/4

Current Number of Reviews on Beer Advocate: 580

Description: Avery Ellie’s Brown Ale

Glassware: Ska Brewing Pint Glass

Bottled On: NA

APPEARANCE:  (5 out of 5) This is one of the more impressive heads I have seen on a beer.  It is foamy, creamy and about an inch thick.  In fact, the 12oz. bottle ended up pouring perfectly flush to the brim of the 16oz. Ska pint glass.  I have a clock running on this foam now and after 10 minutes it is still hanging on strong with about a third of it left. 

This impressive mass of foam all sits on top of a deep brown, but still faintly transparent beer.  Red hues slip through when held up to the light and the lacing is spectacular.  For a brown ale, this could not look any better.

SMELL:  (4.5 out of 5) A nice, intense and rich smoky aroma greats the nose while some nuttiness and spicy chocolate smells round it out.  The nice thing about this beer is that with the fantastic head, the aroma sticks around with a fair amount of intensity throughout most of beer.

TASTE:  (4 out of 5) Up front, Ellie’s is dry and a relatively hoppy in an earthy sort of way – not at all what I expected after the sticking my nose in the glass.  The smoky and chocolaty flavors build throughout the sip, however, and by the time the finish rolls around the chocolate malt is very apparent.  Some nutty flavors also expose themselves as the beer warms along with an increasingly stronger vanilla backbone.

MOUTHFEEL:  (2.5 out of 5) The body is disappointingly thin, particularly up front.  If the malt were more apparent at the beginning of each sip this could be a truly exceptional beer.  Additionally, the carbonation is not very strong which only adds to the thin feel. 

OVERALL:  (4 out of 5) This is an excellent example of a beer that needs to be served at its appropriate temperature.  When cold and fresh out of the glass a lot of the sweeter flavors are masked (although the aroma from the Bullion hops is very strong), but it becomes significantly more enjoyable as it approaches 50 – 55 degrees.  The Brown Ale is not my favorite style, but every once in a while, when I’m in the mood, Ellie’s is a solid choice. 

   

Avery Review #11 - Récolte Sauvage

Posted by: Tyler Rippeteau

Apr. 23, 2012

We begin the second half of The Avery Project with Beer #11 in Avery’s Barrel-Aged Series – Avery Récolte Sauvage.  As was the case with Beer #10 in the series, #11 happens to coincide with the Review #11 of this project at 20 Beers in 20 Nights. 

Living as close as I do to the brewery I have had the privilege of tasting quite a few Avery beers with what is becoming “that famous gold foil” on the bottle; the Rumpkin, Uncle Jacob’s Stout, Muscat D’Amour and now, finally, the Avery Récolte Sauvage. 

Like the Muscat, this beer was aged for 14 months and born on the same day – February 11, 2012.  Unlike the Muscat however, the Sauvage was aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels instead of Chardonnay barrels giving the Récolte more red wine characteristics than the white-like characteristics of its twin.

Location: Purchased at Avery Brewing Company’s Taproom

Cost: $8.99/12oz. bottle

ABV: 11.03%

IBUs: NA

Brewery Location: Boulder, Colorado

Style: American Wild Ale

Average Beer Advocate Rating: A-/4.03

My Beer Advocate Rating: A-/4.18

Current Number of Reviews on Beer Advocate: 11

Description: Avery Recolte Sauvage

Bottled On: Nov. 10, 2011

APPEARANCE:  (4.5 out of 5) The Récolte pours a dark and surprisingly transparent brownish red in color; it looks like a dark Rosé.  Some bubbles quickly appear, but scatter and then vanish almost instantly, leaving behind only a few straggling patches on the surface and around the edges.  When held up to the light a pretty, sparkly and bright red shines through.  There are also quite a few champagne-like bubbles floating up to the top.  A fairly large patch of sediment also rests on the bottom, but it does not mingle with the rest of the beer, it stays separate and keeps this beer looking quite transparent despite the dark color.  You can see how much was in there in the picture to the right.

