Avery Brabant

I have been seriously neglecting my posting duties, so I decided to post today in the hopes it will jump start me. Nothing to long or detailed, but its a start…

After a long day in the yard yesterday I decided to try my Avery Brabant. Bill picked two of these up for me at Rodmans in DC and I had one chilling, waiting to be consumed. These were pricey bottles ($10 for 12 oz) because they are special release, part of Avery’s “Barrel-Aged Series”. Brabant is the first installment in that series and the bottle says only 694 cases were produced, so definitely rare indeed.

The beer was bottled on 2/10/2009 and Avery lists the details of the beer as follows:

Beer Style: Barrel-Aged Wild Ale, not brewed to any known style
Malt Variety: Two-row barley, dehusked carafa, honey malt, carafa 3, chocolate malt
OG: 1.074  ABV: 8.7%   IBUs: 25
Barrels: Red Zinfandel barrels from Norman Vineyards in Paso Robles, CA.
Color: Dark brown with ruby corners
Availability: One and done.  694 cases produced. Bottled February 10th, 2009.  Grab it if you can find it!

Experimentation. Ales and lagers that defy styles or categories. This is what we are about: our driving force, our passion. To further facilitate this innovative spirit, we've developed our Barrel-Aged Series where anything, and we mean ANYTHING, goes! Brewed for those as adventurous as we are! 

No. 1, Brabant, is a luscious dark ale fermented with two strains of wild yeast (Brettanomyces) then aged for 8 months in Zinfandel barrels. We hope you enjoy sifting through the vast layers of complexity in this mysterious ale.

I enjoyed this beer very much. It definitely has a very subtle barrel flavor that goes well with the moderate but flavorful brett character. The brett flavor is balanced, not overpowering but very tasty. I could sip on this beer all day. The brett was mostly what I noticed, which I feel is shame now because I wish I had paid more attention to other aspects of the beer. It didn’t have much head when poured, maybe a 1/4 inch that fell quickly, but it seemed like enough to suite the beer style.

I would recommend trying this if you are a brett head because its excellent.