Avery Brewing Tasting

Last Wednesday night, Sammy and I had the opportunity to taste a wide variety of Avery Brewing beers. BetterBeerBlog friends Diane and Michael brought back a bottle of Avery’s Brabant for me a few weeks ago when they went to Colorado for a beer trip. Due to a variety of factors, I wasn’t able to pick the bottle of Brabant up but when I finally emailed Diane that I had some free time, she was kind enough to offer their other Avery beers to taste as well.

Sammy and I initially met Diane and Michael at Firehouse Brewery & Grill during their Beer & Chocolate Dinner. It was only fitting then that when we had our Avery Brewing tasting it would be at Firehouse brewery. Firehouse brewmaster Steve Donohue joined Diane, Michael, Sammy and myself at this tasting. We set up shop in the brewery and started cracking bottles open.

Iconoclast Eclat, Mayfield Brewing Company

Note: I had the pleasure of meeting up with John from Mayfield Brewing Company tonight (4/30/2009). I must say that after talking to him, I have a completely different perspective about his beers. I will not be retracting anything I’ve written below because those thoughts were written prior to my meeting him. In fact, my opinions of the IPA still stand but I am looking forward to the next batch as there will be more hop character to the beer.

I will make the correction that Devil’s Canyon DOES NOT contract brew Mayfield Brewing Company beers, John does at their facility. He was kind enough to let me walk out with samples of all their beers, 3 total and I will be doing a more robust review while at the Boonville Beer Festival this weekend. Look for the upcoming post mid-next week.

Our first beer of the evening was a Iconoclast Eclat from Mayfield Brewing Company. This beer was initially served out of a brown paper bag as a blind tasting. I found this beer to be interesting: there were strong wood flavors and aromas with a moderate malt aroma and flavor that was slightly sweet and the hop character or bitterness was pretty low.

While I initially thought this beer was interesting, once I found out what style it was, I was disappointed. Iconoclast Eclat is a wood-aged IPA. IPAs are supposed to be a showcase for all things hops: bitterness, aromas and flavors. This beer severely lacking in the hop department. The wood was a dominant feature in just about everything, it was unbalanced. As an IPA, this beer was severely lacking the hop character one would expect from the style. Quite a disappointment as I’ve always wondered how the the IPA style would take to wood. Looks like it doesn’t.

What I really found surprising was just how much Diane and MIchael paid for this beer: $43. Based solely on price I would’ve expected this beer to be leagues above other IPAs but the experience in the bottle doesn’t justify the cost. The beer is beautifully packaged and Mayfield Brewing Company website is professionally done but neither warrants a price tag like that. On top of it all, I believe this beer is contract brewed at Devil’s Canyone Brewing Company. Nothing against Devil’s Canyon as I suspect the Mayfield Brewing Company people drove the flavor profile of this beer.

Salvation, Avery Brewing Company, 9.0% ABV

The first Avery beer of the evening was their Salvation Belgian Golden Strong Ale. This beer had a sweet malt aroma and flavor with a matching level of hop bitterness. Unfortunately, it was a little flat overall and had some flaws. I found a “tinny” character in the aroma as well as an acetone character. The alcohol character of the beer is hot and there’s some apricot flavors as well. Unfortunately this was the worst beer of the evening.

Collaboration Not Litigation, Avery Brewing Company, 9.0% ABV

The name of this beer is a result of the goodwill most brewers generally have with each other. Vinny Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing Company has their own Salvation, which is a Belgian Dark Strong Ale as opposed to Avery’s Golden Strong Ale. Instead of getting all riled up, both brewers decided to get together and blend their two beers together. The result is Collaboration Not Litigation.

This beer has a huge, spicy phenolic character in both the aroma and the flavor. There’s noticeable yeast in suspension. We also picked up some funky, brett-ish character. While much better than the original Salvation, I find it interesting to see this beer had so much phenolic character as the base beers used aren’t don’t have a huge spicy character to either of them.

Fifteen, Avery Brewing Company, 9.0% ABV

This is an interesting beer. It is kind of without style but it close to a “farmhouse” style beer. There beer was highly carbonated with huge, pillowy head. The aroma of this beer is pungent; huge barnyard and horseblanket brett-character with slight tart sourness. This beer has been brewed with figs and hibiscus flowers but you really can’t taste the figs. If you can make it past the aroma, this is a surprisingly easy drinking beer. I’m going to have to find a bottle or two, maybe three for myself.

The Kaiser, Avery Brewing, 9.37% ABV

This beer is an Imperial Oktoberfest. There’s a noticeable alcohol character that some described as hot but I picked up a roasty character that is inappropriate for the style. A toasty character is OK for the style but not the roastiness. While a little out of style, this was an interesting beer nonetheless just to see an “extreme” version of something.

New World Porter, Avery Brewing, 6.7% ABV

This beer has a deep roasted malt character with strong chocolate aromas and flavors as well as some espresso coffee character. The bitterness in this beer was more from the grain than the hops. I thought this beer was pretty good myself but according to Diane and Michael, New World Porter on tap has a very medium/medium-high level of hop bitterness and aroma. I wish I had the opportunity to try this on tap side-by-side with this bottle as it would be interesting to see the differences between the two. This just goes to show you that beer is best served fresh and from the tap and you can never tell how well or how old a bottle is.

The Maharaja, Avery Brewing, 10.54% ABV

Finally, a beer with hops. This beer has an awesome hop aroma with piney, citrus notes and a splash of garlic. This beer has a good balance, it’s hoppy enough to be an Imperial IPA but not so much as to blow out the malt character.

Brabant, Avery Brewing, 8.7% ABV

This is the beer that brought everyone together. As soon as I read about it, this was the one beer I wanted brought back. Brabant is a surprisingly dark beer with a complex aroma comprised of barnyardy tartness, chocolate, roast and baby poo. The flavor echoes that of the aroma. This was a beer brewed with two strains of Brettanomyces and aged in Zinfandel barrels. We all kept raving about how well this beer smelled and I can honestly say this was a beer worth the wait.

Samael’s Ale, Avery Brewing, 14.9% ABV

With an image of a demon on the label, you can only assume that this would be an extreme beer. This is an oak-aged English Strong Ale. Samael’s Ale has a huge alcohol note with chocolate aromas and flavors with huge raisins and prunes esters along with oak on the nose and flavor. This beer reminded us of a port wine. Awesome. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of of the bottle of the beer in a glass. By this time, we were feeling pretty good and my documentation hit a wall.

What a great evening. I would like to thank Diane and Michael for bringing back a bottle of Brabant back for me and for letting us sample the Avery beers from their personal collection. Beer is a social beverage and it is best enjoyed in the company of good friends. Having friends who enjoy beer as much as we do makes everything that much better, it really does. I’d also like to thank Steve for opening up his brewery and giving us a venue to try these beers. He continues to make good beer and support the homebrewers and craft beer fans of the south bay. You should show him your support by stopping into the brewery and having a pint or two.

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