SMELL:  (4 out of 5) The Récolte Sauvage requires a swirl or two in the snifter to bring out the entire aroma, but as it fizzes up, it becomes very apparent that this is a complex beer.  Tart apple and sour lead the way – this is most definitely a sour beer.  Despite the color, however, this beer smells light, refreshing and playful.  Others have reported smelling some oak, but it isn’t there for me.  Some red wine characteristics linger as well, but nothing is as strong as the tart, mustiness of an American Wild Ale.

TASTE:  (4 out of 5) Again, just as the nose was, the flavor is dominated by a tart, sourness.  Dark fruit juice-like flavors move forward throughout the sip (and become stronger as the glass warms) while a slight chocolate taste swells towards the middle of the sip without ever becoming too conspicuous.  This beer tastes like a nice, but tart, medium-bodied red wine with some carbonation added.

MOUTHFEEL:  (4.5 out of 5) As I mentioned above, The Sauvage has medium-bodied feel along with some oak tannins that attack the front of the tongue.  As the smell suggested, the Récolte also defies its color and turns out to be a very light and lively beer.  The sparkle is strong, but tickling - it is not a palate wreaker by any means.  Surprisingly, there is no heat from the booze at all.  Maybe that’s because I just reviewed Uncle Jacob’s Stout the other night, but either way, I can’t tell at all that the ABV is 11%.

OVERALL:  (4.5 out of 5) This is yet another unique standout of a beer brewed by Avery.  In my opinion, it is superior to its fraternal twin, Muscat D’Amour (although the Muscat is a pretty good beer).  Additionally, it is the much more difficult of the two to find as the production run on this one was only 121 cases as opposed to 194 cases of the Muscat. 

On a separate note, while I drank the Sauvage I munched on some tangy blue cheese from Oregon that I picked up earlier this week and the combination was brilliant.  A nice, sharp blue will work with this beer any time. 

One final note: I split this beer with Emily and had six ounces of it.  Both of us are feeling a lot more tipsy than we should given that it was 6 oz. of an 11% beer.  This is the first beer I have ever been suspicious of having been mislabeled in terms of the ABV.

Avery Review #9 - Uncle Jacob's Stout

Posted by: Tyler Rippeteau

Apr. 22, 2012

So it was 4/20 here in Boulder on Friday, well, I suppose it was 4/20 everywhere else on the planet as well, but in Boulder, CO (and my former home of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, CA) the day has some meaning.  As for me personally, it’s not my cup of tea, so I stayed away from the giant pot-smoking festival on campus and instead enjoyed a cigar on the back porch after tasting and reviewing Beer #9 in The Avery Project – Uncle Jacob’s Stout.

Initially I thought I had missed out on Avery’s Uncle Jacob’s, but I had the good fortune of finding myself at North Boulder Liquors a couple of days ago (while unsuccessfully searching for a beer for The Barleywine Project) and I was thrilled to come across this monster of a beer. 

I try not to get too excited about a beer I have not yet tried, particularly when reviewing it.  I have often found that this leads to disappointment, but as with many others in the past, I’m not very good at containing my excitement, particularly when it comes to a style I really enjoy such as this one.

So, the details on this whopper of a beer; Avery Uncle Jacob’s Stout:

Location: North Boulder Liquor

Cost: $10.99 per 12oz. bottle

ABV: 17.42%

IBUs: ???

Brewery Location: Boulder, Colorado

Style: American Double/Imperial Stout

Average Beer Advocate Rating: A/4.47 – Outstanding

My Beer Advocate Rating:A+/4.7 - World Class

Current Number of Reviews on Beer Advocate: 6

Brewery Description: Uncle Jacob's Stout

Bottled On: March 27, 2012

APPEARANCE:  (4 out of 5) This beer pours absolutely black as night.  Not even a hint of light is getting through this dark, viscous substance.  An eighth of an inch-thick mocha colored head appeared for about ten seconds, but vanished even before I could snap a picture.  It left a small ring of tan foam on the outer edges of the glass though.  My guess is that there will be no lacing on this one as the beer is probably heavy enough to drag anything in its path off the side of the glass. 

Yup.  No lacing.  

