Avery Rum Barrel Aged Coconut Porter

Talked to my local brewery that did a rum barrel aged Mexican stout that turned out pretty good. They said the rum barrels are very difficult to get ahold of because most are of terrible quality when all said and done. Combine with the shipping from out of country, and the cost of the barrel is not worth it. The fact they turned down just putting out a sub par beer makes me happy. Good for them!

 

Vanilla Bean Stout

 

Have my bottle in my fridge and will end up trying it. But thanks for your OPINION.

 

yes, I really enjoyed the vanilla bean stout and think that one was underrated by many of the reviews I read. The sour is ok but nothing amazing. To each his own, I'm not saying people have to love these beers, I just know Avery's knack for quality is up there with the best of them and expect great things with basically every release.

 

Fair enough. I too really like rum barrels used in beer- although I can't say I've had many.

 

Vanilla Bean has a 91 rating here on about 100 reviews and 500 ratings. I had it, and its not BCBS, but its very solid. What's the problem?

 

As said, rum barrels are very hard to source in good condition. Boulevard scrapped their Imperial Stout X variant in rum barrels because the barrels they got were trashed. A lot of breweries don't even bother at this point, so props to Avery for making the effort at least. I'm still pumped at the tasting the beer, no matter what barrels it's been in. Lot of hate on here for this series, but I've enjoyed both beers so far. So have a lot of my customers, they sell out within a day every time we get them.

 

I don't understand all the hate for their vanilla bean BBS. Sure it's not vanilla rye Bourbon County and I don't think anyone expected it to be. I've had several bottles of it and the biggest potentially negative thing I noticed was a range of flavor variation between them. I had 2 vanilla bombs, one bourbon bomb, and the other 2 or 3 were a decent balance of vanilla and barrel. For the price and availability (we have it available here in WI again), I'd say it's a decent buy if you're in the mood for that kind of thing.