CulturAle Press

Avery Fimbulvvinter Quintuple, Rum Barrel Quintuple, Boulder, Colorado

Date:  December 9, 2018

The Story—   Avery was one of the early sensations in the craft beer business, starting in 1993 and luckily acquiring national prominence.  Adam Avery was a star at several of the Brickskeller tasting events and along with several other pioneers of craft such as Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, formed a sort of rat pack of craft brewers that spread the gospel of flavorful beers not only around the US but to Europe as well.

Avery has always innovated.   In the early days, innovation wasn’t very hard.   You could use more than a thimble of hops in a beer and produce a pretty distinctive brew.   Today, there’s a thin line between innovation and just plain nuts.   Avery still manages to stay on the “innovation” side of the line.   Most of the time.

We’ve stopped buying weird sounding beers unless we know the source.   Allagash and Ommegang, for example rarely produce beers you’re sorry you bought.   Avery is definitely in that “worth the risk” group, except the prices of many of Avery’s specialty beers are astronomical ranging close to thirty bucks a bottle.  If you’re rich, they’re worth the money– we know people who drop $150 on a bottle of wine with dinner without blinking.   We blink when the whole check is that high.

Sometimes, though, the splurge is manageable — less than $20 bucks, even though the bottle is a standard 12 oz.  You’re buying the taste, after all, not a full afternoon of drinking.

The Beer—  A doozie of rich darkish sweetness, but it sips nice and easy as it drinks.     Rich and sweet.  Caramel and butterscotch with candied apples from a rum barrel.  Finishes with wood, rum and a hint of smoke (maybe it was just darkish malt?)    Ellie called it well: a sticky sipper– but good.

Value —  Good, with reservations.    Figure out the price as a percentage of your hourly wage.   If the fifteen buck price is less than 10% it’s a bargain– it only took you 6 minutes of work to earn it.   If you’re minimum wage, it still might be worth the hour+ of your life, depending on what you’re giving up for it.

 This week we focus on the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it in 2019.

Next week we return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Including some surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities” we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)   We’ll shift back to great American beer for a few days before ending our year with “the best 10 beers of the last five years.”

 About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.