SMELL:  (4 out of 5) Wow.  Based on the smell, we might have another Bourbon County Brand Stout here…and I do not say that lightly.  The Uncle Jacob’s smells like bourbon.  It has some big oak notes with vanilla, toffee and a little boozy heat underneath.  In fact, in some ways it is reminiscent of a cross between Bourbon County and Rumpkin.  The oak, high alcohol content and what has to be the yeast makes it somewhat similar to the Rumpkin.  The only complaint here is that the aroma could be stronger.  The BCBS really attacks the nose.

TASTE:  (5 out of 5) Wow.  Yep, again, I’m starting a paragraph off with a wow.  This is close.  In fact, this is the most similar beer I have ever tasted to Goose Island’s Legendary Bourbon County Stout.  There’s probably enough malt in here to choke a horse, but somehow it all balances out with an exceptionally pleasant oakiness.  Unlike in the BCBS, chocolate is more dominant than vanilla, but the vanilla builds throughout the sip and is certainly noticeable.  Also, somewhere in this wildly complex brew a tiny, tiny touch of lemon works its way onto the palate and lingers after the beer is gone.  As someone mentioned on Beer Advocate, there also seems to be a hint of cherry.  Again, wow.  There is a lot going on in the Uncle Jacob’s Stout.

MOUTHFEEL:  (4.5 out of 5) There are very few styles of beer that I want to have the mouthfeel of this one, but this is a wonderfully slippery beer.  It is motor oil all the way, but never turns into sludge in your mouth.  In other words, it is not mouthcoating.  Sticky, yes.  Mouthcoating, no. 

OVERALL:  (5 out of 5) Given that Bourbon County will be unobtainable for me this year, I am happy to have found a completely legitimate replacement.  I am not prepared to say it is as good as BCBS, but just like I gave Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout a nice side-by-side comparison with it last year, I think Uncle Jacob’s Stout deserves a shot at it.  While we’re discussing match-ups, I also think this could be the best Avery beer I’ve ever had, but I would have to put it up against Maharaja and Rumpkin.  In terms of hitting the style, this certainly beats both, but as an overall beer, I will need to do a taste test.  Maybe this will be The Avery Project’s halftime show.

As a side note, I did not realize this until after I wrote the paragraph above, but I have apparently given the three Avery beers in question nearly the exact same rating - 4.7 for the Maha and Uncle Jacob's and 4.68 for the Rumpkin.  I think a recount is required here and I'll get to work on obtaining the supplies for that now.

Avery Maharaja, At Least Someone Agrees With Me

Posted by: Tyler Rippeteau

Mar. 20, 2012

Back in April of last year we here at 20 Beers in 20 Nights were right in the middle of our DIPA Project - our quest to drink and review the 20 Most Reviewed Double IPAs on Beer Advocate.  It was time to review a personal favorite of mine and a classic, the Avery Maharaja.  The Maha, in my opinion, proved to beat Russian River's Pliny the Elder, a point that many have disagreed with me on since.  However, this afternoon I came across a YouTube review of Maharaja and found that at least one other person agrees with me, so I thought you all might like to check it out.  Here, from the San Diego Beer Vlog; Avery's Maharaja:

Avery Review #2 - Avery India Pale Ale (IPA)

Posted by: Tyler Rippeteau

Sept. 12, 2011

It would have been criminal to get through the entire Avery Project without reviewing Avery’s flagship beer, the Avery IPA.  So here, as the second review in the Avery Project is my current take on Avery IPA.  I say current, because this is an IPA that I have been familiar with longer than almost all others.  It was my gateway into the world of the India Pale Ale.

Way back when George W. Bush was still president and I lived in the Chicago Area I was just beginning to discover craft beer.  I never really liked wine all that much and I was getting bored with the usual spirits, plus as I was getting older Bourbon was getting more and more difficult to drink – even though I still loved it.  I had previously not been a beer drinker at all, but all I had ever had were macrobrews.  As I slowly began to discover that I actually liked beer when it wasn’t watered down piss water being passed off as lager, I started to experiment.  Sometime in the distant past, however, I had tried an IPA and decided I couldn’t stand the stuff, so while I was in the middle of this personal beer renaissance, trying many new and exciting beers, I always stopped short of IPA.

