The Beast Grand Cru - Avery Brewing Company

Pahn

New York

3.15/5  rDev -18%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

12oz bottle into Duvel tulip. Bottled 2006, Batch 4, 14.6% ABV.

Appearance: Free pour yields a one and a half inch, frothy light tan head that dissipates slowly leaving sweeping peaks of lacing. Pours a beautiful, solid dark red brown. Leaves occasional islands of lacing.

Smell: Huge raisin/fig from the bottle. Same in the glass, with a bright Belgian yeast note, toffee, molasses, some cake. Strong aroma. Suggests a good quad. I'm pretty fond of the deep, cutting molasses smell and the lack (for the most part) of booziness.

Taste: Molasses and fat, chewy raisins. Smooth raisin aftertaste, finishing dry and a little sticky. Alcohol heat is felt in the chest but not right away in the taste. Interesting, sugary flavors, but more strong than complex. Definitely a beast... if the beer itself is St. Bernardus 12, it makes the water I'm drinking with it taste like St. Bernardus 8; the thick flavor really stays with you, for better or worse. Would love to cook with this beer.

There's a fair amount of interesting flavors happening, but as a BSDA the notes don't really sing together. Also starts to get a bit solvent-like and occasionally too sweet with warmth. Ultimately, it tastes mostly like an average quad, goes above with the more interesting notes, but goes below average with the clashing, off notes. The strength of the flavor does more to exacerbate its flaws than emphasize its virtues.

Mouthfeel: Light side of full bodied, but thick and sticky. A bit slick. More dryness in the finish than expected (or welcomed). The combination of thickness/stickyness plus dryness is rather unpleasant.

Drinkability: A decent sipper. I like its boldness, and while it took me 2 hours to drink the 12oz bottle, I wasn't forcing it down or anything. Still, in the end, no matter in what light I try to look at this beer, I've had a lot better and don't need to return to this one.

The Beast Grand Cru is definitely the worst of the three in the Demons of Ale series. Samael and Mephistopheles, both as bold and unique as The Beast, have a balance and palatability that the latter lacks. Still, it's the kind of adventurous, genre-bending beer that would make me want to try more Avery beers even if I wasn't already long sold on their greatness as a brewery.

I think my main issue with The Beast is that it tastes like pouring a bottle of 10 year old J.W. Lees into an average quad (both in how the flavors clash, and in that the feel is so off that it feels like randomly mixing 2 beers). It's not bad, but there's a lot of problems and the overall flavor doesn't really work.

As a sidenote, I'd be kind of interested in trying some of the more attenuated batches of this beer. Batch 4 is 14.6% ABV, the lowest of any batch, and I believe the original gravity was pretty much constant for all batches. Batch 2 was 18.1% ABV, and all the recent batches have been around 16%~ ABV. After sufficient aging, I'd like to try this beer with less residual sugar. I'm not positive, but I think it might fix at least some of its problems.

Serving type: bottle

02-18-2011 23:18:41 | More by Pahn

Kingcurio

Oklahoma

4/5  rDev +4.2%

05-21-2013 02:30:12 | More by Kingcurio

Slatetank

Pennsylvania

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

05-20-2013 23:17:39 | More by Slatetank

BeerForMuscle

New Jersey

4.25/5  rDev +10.7%

05-20-2013 20:18:59 | More by BeerForMuscle

MinorThreat

Colorado

3.25/5  rDev -15.4%

05-16-2013 00:20:50 | More by MinorThreat

jburd19

Ohio

3.5/5  rDev -8.9%

05-15-2013 21:12:39 | More by jburd19

h0ppster

District of Columbia

4/5  rDev +4.2%

05-14-2013 17:51:32 | More by h0ppster

jplopez21

Illinois

4.5/5  rDev +17.2%

05-14-2013 01:54:02 | More by jplopez21

Bonko_the_sane

North Carolina

4.25/5  rDev +10.7%

05-13-2013 16:48:07 | More by Bonko_the_sane

jkball01

Kentucky

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

05-13-2013 15:57:50 | More by jkball01

drummermattie02

Texas

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

05-13-2013 14:26:55 | More by drummermattie02

Darkmagus82

Montana

3.8/5  rDev -1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

Poured from bottle into a snifter

Appearance – Pours a murky brownish-orange color with ruby highlights seen shinning through when held to the light. Upon a vigorous pour there is a tiny white foam on top of the brew. This foam fades very fast leaving only the lightest level of lace on the sides of the glass. Upon swirling the beer, a fingery foam is left sticking to the glass as the thick body of the brew slowly settles to its resting place at the bottom of the snifter.

