30th Anniversary
Avery Brewing Company

 

Showing a more mature stance on birthday beers, Avery Brewing Company looks to the time honored style of British strong ale. But they are still a little rebellious so they push the alcohol to fifteen percent and age it in a bourbon barrel.

Pouring a medium mahogany color, Thirty tops off with a creamy ivory cap while leading with a strong malt perfume of toffee, brown sugar and toasted sugars along with an unmistakable vanilla, coconut and oaken spice from the barrels. As its sweetness seeps into the tastebuds, the full malt profile of caramel, toffee, brown sugar and sorghum satisfies the sweet tooth immediately.

As the sweetness broadens across the middle palate a more fruity sweetness persists with the taste of maraschino cherries, apple, dates, apricot and plum in a special marzipan and marmalade way. Mild in its hopping rates, the rise of earthen bitterness brings hints of tobacco with a woodsy balance and an extension into barrel complexities of whisky spice, toasted oak, vanilla and coconut to close.

Full bodied, warming and sweet, the beer finishes off-cloying and with the long and savory extensions of bourbon spice, honey and macerated fruits.

10oz draft at The Brothers Beer and Bourbon House. Poured a clear, golden amber color with a small, khaki-colored head of foam. It left sudsy trails of lace. It smelled of toffee, caramel, bourbon and some vanilla. Strong boozy taste with toffee, caramel, bourbon, oak and vanilla.