Avery The Maharaja

Review #6

Brewery: Avery Brewing Co.

Beer: The Maharaja

ABV: 10.2%

Location: Boulder, CO

Style: Imperial IPA

So once more I'm writing up a beer from my journey’s to Southern California, which means, yet again this beer is not available in my, and most likely your, local market. That said it isn’t actually brewed in California at all; it comes from Avery out of Boulder Colarado. Unfortunately, for those of you who didn like none of them map learnins in grade school, a quick visit to google maps will show that Boulder Colorado is pretty much just as out of the way from Edmonton. Furthermore, it is a limited release from the brewery, part of their Dictator Series, but it’s available for most of the spring and summer, in a large variety of markets in the US. So if you find yourself in a bigger US city between March and August, you’ll likely be able to find this one. I remember first stumbling upon this beer last year, when in New York, my brother bought it cause it looked hilarious, but I think we were both surprised at how god it was. That said, when I saw it for $6 at Whole foods, I pretty much had to buy it. And now I’m gon’ drink it. Pours surprisingly dark, like there’s some orange, but it’s definitely a lot browner than any of the Imperial IPA’s I’ve seen lately, granted, pretty well all of those have been San Diego IPA’s so this is quite different. According to their site, they’re using a butt-load of malted barley to give it a darker hue, so mystery solved… It has a nice fluffy head that disappears pretty quick, but leaves lots of lacing. In the aroma there are tons of fruity hops: tangerine, light grapefruit, you can really smell some caramel/date-like quality from the malt. When I swirl the glass around, and let the carbonation build up, I can pick out some pineapple. There’s very little on the piny aroma, again I can detect some bitterness of a grapefruit though. The label says it was bottled in June, so It’s at the late end of an IPA’s shelf life, but it was in constant refrigeration at the store, and afterwards. That said, fresh there would probably be a stronger pine presence from the Simcoe hops.  Oh crap that’s good. Man this thing has layers. It comes off with all fruity hop at first, then you get legitimate caramel taste. And it blends with the body of the beer so that it seriously feels like caramel; definitely more viscous than most Imperial IPA’s I’ve had (and rest assured I would say I’m pretty well versed in them at this point.), but damn does it work. So yeah up front you get a lot of maltiness, but then there’s this shift, and I don’t know if it’s the alcohol that is causing a slight burn or if it’s the high alpha acids from the hop that are just wrecking my palate, but huge hop bitterness stabs your tongue like the Maharaja does to Indie with that voodoo doll in Temple of Doom. It’s stupid good. You get to taste some alcohol as that kinda fades, and then piny hop flavour and bitterness come in and ride out the most of the rest of the taste. Not as much fruit taste as is in the aroma, but I think it could be argued that there is some grapefruit rind quality present in the hop bitterness. Again the mouthfeel really works for this beer, where its thick and matches that caramel up front, and the tasty flavour of the alcohol. If it was a lighter or thinner beer, I think the beer would come off as dry and just too sharp; that said, the carbonation saves the beer from tasting syrupy. Like the video says on the site page for this beer, this is not a balanced beer, and they didn’t want it to be one. It’s got stupidly robust flavours and really is a hop explosion with huge malt character and strong alcohol presence, not a burning one, but at 10.2% it’s pretty noticeable. It definitely relies more on the caramel flavour from that malted barley than the San Diego Imperial IPA’s, but man it definitely contends in regard to beating your tongue with hoppy bitterness. Late Update (it’s a big bottle to get through ok?): Man this thing grates the palate, really can taste the barley malt. As it warms, I‘m surprised to get more of the citrusy hop flavour. Usually I get lots of citrus, and as it warms up, there’s more malt, but this beer flipped me on my head. Food Pairing: Would definitely go good with chilled monkey brains.

Rating: All the Sankara Stones