A bit forward on the pumpkin spice, but otherwise a smooth, milky stout that drinks very easily. Totally different from the other beers in this tasting, though, so that first sip was a weird one.

Given how much I dislike Black Raven's regular pale ale, I was very pleasantly surprised. The mandarin orange flavor is nice and round, slightly tart. Light finish.

Really odd smell coming after the other sours, but fixed itself quickly. This beer is so, so cabernet, mixed with a strong, fruity but not so lingering sourness. The combination brings out the buttery, stonefruit notes of cabernet and makes it positively peachy. Really, really nice.

The most strongly sour of the three Averys, with a lingering, Balsamic-like richness. On top of this comes the sweet caramel of Bourbon, but in a way that seems a little at odds with the rest of the flavor. Clearly good, but the weakest of the bunch.

Opens strongly with vegetal agave/tequila flavors, followed quickly upon by a strong citrus acidity. A noticeably salty, mellow, Gose-like finish. The effect is great, totally in the flavor-world of a margarita, but more profound at the same time. Best of the bunch.

Maybe the Jubel killed my palate, but the herbal overtones to this beer were distinctly reminiscent of Korean beef broth with chopped spring onions in it. Does that sound good to you? For a beer? I thought so.

Sweet, molassesy plum smell telegraphs quad, but the flavor was much less sweet and more than a little bitter. You could tell from the Jubelale in this, but with a large amount of funk on top. Really astringent woody dryness. Not much of a fan.

Thanks Emil! Slightly funky saison tartness rounds out piney hops to make for a really fresh flavor that reminds me of Breakside's La Tormenta. Super-clean finish, and super-sessionable too, at 3+% ABV.

Very smooth and malt-rich beer, but with a rich hop flavor. The brewery claims an IBU north of 120, but it's hard to believe. Tastes aged, oak? Fresh it's not, but sippable for sure.

Very hoppy, very bitter, but with very nice, vibrant hop fragrance. Moderate amber malt sweetness. This is a beer whose quality I can appreciate more than I want to drink it again.

Tastes significantly better than I remember from back in December. Less perfumey, still somewhat light on body and dry, but much more balanced.

Peanut butter is very faint, almost just an aftertaste against a strong porter. There's an assertive syrupy character that has to be the lactose sugar, a thing I usually like but which seemed a bit tacked on on this beer. Anyway, the broken promise of peanut butter is the main issue here.

Amazing smell, which is basically exactly like opening a pack of Reese's peanut butter cups. A very mild, creamy porter makes for a great base for the peanut butter flavor, which is a very good balance of chocolate, salt, sweet, and peanut. The finish might be a tad gritty, or maybe that's just my imagination? Still, yum.

Toasty, coffee-like black IPA with nominal hop presence. Finishes smooth and very lightly bitter.

Sweeter and less fragrant than I remember from the brewery. Maybe this beer loses its freshness really quickly? I wouldn't have believed it, but the bottles do scream warnings.

A very mellow IPA with a rounded hop flavor, but also a slightly toasty, savory character. At last at this tasting, I thought it made out slightly better than the Pliny.

A pleasant pilsner with a lot of rich barley cereal flavor. Finish is moderately bitter and builds up over time, which detracts a bit from the crispness. Still, I liked this very much.

Caramel, malty ale. After the hop fests of the previous few beers, this was welcome.

This one tasted like it had lemondrop hops in it, with a lot of the lemon pledge quality and oily, tongue-coating hop that was in this year's Chasing Freshies. I've liked this beer in the past, but not this release.

Sweet - fruity-sweet, not malt-sweet - IPA. Resin on the finish, but not too bitter. This was somewhat enjoyable.

Medium-tart saison with round fruit at the beginning. A bit of funk and wine grape flavor leads into an unpleasantly lingering bitterness at the finish, which I'm going to give to the juniper. I do admit this tasted better when coming back after a couple IPAs.

Similar to the green maybe a little lighter. Cherry flavors are more prominent.

Almost as good as the white. Not too sweet somewhat more fruitier. Has a very faint sweetness.

Less buttery, sweeter. Ending is a little more flat? Raisins dark fruits.

More fruity and more oaky. Raisins, dark fruits.

Amazing and very smooth. Molasses, caramel, smooth bourbon, buttery, dark fruits.

Like a toffee date cake in beer form, with a wet grassy sweetness to finish. Super-carbonated.

