A carnival of technology

#35: Abita Abbey Ale

This one is from Louisiana.  My only other encounter with Abita has been their Purple Haze, a raspberry beer that I don’t much care for, so I’m a little apprehensive about how they plan to make a dubbel.  It pours a slightly-murky brownish orange with a big head, though not nearly as big as that one from Allagash.  This is a normal kind of big head.  There’s a very strong fruity smell, like sweet cherries, and cloves and bready malts.  The taste is smooth and fruity, lots of malt and sugar and fruitiness and spice, and it finishes with a kind of lemony sourness.  There’s not a lot of subtlety to it, but it is mighty tasty.  I like it.

#36: Avery: The Reverend

This is another beer from Colorado, and the bottle goes a bit heavy with a kind of rockabilly religion, namedropping “The Reverend Luther Tucker” and talking about the eighth day on a background of funky stained glass.  There’s an ingredient list as well, and it looks like they aim to make a quadrupel with only the basic tools: water, barley, candy sugar, yeast and hops.  Using a tulip glass again (really this whole thing was just an excuse to get those out), it comes out orange with a big, fluffy head.  I don’t smell a lot of fruit in this one, and the crazy belgian yeast smell, though there, is very subdued.  Mostly it’s a sweet barley smell, and as I inhale deeper I catch a pretty solid whiff of the alcohol as a soft, dry burn.  Bodywise this beer is almost on the easy-drinkin’ side, with just enough of a syrupy feel to slow you down and give you a chance to remember that it’s 10% ABV.  It’s bready with a bit of a taste of cloves, vanilla and orange, and there’s a little hop bite that hides the alcohol’s heat.  This beer is pretty good, a strong, sweet ale deconstructed and presented without embelishment.  I’d rate it better than the Allagash, maybe not as interesting as the Abita.

So it looks like I’ve gone right through week number 5.  Country count-off!

• EE. UU.: 17
• Belgium: 5
• England: 3
• Canada: 2
• France: 2
• Scotland: 1
• Jamaica: 1
• Lithuania: 1
• Ireland: 1
• Germany: 1
• Denmark: 1
• India: 1

And I don’t even know how to sort these styles anymore.