Avery Barrel Aged series

Depends on how long you want to consider "aging," but I tried an Oud Floris fresh and an Oud Floris with around 5 or so months on it last year. Liked it fresh, loved it with the age where it became my favorite oud bruin that I have tried (which, granted is not a lot).

 

Just cracked a Brabant and it was actually really tasty. Never tried it fresh but it tasted great now. Still have one left. The real question is to crack open my Black Tot or not.....

 

Immitis is drinking awesome right now. Popped one over the weekend. Bottle says Aug 2011.
Rumpkin keeps getting better with age in my opinion. I recently did a batch 1+2 and 3. They were all good, but everyone agreed the older was the better.
I only have 1 Immitis left, and honestly, I am regretting popping it the other night.

 

Five of us did the entire series back in April; everything was good to great, including the Black Tot. The thing we all noticed was that the 2011 Rumpkin was much smoother than the 2012 which still had the alcohol heat going. Of course, there's been other/more releases since then..............

 

i popped one of my last odio equum back in september and it was still full of fruity raspberry sour awesomeness.

 

Seems like opinions are all over the map here, which I did not expect. I've opened a lot of these over time, so I'll throw out a few thoughts to you on each. Take them however you'd like, and definitely read the recent reviews on BA if there are some.

Brabant: Incredibly dry. Brett has taken over, and it's all bitter adjunct malt and minerality. Probably not going to get better.
Sui Generis: Took longer than others, but also drying out. This has the benefit of being sour, which helps. Probably not going to get better.
Black Tot: No idea, not really sure why I'm holding onto the bottle I have other than for shits and giggles at some point.
Depuceleuse: Like a fruitier Brabant. All of the early brett beers seem to share the same problem of having it eat through everything. Probably not going to get better.
Quinquepartite: Don't remember, can't find notes.
Margarete: Cherry fruit has faded, but their tartness remain so that it's like a very full stout with a tart finish. Not that pleasing right now, but I think it has a chance to improve if held onto a little longer as it becomes a bit more oxidized, much like older Meph does.
Dihos Dactylion: Last I tried, tastes pretty much like I remember at release.
Meretrix: Don't remember, can't find notes
Immitis: Just had it, was fantastic. Great lactic/acetic sour balance, brett has not broken down the malt, so there's still a good amount of malt sweetness and body.
Muscat d'Amour: Don't remember, can't find notes.
Recolte Sauvage: Originally one of my favorites, this one is getting totally dried out. Bummer, probably not going to get better.
Oud Floris: Still has a bunch of acetic, but it's not overwhelming. I like it, tastes a lot like it did around release.
Odio Equum: Just had it the other night. Raspberry now hidden behind crazy amounts of acidity. Almost couldn't finish my part of the split. Bitter, vinous, tannic..
Volunt - Thensaurum: All new enough that they probably haven't changed all that much.

Rumpkin 2011: Oxidation playing nicely, spices still there - this one is on a good journey.
Rumpkin 2012: Alcohol is really strong on it, remember it being awkwardly bitter. Might have not been cellared that well, take this with a grain of salt. I'm hanging onto mine longer.

Uncle Jacobs 2012: Great, every time. Even oxidation is going to suit this beer nicely. So many dark fruit and bitterness elements. Carb level is perfect. Alcohol is a little more prevalent than 2013.

Bonus Round:

2007 Meph: AWESOME. Bitter sweetness, molasses and birch syrup. Had in August.
2012 Old Jubilation: Not a great nose, but the flavor is good. Alcohol for sure, hazelnut, light chocolate, caramel.
2009-2011 Collaboration Not Litigation: Did this vertical last winter, almost all drainpours. Bitter and cardboard, not much redeeming to them.

Cellaring is fun.

 

im surprised about your opinion of odio equum. one of my favorite avery sours ive had, and the last one i had i thought it was still delicious. i've got a few friends back east who stumbled into a pub in MA that tapped a keg of it not too long ago and they all enjoyed it as well.

 

Could be cellaring condition or packaging differences, especially bottle/keg. All I know is the one I had was one enamel-ripping difficult drink.

 

A buddy of mine both found that Thensaurum has been aging incredibly quickly. I had one on release day and another about two weeks later. While the release day beer had the whole sweet-and-sour pineapple rum cocktail thing going on, the bottle I had two weeks later was almost all sour with none of the sweetness I got from bottle #1. It was still a great sour, but a completely different flavor profile than I got from bottle #1. I kind of expected this to happen, just not so soon.

 

I had it on release day and I'm not sure where you got pineapple cocktail.

 

You didnt get any pineapple notes? I'm surprised.

From Avery's chief barrel herder: "Parker adds that he loves the aromas put off by the Brettanomyces yeast in Thensaurum. “the secondary fermentation from the Bretts created incredible aromas of pineapple and tropical fruit.. There’s almost none of those horse blanket and barnyard notes that can be associated with wild yeast.”

From Adam: “It’s like a rum cocktail. Rum cocktails usually have lime, a citric acid aspect, to them. With Thensaurum the barrel and malts shine through in the rich aroma, but the beer drinks dry, acidic and super clean. It’s a crazy dichotomy.”

 

that's weird it tasted like a straight up flaner's red to me, just higher abv, I didn't even really taste any rum or brett

 

Taste is subjective, right? It tasted like a lime-based tropical Rum cocktail to me.

 

News on the next release??

 

I had one the next day after you had one Josh, and it wasn't nearly as enamel ripping as you made yours out to be, so it is very possible they are aging differently, some barrels came out different so some bottles could be fruitier vs more sour, etc. Mine wasn't super fruit forward, but certainly not hard to drink. Both the oude tart and oude tart with cherries that we had after it was much more sour....whatever that's worth!

 

my experience too, to me something like tart of darkness is way too sour but some people really like it, probably the same with all sours

 

Thensaurum was pretty great this year. I also had Arameta 6 on tap in the taproom (key lime sour) and it was insanely delicious. One of my favorites.

 

I can only pronounce 3 of them :|

 

I bet they're named that way so Lost Abbey can't sue them.