Lemondrop hops give this a syrupy lemon Pledge flavor that is hard to ignore. There is an interestingly buttery finish that is the one thing that saves this. It's not love, but I liked this more than others seemed to.

Very well made beer. Some nice caramel flavors. I'm also getting a very slight sourness.

Has an offensive smell but the hops flavors are nice and fresh.

Roasted flavors. A little shallow but enjoyable.

Hoo boy, does this smell of green olives. It doesn't taste so much like them, but that briny, vegetal overtone is hard to shake. The rest of it is like a standard Berliner weisse, with a strong tartness and sweet wheat aftertaste.

Doesn't taste so much like a toaster pastry as it does a fruity, hoppy red ale. The hops are very bright, almost fresh-hop-like. Finished quite bitter.

Light, fruity plum ale with a mellow sweetness. This tastes more like a mimosa than a beer, and I wished that there was more pickled ume overtness in the flavor.

Pungent sour smells. Very sour flavor with some hints of olive flavors.

Tastes like fresh hops. Crisp floral and citrusy flavors with a pretty bitter ending.

Very crisp with nice cereal flavors. Some fruity plum flavors in the end.

An unpleasant funk coming off of this beer. The flavor is much better, with a malt-forward Scotch ale ending with a half-funky, half-butterscotch, refined finish. The smell never quite disappeared though, and inevitably colors the impression.

Solid coffee porter, not too sweet.

Slightly tangy, definitely funky, malty-sweet brett saison in the mold of a Logsdon. This is the first biere de Champagne I've ever had, and it's reminiscent of its namesake. I liked this!

Nice bitter coffee flavors.

Smells like caramel hard candies. Caramel and buttery flavors. Pretty good.

Sour smells. Nice flavors with some yeast funkiness. Herbal flavors.

Has quite a boozy smell. Sweet and a little sour. Weird mix of flavors.

Peculiar grape juice smell? Very peculiar taste. Some kind of weird grape sourness maybe? Maybe some ashes flavors?

Strong pumpkin pie smell. The pumpkin spice are nicely done.

Much more bitter with some woody flavors. I'm also getting some hints of marijuana in the smell?

Very citrusy and fresh. Not very bitter. Floral.

A lactic sweetness on this, tasting a bit like a pumpkin spice milkshake. That was a promising start. But there's something artificial-tasting about that sweetness, kind of like candy sour sugar.

Almost sour, thatch-and-molasses Belgian with some dankness from the pumpkin. This wasn't the all-around winner I remember back from my early beer days. But it's still overall on the positive end.

Kind of a funky, skunky smell on this one, as well as subtle pie spice. Flavor-wise, this makes it less sweet, which is nice and keeps things interesting, but the skunk is there as a kind of constant undertone.

Of the two, this was a little spicier on the nose and more woody, resinous on the tongue. Similar to the citra / simcoe, but not nearly as fruity (as one might guess). Finish is a bit oiler, a bit more woody-bitter. Still very nice, but not quite as good as the first.

Rounded citrus hop flavor, kind of like Asian chewing gum (but in a good way). The flavor is just really, really appealing and unlike the hop presence in nearly any other beer I've tried. Just the barest hint of bitterness on the finish, and no oily resin sheen.

Beeeeeeeeers

Still really tasty. Maybe even better than I remembered.

Sweeter for sure than when had after the Brew 1000. And more... well, perfect. YUM.

Still one of my favorites! Smooth, buttery, dark fruits, molasses, caramel, dark chocolate.

Pretty good oatmeal stout. A little light though. Boozy, fruity, very slight carbonation.

Fruity hoppy, citrusy, bright, grapefruit.

Really good! The white wine flavored are really good and enjoyable!

A Belgian pale, mildly spicy, with lots of rounded, slightly funky wine flavor and a sweet malt finish. Unusual flavor profile, and really delicous!

Reminds me of boiled vegetables. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower? Weird, but not terrible.

Smelled like, in the words of some of the guys, "urinal cake." It's really difficult to get past a thing like that.

Quite lovely! Lots of bright fruity flavors. Grapefruit, orange, flowers. Low bitterness.

Very light-colored for a porter, with a flavor that is less roasty and more caramel, with the kind of sour undertone that is typical of some English porters. This was okay, which is about as enthusiastic as I can get about this beer.

A very pleasant, malty-sweet amber. Least tart of the Rickard's bunch, and also the least memorable.

Labeled a German pilsner but laced with a lemony fruit tartness - much more subtle than a shandy, but distinctly not a pilsner either. Normally I get offended by this kind of fiddling, but this was a really drinkable, refreshing beer.

