Yesterday was Halloween, so to celebrate, Dan and I decided to pick up some evil themed beers. We both chose offerings from Avery Brewing Company, in Boulder, CO. Dan grabbed The Beast, a 16.3% ABV Belgian Grand Cru. I picked out Mephistopheles Stout, a super dark 16.1% ABV stout.
The beer pours a deep, dark brown... practically black. It has a 1 finger brown head that dissipates fairly quickly. Even the head on this beer is darker than a lot of beers out there. There's no lacing on the glass, and the head was almost completely gone by the time I started drinking it.
The aroma has a good bit of alcohol present. There's a sweetness to it though from the malt, and some traces of coffee. It's definitely a strong smelling beer, and let's you know that there's going to be quite a kick to it.
The taste is initially very sweet at first, moving to a bitter burnt coffee flavor as it moves back on the tongue. Then a strong alcohol flavor kicks in. It's definitely warming as it goes down, almost like a shot. It seems like it needs to be sipped at first. The strength of the alcohol becomes less noticeable as I continued drinking. The first bit was a bit hard to get through, but it's well worth it. I also noticed a somewhat greasy burnt bacon flavor as the beer progressed. I know that sounds a little nasty, but it actually fit well in the flavor. The aftertaste had strong coffee notes.
It was thick in the mouth, as expected from something this dark and strong. The carbonation wasn't too strong, just a mild tingle on the tongue. It fit well with the character of the beer.
As for the drinkability... not too high. It was good, it was worth having, but it was strong. Very very strong. And at 16.1% trying to session this beer would likely put you in a hospital, if you could even get that many down. Happy Halloween.
- Adam
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