Smell – The aroma is big and boozy with a harsh alcohol smell. Underneath the strong alcohol are fruity aromas as well as lots of caramel and a big malty backbone. The fruit aromas are big of citrus orange with some cherry as well as raisin and plum. A thick and heavy caramel and buttery toffee are mixed with a malty and lightly grainy smell. Overall it is a big and warming aroma, smelling more like a sweet barley wine then anything else.

Taste –Wow!! Massive sweetness up front with tons of caramel and a thick and pallet coating orange Dimetapp flavor. Right from the start there is a strong presence of alcohol giving it at first a more warming taste. The alcohol continues to strengthen throughout the brew getting very potent at the end. Along with the increasing boozy taste, a buttery toffee flavor hits the tongue more toward the middle and the end. A maltiness, that was lighter upfront, grows stronger more toward the middle and the end of the taste. Some grainy and grassy flavors develop at the end with the alcohol taste now very big and hot giving a harsh alcohol burn. This huge alcohol taste when mixed with the sweet fruit and sugary tastes, leaves a very mediciney flavor on the tongue.

Mouthfeel –The body of the brew is quite thick and chewy with a carbonation level that is very low. Not too surprising of a body for a 16 % abv brew with it giving a very mediciney like character to the beer and making this on a very slow sipper when combined with the big boozy flavor.

Overall – Thick of a hot boozy and mediciney flavor; this is a very sweet and slow sipper indeed. It is rather odd, while it has some more off characteristics like the medicine flavor and huge sweetness, somehow it goes together to make something rather palatable and somewhat enjoyable. While not one I would ever want to frequent, it is one I think that should be experienced, and one to come to every so often when you feel like something intense and hot.

Serving type: bottle

05-13-2013 01:04:34 | More by Darkmagus82

NastyNate11

North Carolina

4/5  rDev +4.2%

05-12-2013 01:39:15 | More by NastyNate11

ThirdEyePA

Texas

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

05-11-2013 22:25:37 | More by ThirdEyePA

BDstripp

Florida

4/5  rDev +4.2%

05-08-2013 03:08:13 | More by BDstripp

dhbiker0889

Colorado

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

05-07-2013 21:01:13 | More by dhbiker0889

blknikon

Massachusetts

4.25/5  rDev +10.7%

04-30-2013 19:25:41 | More by blknikon

Lawl3ss

Texas

3.94/5  rDev +2.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Lightly chilled 12 oz. bottle into a Real Ale tulip pint. Label states August 2011/Batch 9 release. Bottle lists 16.83% ABV.

Look- 3+ fingers of off-white frothy head cap a deep brown-burgundy brew. Insane retention and lacing for the ABV.

Smell- Big dose of candied dates, grainy brown bread, rhubarb jam, intriguing licorice-laced cream soda something in the background. At first, it's a bit overly assertive and comes across like opening a container of dark LME, but as it warms and oxygenates it takes on a character that brings to mind strawberry jam-slathered fresh dark rye bread. Pretty good, bold.

Taste- Wow, well I thought the nose was assertively malty but this takes the cake. Sweet up front and straight through the finish; toasted brown sugar, golden raisin, honey, black molasses, and a subtle earthy spiciness. Again, letting it breathe brings out its best characteristics. Fruit cake, roasted nutty base, dank earthy hops, mace, and something that feels like green hay. Some spice, but really feels more like an insane imperial brown.

Mouthfeel- Thick, syrupy, moderate carbonation barely lightens it. Fairly boozy feel, significant warming down the gullet. Not unwelcome, but this one's definitely a sipper. 12 oz. lasted me through four hours or so.

Overall- A Beast indeed. As long as one's not put off by a sweet, heavy brew, this is certainly worth trying. I'd definitely consider picking up and stowing a few away, but I wouldn't crack one very often. One to savor, heavier and boozier than some of the other uber-strong ales on the market but unique and assertive enough to be worth revisiting.

Serving type: bottle

04-21-2013 04:35:45 | More by Lawl3ss

HattedClassic

Virginia

4.25/5  rDev +10.7%

04-08-2013 02:47:54 | More by HattedClassic

deNerval

California

4.5/5  rDev +17.2%

04-05-2013 04:47:58 | More by deNerval

bulldogg915

Wyoming

3/5  rDev -21.9%

04-03-2013 14:27:31 | More by bulldogg915

Sparky44

Illinois

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

03-31-2013 23:31:59 | More by Sparky44

auggie

Illinois

4/5  rDev +4.2%

03-31-2013 00:36:47 | More by auggie

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New Hampshire

4/5  rDev +4.2%

03-29-2013 07:14:14 | More by DmouthCaliBrewz

match1112

Illinois

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

03-24-2013 13:23:02 | More by match1112