Supercharged, dank coriander flavors were an unpleasant surprise, but I got used to that quickly and found that an unusual lemon and sweet wheat flavor peeking out really made this flavor work. Definitely needs time to sway the drinker, though.

Super fresh hops aromas and flavors. Very tame bitterness for an ipa. An amazing IPA.

Weird fruity aroma, reminds me a little of sweet corn. Strong candied fruit sweetness. Way too sweet to be enjoyable.. almost like drinking cheap candies.

Weirdly neutral smell with maybe a slight tartness. I don't know what to think of this one. Some fruity flavors, but they feel like artificial candy fruit flavors.

Smooth, lightly fruity aromas. Has a nice tart fruit flavor which is very interesting with the porter flavors. Finishes with light roasted flavors.

Pure burnt coffee grind aroma (as well as some radish daikon ones?) Heavily burnt coffee and wood flavors. Maybe a little too strong tasting. Great in small amounts.

Thanks, Emily! Fresh from XOXOFest. Wonderful, fruity fresh hops, citrus and passionfruit. Touch of bitterness to remind you this is still an IPA, but yum!

Much tamer than usual for an Evil Twin Beer - positively normal after the Lil' B. Basically tastes like an oatmeal or milk stout, medium thick. Not very memorable, but it may have suffered in its company. Doesn't taste like its Imperial moniker nor the 10+ % ABV.

A musty, dank hop smell like a brewery on cook day, not the best first impression. The flavor, on the other hand, was just really way too sweet, almost as if it had been sweetened after the fact. Big sad face.

Very smooth. Nice dark fruit flavors, molasses, chocolate flavors. Quite sweet maybe a little bit too much. Great in small quantities.

Very enjoyable and refreshing. Seawheeze release.

This has aged, so it's hard to tell what it was like young, but my impression is that this is a lot smoother than other anniversary Black Buttes I've had. Thinner too, in body and flavor, making the cranberry and pomegranate tartness and fruitiness a lot more prominent. In fact, I'd call this a fruit beer first (though a profound one), and dark beer second. Other notes: mild chocolate, not too sweet.

I think this suffered after the Event Horizon - the first smell was off-putting, like daikon and caramel. Flavor-wise, the main impression is burnt caramel coffee, which overpowers the thinnish, sweetish body somewhat. Over time this got a lot better, but it never got as great as I'd hoped. It's possible this turned during aging?

Thick and amazingly smooth. You can smell the bourbon from a mile away, and you'd think it would be too boozy. But this is so amazingly delicious, you guys. Honey sweet, but not cloying, milky and rich. Like a super-mellow version of Berserker, if that helps the picture.

Just wow! Very fresh and fruity. Pineapple, grapefruit, orange and tropical fruits flavors. One of the best IPA I can remember drinking.

Could possibly be the fruitiest-from-hop IPA I've ever had. Lots of sunny flavor here - passionfruit, pineapple. But the flavor stays bright and light, which is where most fruity IPAs go wrong. Moderate bitterness on the finish.

Good, but not mind blowing. It's a good thing the maple flavors are not too strong.

There's an unusual, delicious smell straight away to this beer, almost like buttered coconut and maple on top of the stout. It smells amazing! The flavor follows pretty much the same, with that richness rounding out what is an otherwise thinnish stout with mild roast, sweet malt and a slightly sour flavor. Really, really delicious.

Nice and refreshing, but feels a little bit flat overall.

Decent mild amber, although in this company it did nothing to stand out.

Wow, much more coffee bitterness than what I remembered.

Rich, believable sweet coffee flavor, but comes on a little too strong and bitter to be truly enjoyable.

Very enjoyable for an IPA. On the sweet side with honey and tea flavors.

Surprisingly delicious West Coast IPA from Israel. Honey on the nose, and in the flavor too. Not much body, mostly hop essence, but unusually richly flavored despite. Sweet-ish finish, mild bitterness.

This was delicious.

2013 bottle. Very mellow, sweetly smooth, probably from age. There is a hint of clear alcohol as well, but not enough to detract. Delicious.

Surprisingly dry, flat and enjoyable.

Dry, but with a pulpy rich flavor reminiscent of almost-turned fall cider. The real downer here was that, in spite of the name, this bottle was nearly entirely flat, which had a real dulling effect. Would love to try again in ideal circumstances (assuming the ciderhouse hasn't burnt down).

Tastes just like a gingerbread cookies. Goes really well with the apple flavors.

