2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Avery Brewing Company, Boulder Colorado (June 26, Brewery Stop #8)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Avery Brewing Company, Boulder Colorado (June 26, Brewery Stop #8)The eighth brewery that we stopped at during the beer discovery tour (click here to read more about the whole trip) was Avery Brewing Company in Boulder CO, June 26th, 2015. We drove to Boulder taking the back roads from Oskar Blues Brewing in Longmont, which surprisingly wasn’t that long of a drive (20 mins?), and we ran into very little traffic which was nice. When we pulled into the Avery brewing complex, it was clear that it’s a really popular brewery to visit as we got one of the only free parking spots in their big lot. The facility is quite large as you can see (like a factory), with full production area, restaurant (upstairs), swag/bottle shop (upstairs), self-guided tour area (upstairs), and taproom with an outdoor patio.

That afternoon, the weather was really nice and we thought about sitting or standing on the patio, but as you can see from the pics there was no available spots outside on the patio. We got lucky and found a small ‘standing’ table at the back of the taproom and ordered our beers. The really cool thing with the taproom, is that it’s all digital ordering with the server so by the time she took our sampler order, the beers were already on their way and sitting on the table within moments. Literally, the servers put the beer order on tablets, and runners bring the beer over as soon as it’s poured. Really cool and unique way of handling the customers needs, especially when it was super paked and busy like it was.

I did a little bit of wandering around after we ordered the samplers. I walked some of the self-guided tour that is above the brewing tanks and bought a hat for Gary. They did have a good variety of styles of shirts and stuff which I appreciated. The upstairs dining area is a bit odd however, as you have to walk through it to get to the self-guided tour area and bottleshop/swag room. I felt a bit weird walking by tables of people eating, but that was the only way to get to the area from the taproom.

We decided to only try a few beers (6) and not a full line of tasters as we were feeling the previous two brewery stops that day and we had to drive back into Denver to go out for dinner with Gary’s old college roommate. So, we picked what we felt was a range of styles from their long list of available drafts. The reviews of those selected are below, going right to left on the picture. Overall, the Ellie’s Brown Ale and the Summer IPA were the best samplers we tried.

Avery Brewing Company
4910 Nautilus Ct,
Boulder, CO 80301
Phone:(303) 440-4324
E: info@averybrewing.com
Web: http://averybrewing.com/
Face: https://www.facebook.com/AveryBrewingCo

Joe’s Premium American Pilsner Avery Brewing Co. • American Pilsner • IBU: 50 • ABV: 4.7% • 4 SRM Hops: Bravo, Hersbrucker Malts: Two-row barley Draft is a bright golden color with a shallow white head that dropped to a sheen on the top quickly. Some sticky lacing on the rim. The nose is a mix of yeasty esters, lemon rind/zest, and grassy/herbal notes. The front and mid mouth is medium-bodied, slightly juicy from the lemon hoppy profile, the malts do balance it out with some lingering spice and dry hop back.

Liliko’i Kepolo Avery Brewing Co. • Witbier • IBU: 10 • ABV: 6.5% • 4 SRM Unfiltered, dusty yellow with a minimal white head that left some lacing around the edge. The nose is super yeasty, clove, sweet and slight tart fruits. The front mouth is really tart and yeasty, with a bit of coriander, clove, and traditional white/whit flavor profiles. The passion fruit sweetness shows up on the mid/back and is really secondary to the stronger Belgian yeasty funk profile.

Perzik Saison Avery Brewing Co. • Saison/Farmhouse • IBU: ?? • ABV: 6.4% • 8 SRM Slightly cloudy draft with a nice orange/yellow hue and head that did drop off quickly. Left little to no lacing on the rim as we sipped. The nose is tart lemon zest and bruised apricots (sweet and over-ripe fruit). The medium body saison has a bit of complex yeast esters that have metallic, earthy, dried fruit and almost a barnyard funk profile with hits of spice (pepper). The mid to back is where the fruit is expressed, but it runs from melons to the pear profile it’s supposed to have. The back is dry and slight yeast funk.

Summer’s Day IPA Avery Brewing Co. • American IPA • IBU: ?? • ABV: 6.5% • 16 SRM One-off seasonal draft IPA with a nice lite-copper shade of orange, bright, foamy head that had decent retention and small bubbly lacing on the rim. The nose is grapefruit/citrus, raw-cut wood chips, and slight cracker crust grains. The front to mid mouth is full bodied, hop forward with a lot of citrus and orange peel with slight burned sugars and decent balancing with a decent amount of carbonation. The mid to back mouth-feel has a refreshing dry citrus blast of hops.

Ellie’s Brown Ale Avery Brewing Co. • Brown Ale • IBU: 28 • ABV: 5.5% • 30 SRM Hops: Bullion, Sterling Malts: Two-row barley, Chocolate, Munich, Honey malt, Caramel 120 Dark see-through brown colored draft, slight off-white/tan head that had good retention and lots of spidery clingy lacing. The nose is pretty strong with toasted grains, bread, and chocolate malts. The front mouth is dry, toasted, toffee, sugars, and hits of raw nuts. The malts aren’t too breaddy on the mid, but the back dry’s out a bit with a slight hit of dry-hopping.

-22 Avery Brewing Co. • American Wild Ale • IBU: ?? • ABV: 6% • 16 SRM NOTE: 100% Brettsnomyces Cloudy draft with red/orange hues and a slight head that dropped off really quickly. The nose is really subtle with yeasty tarts, and slight funk. The front mouth is full bodied tart and sour. The Brett is strong with this one. The surprising part is the mid to back where the funk and sour esters are recessed and the feel is that of a cask conditioned ale.