Then one night, while sitting at Cooper’s on Belmont in Chicago (which was quickly becoming one of my favorite beer bars in The City) our bartender, Mike, said “You know, I really think you would like IPAs if you gave them a shot, why don’t you try one and if you don’t like it I’ll buy it for you.” 

I gave in, said “Alright.” and watched as Mike poured a really cool looking bottle of beer into a pint glass for me.  The bottle itself was a good start for me.  I have always loved maps and this particular bottle had a map of Europe, Africa and Asia with a little red path stretching from England to India to represent the India Pale Ale’s origin.  Of course the label on that cool-looking bottle looked exactly like the one you can see in the picture to the right.

One sip was all it took - I was instantly hooked.  I did like bitter beer after all and I suddenly realized that I had been missing out on a fantastic array of beers.  From that point on I was on a mission to find the most bitter beers I could and I wanted to taste every IPA I could get my hands on.  Avery IPA sparked it all. 

So here we are now, several years later, hundreds of IPAs, Double IPAs and Barleywines later and about 1,000 miles closer to a brewery that, at the time, was about 1,000 miles away from me, as I sit down to review an old standby and one of the original beers I fell in love with. 

My opinion of it has certainly changed over the years.  It is no-longer an exotic, hard-to-find beer.  It is available almost everywhere here in Boulder and even back home in Chicago it is becoming increasingly easy to find.  Knowing the brewery as well as I do now, I also know that while it is a strong beer, it is nowhere near the best that Avery can do.  Anyhow, that’s enough rambling about my history with this beer, how about a review?

Location: West End Tavern, Boulder, Colorado

Cost: $4 - 12oz. bottle

ABV: 6.5%

IBUs: 69

Brewery Location: Boulder, Colorado

Style: American IPA

Average Beer Advocate Rating: B+/3.9 – Very Good

My Beer Advocate Rating: B+/3.93 – Very Good

Current Number of Reviews: 1,028/2^nd Most Reviewed Avery Beer

Brewery Description: Avery IPA

Bottled On: ???

APPEARANCE:  (3.5 out of 5) The Avery IPA pours from the 12oz. bottle a pleasant orange-golden color with a very white head resting on top of the beer.  As the head settled, a ring of it clung to the edges of the glass while a thin film completely covered the surface of the beer.  That ring of head eventually led to some decent lacing on the top half of the glass, but not much farther down.  A few bubbles were very easy to see slowly floating to the top in this nearly perfectly clear beer. 

SMELL:  (3.5 out of 5) The strength of the nose is lacking a bit, but what aroma does get through is classic American IPA – piney and floral hops with a bit of citrus.  This is what an IPA should smell like, it is exactly the right smell for the style, there just isn’t enough of it. 

TASTE:  (4 out of 5) Avery’s IPA is a solidly bitter beer.  The hops are up front with some grapefruit and lemon along with a healthy dose of pine and a hint of anise.  Some malt is present to provide a small amount of balance towards the finish, but ultimately this is a big, hop-forward beer.  As it warms some of the sweeter flavors emerge, like orange and more of the malt, but they continue to lurk in the background behind the hops, which are the clear star of this show.

MOUTHFEEL:  (4.5 out of 5) The carbonation on this one is strong.  It has a crisp and clean feel with a sharp sparkle.  The mouthfeel is excellent.

OVERALL:  (4 out of 5) As the standard bearer for Avery, this is a fantastic beer.  By no means is it the best beer they make, but as the beer that generally introduces people to Avery’s products (like it was for me) it represents the brewery well.  It is a highly drinkable beer that for a seasoned IPA drinker is also quite sessionable. 

DRAWBACKS:  My biggest disappointment with Avery IPA is the less than stellar nose.  I really enjoy the smell, but I every time I drink it I really have to get my nose deep into the glass to get a decent whiff of it.  Aside from that, while I love the bitterness, a touch more malt to balance it out would have been nice.