Fizzy cider that with a firm spice presence of cinnamon and cardamom. Rather than evoking chai, it reminded me a lot of hot mulled apple cider. I think this would be great warm. Cold, it's pleasant enough, but a little insipidly sweet and soda-like.

Almost skunked smell. Nice cereal aromas. Quite pleasing taste with some sweetness. Quite refreshing.

Has that almost-skunky smell typical of green Euro bottles, though not quite as strong as the Carlsberg. Flavor-wise it's a lot better, with a sweet Helles-like aspect and nominal bitterness. Nothing to go crazy about, but a very nice lager.

A rich lager with a bit of grass and a firm, bitter finish. Comes across more like a richer, meatier pilsner rather than a bready, Germanic bock. That was a pleasant surprise!

This bottle was from either 2012 or 2013 - either way, the result was super-smooth, thick, mellow chocolate. A superb no-frills imperial stout that hid its alcohol content extremely well.

Firestone knocks it out again! A strong blonde barleywine with a similar scent to Sucaba but with a much mellower, honey-butter-like finish, with a touch of florality on top. You can even taste the barley in there, which is nice for something so boozy

Nice roasted nuts flavors, sweet, bitter, caramel

Not too hoppy nice zing, roasted nuts smells, slightly boozy undertone

Slightly musty smell. Taste is all rich caramel, and maybe a little wet hay. Not bad, but this variety of overt sweetness doesn't really work for me very often.

Thanks Alex! Sweet hay with a strange overtone of lemon-lime effervescence (without the actual fruit flavors). I had a real hard time deciding whether it was appealing or not. I'm not sure what I expected from the "Cream" in the name, but I didn't get it.

Strong yeast bitterness that mellows of after a few sips.

Not too syrupy, strong on ginger, nice carbonation.

Bit of banana esters before the yeast takes over, imparting an immediate drying quality and then some heady bitterness. Finish is a touch of clean barley. I think I liked this better than last time.

A 2011 bottle of a beer I've never seen before. Very smooth, to the point of almost being flavored out of existence. Sweetish malt finish.

A very roasty stout with a thick, slightly sweet character. Finishes bitter.

It doesn't taste as syrupy to me two months old, but the feeling of concentrated hop resin is still here in force. Bitter and dank and best drunk slightly warmer, I think.

So sweet. Too sweet. There must be a mood for this but today wasn't it.

Tastes just like the kind of sours I don't like. Acrid vinegar flavors mix with some very weird tanginess. Tastes just like the kind of sours I don't like.

Funky smell on this one. Opens with a bit of musty sourness that resolves into orange rather quickly. The finish is mellow and sweet but never quite comes all the way back from funk.

Unabashed molasses and candi sugar sweetness, with hints of sweet rum. No sharpness or bitterness, this is a confection through and through - though it somehow avoids being cloying. Really delicious!

I mean, this beer tastes completely 100% as advertised. Biscotti with a light cuppa with creamer. If that's your mood this beer will hit all the right spots.

Seemed to have a lot of grassy bitterness, like a pilsner turned up to 10. I didn't get a lot of cereal to match, but this was in the middle of a bunch of different beers. I have another bottle and hope to experience that with a cleaner palate.

Strongly amber-hoppy-caramel winter ale. No winter spices, just a hearty, warming beer. I did like it, but it was nothing to get excited about.

This was awesome. If you love Black Raven's Pour les Oiseaux (which I do!) this is all of the same things - vinous, buttery, funky, malty. Perhaps a tiny touch sweeter, maybe a little more fruit, but definitely the same ballpark, and -- I hope -- easier to get a hold of as well.

Milk sugar and very noticeable honey makes this a surprisingly sweet-drinking beer, but not at all syrup-like or cloying. The color is light, more like an amber or brown than a stout (doubly unusual for a milk stout). Very well balanced despite the sweetness - enjoyed this!

A slightly darker, more caramel version of the blonde. Only very slightly nutty, but still very drinkable. Appreciated the clean finish.

Light tasting malty blonde, slight touch of wet hay as seems common with these east coast beers. Would probably be great outdoors.

A very interesting IPA with clear hop resin and bitterness that somehow doesn't overpower the green tea. That shows up as a grassy, matcha latte-like sweetness that both mellows the hops but also adds a bitterness of its own. That tea fragrance is super-present in the smell as well. It doesn't exactly go down easy but it was definitely worth trying.

Tamed pumpkin spice flavors. Has additional herbal flavors.

