Avery Brewing's The Maharaja

Beer: Avery Brewing's The Maharaja
Brewery Location: Boulder, CO
Beer Style: Double/Imperial IPA
Serving Style: Bottle
ABV: 9.7%


If you read this blog you know I am a hop head. I have been wanting to try this beer for a while, but every time I see it I just haven't bought it for some reason. I have been very satisfied with some of the other Avery offerings that I have been able to try, so I felt pretty good giving this beer a try.

I could actually smell the citrus scent coming from the bottle as I opened it and got ready to pour it. The smell has me very excited about the taste that will hopefully follow. It pours a deep amber/copper hue with what started out to be a very nice covering of frothy head quickly dissipated into a small thin head.

It has a great nose on it. Loads of oily hop scent with big fresh oranges coming through and some great big bready malt tones coming through as well. This is a real winner at this point. The taste at the start of the beer is very well balanced with bready malt and citrus coating my palate. As the beer warmed though certain things were coming to light. The beer is actually very sweet to me, and the warmer it got the more malt come though and wasn't what I was expecting at all from this. Some drinks the malt was the most dominant flavor and then at other times the grapefruit and pine flavor would take center stage. This isn't like other DIPA's that I am a big fan of, but still has very good characteristics. The mouthfeel is the best attribute to this beer. It's smooth and velvety across my palate with a strong finish and very likable aftertaste. The drink ability is good on this even though the alcohol isn't extremely well hidden, but one bomber is more than enough for me.

It's a good representation of the style and well worth a try, but I found it to be overly sweet and to much malt for my liking.

3.9 out of 5.
Cheers!
Matt