Sunday, February 27, 2011

Avery - collaboration not litigation



This is a weird beer, this is not a bad thing. As a matter of fact, I love this beer. It is very possibly one of my favorite beers at the moment.



This beer has a very interesting history... supposedly the Avery brewery and the Russian River brewery both had a beer named Salvation, thankfully the guys that run them are both friends. So instead of suing each others pants off like it has seemed to be oh so customary in these modern American days, they decided to come together and make their legal departments happy as well. What they decided to do was to, quite simply, just put the two together! And this is the product that came from that mixing.

On first pour it has a very mixed look to it. It looks like a mix between a brown ale, an unfiltered wheat and an IPA. It has a golden brown look to it that is neither clear nor is it overly hazy... it pours with very little head that leaves little to no lacing on the glass as the head diminishes. It has a very malty fig ish aroma to it and the taste follows close behind it.

On first tasting, my first reaction was "damn that's good"! Then I realized that I am supposed to review this beer. So I drank that bottle in jubilation of how good it was and bought another bottle to review with. It starts with some nice fig and raisin notes that moves to a nice brown sugar maltiness. It finishes strong with a solid punch of brown sugar that coats the mouth. A clean kind of feeling, not like a friend of mine recently said "tastes like it came out of an old farmers boot". It is a little thick, but I personaly enjoy beers like this. Its crisp enough that you want to drink it all night, but an ABV of around 9%... so you probably wont.

To be honest this is exactly what I wished Avery's brown ale would taste like... don't get me wrong their brown ale is good, but it is like a rented tux VS a hand tailored suit. Both are good in their own right, but if your gonna buy one, you will always favor the more refined elegance that a little extra time and money takes. As well as the fact that a rented tux doesn't go to well with dinner, this beer would go splendidly with a good burger, steak or even as a beer that would pair well with a cheese cake or apple dessert.

On the note of extra time, sadly this is a special edition brew and wont be around forever, so if you like brown ales this is one that you should go out and get some while its around. It looks like it will be one that may be around for a while but dont press your luck... get some now. Just don't go buying it from any of my liquor stores.

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