Has all the Czech pilsner notes in it but not so much on the crispness. Instead, there's a kind of wet hay sweetness in it that seems par for the course for east coast pilsners. It was the better of the two golden beers, though. (taster)

The first of two beers brought by Alex from her beer of the month club. Pronounced, fruity yeast in the smell and a kind of wet hay dankness in an otherwise light, malty golden ale. Smelled good, but in the end it was maybe just okay. (taster)

I think I prefer this muchly out of the bottle. Whereas on tap this beer was super-smooth, almost blandly so, here it carried a lot more bitter chocolate in the flavor. That masked the sweet effect of the cinnamon, and maybe enhanced the chili (though not much). More intriguing, balanced, and tasty this way.

An extremely dark stout, with a hint of red wine in the flavor and some roasty smoke. There is an extreme amount of dry wood flavor in this beer, which builds up in bitterness over time. Makes it hard to love, but (as usual with The Abyss) probably worth trying again after some aging.

'Twas good, but not remarkable. Hit all the expected Belgian and Christmas ale notes.

Still solid, still skirting the risky edge of too-much-dankness for me.

Wet hay seems to be a theme today. I don't know if the Alaskan killed my palate, or if this is just how these beers are. Wet hay sweet blonde.

Boring American pale.

Strange, tangy almost-fruit sweetness that didn't message light or lager to me.

Sweet, like Bourbon County Coffee but with less creaminess in the mouthfeel. Plenty of roasted coffee, and a strong hint of toasted ... hazelnut ... on the finish? Really delicious.

More Scottish than an American-style Scotch Ale. Thinnish with a bit of wet-hay grassiness and quite sweet. It was ... okay.

Bottled in December 2013, so I don't know if that makes this 2013 or 2014. Directly after the Two Hearted, this stuck out in ways that weren't to my taste. A little more resin, and noticeably boozy on top.

Much better than I remember it, and right after the Oberon the familial connection is quite clear. Grapefruit-leaning IPA with a good malt. I didn't detect it as being any more bitter than the Oberon, though the hops were otherwise more pronounced.

Starts with light cereal, like a blonde, before transitioning quickly to a subtly-starting but ultimately bracing tart, bretty funk. Finishes clean, and really a very tasty beer. But you probably need to like sours.

Light, good wheaty cereal flavor, scented faintly of grapefruit with a overtone of peppery yeast. More complex and a bit more bitter than I'd expect from a summer blonde, but still easy to imagine drinking often.

Maybe it sat for too long, but this was nearly totally flat, and that flatness made the bourbon sweetness come out a bit overdone. A shame, because the flavors were clearly good -- toffee and bourbon and wood.

This beer takes the fragrance of both hops and jalapeno without the accompanying bitterness or spice and melds them quite well. A fair bit of caramel, too. The flavor at first is jarringly odd, but settles very quickly into a mellow, flavorful brew.

Aged two years, made remarkably mellow.

It's getting there.

Still needs some time to age, but especially in comparison it fares very well.

Still very boozy at this point.

Lots of caramel. Blunter than the other beers in this lineup, but still delicious.

Just a few degrees below room temperature seems ideal for serving this beer. Chocolatey and smooth, with a really nice, complex but smooth malt-ball texture. Delicious.

Probably couldn't get further from the Agave Maria than this. Clear bourbon in the nose, as well as a candy-sweet coolness reminiscent of an Andes coconut dinner mint. Clear raisin on the back end, though I didn't detect any chili. Could have been cloying, but instead is just very sweet. Again, a beer to enjoy in small doses.

Frankly, this smelled bizarre - vegetal and smoky like an autumn leaf fire after a rainy day. That carries over to the taste, but there is also an unexpected overt sourness to the beer that brings balance in addition to emphasizing its overall weirdness. Intruiging (in a good way), but a sipping beer for small doses, I think.

Sickly sweet yet watery lager with more than a little wet hay and resemblance to urine. Being served over-warm and under-carbonated probably didn't help.

No date markings on the bottle. Soupy & thick, with an overtly boozy fragrance. This did seem more well-integrated than the last time I had it (on draft), so it gets an uptick in score. Thanks Alex!

Supposedly this style is the basis for beers like Alaskan Amber, but this was pale yellow and decidedly more distinct in flavor (as one would hope!). A bit of wet hay sweetness on the front and a decently bitter finish, I liked this quite a bit.

Echo what I said about my palate, but this just came across as a slightly over-sweet IPA.