Avery Seventeen

It’s hard to believe there are quite a few craft breweries still in business that started brewing seventeen years ago. Sam Adams (Boston Beer Co.), Sierra Nevada, Anchor, sure. But Avery Brewing, an outfit from Boulder, Colorado? Indeed they have, and over the years they’ve “given back” to their loyal fans with an anniversary beer, usually one that pushes their usual uber-hoppy ale recipes up yet another notch. I’ve long been a fan of several offerings from them, and Adam Avery is one of the “good guys” spearheading the craft beer movement.

For the seventeenth version? Of course – take a traditional German lager style, the schwarzbier — a “black lager” — and hop the living daylights out of it with, yes, German hops. Now, traditional German hops, like Hallertauer and Hersbrucker, Perle and Spalt, are considered “noble” hops: usually found in lagers, used for centuries, mainly for their bittering properties, and not really the types of hops you want to taste in copious quantities. Think traditional pilsner. But still, forging ahead, Avery gave it a try, dry-hopping (adding these hops during the fermenting process, not just during the boil) to see what they could come up with and selling it in a foil-topped limited-edition bottle. It finishes at 8.69% — not 8.7%, mind you — alcohol by volume, according to the bottle, and the bottling run was completed in May of this year, so this bottle is rather fresh. Does it stack up as a worthy, tasty beverage?

Well… sorta.

Avery Seventeen certainly pours like a schwartzbier: it’s inky, opaque black, and throws a giant, soapy, long-lasting tan head as you can see in the picture. So far, so good. Seventeen smells like roasted barley, a slight sour note typical with beers containing lots of roasted barley, and grassy hops. Still on-track, though the clash of the grassiness and the roasted barley is fairly evident. Plus, the alcohol has been masked in the aroma, which is quite a feat, considering it’s a big part of this beer.

Then we get to sipping. So that’s where the alcohol went! Alongside that is a punishingly fresh bitterness, positively green. It tastes like chlorophyll, seriously. This mingles with the roasted, slightly chocolatey malt backbone, which, thanks to an efficient German lager yeast, comes through without a hint of fruitiness. Say this for the beer, it tastes clean. But… I’m just not a fan of mixing the noble hops, with their grassiness and herbal qualities, alongside the roasted barley. They… do not work together well. At all. It’s not exactly a pleasant flavor in my mouth, and they do not tie together. Citrusy hops, maybe I could see that with this beer — toss some Cascade hops in there and the lemony-grapefruity flavors might mix well, though it would detract from the point of this beer, which is to combine lots of elements from the same brewing country. But no, instead I also get a finish that is a weird melange of grass/hay and roasted malt that just does not work for me.

This “Dark Study in German Hops”, as proclaimed on the label, might be rated excellent by some, but I expected more here. The bottle was a gift from a friend in Colorado — thanks Mikey! — and it was well worth the tasting experience. I simply wish the various elements of the beer could be put together more tastily. Sure, I finished the 22-ounce bottle, but I’m pretty sure that I won’t be doing that again any time soon.

While Mikey picked this up locally, fewer Avery beers are available on this coast although many Avery seasonals make it onto New York City shelves. I do recommend trying the year-round Ellie’s Brown Ale, one of the better browns you will find here, and the seasonal “holy” beers such as the Hog Heaven Barleywine and the Reverend Quadrupel (a big, dark, fruity Belgian style), which are normally excellent for drinking and sharing. But the Avery Seventeen? If you can find it here, at New Beer Distributors on Chrystie or in the Whole Foods empire, give it a whirl and let me know if I’m way off base here, and why.