Avery Samael's Oak-Aged Ale
Samael is the prince of demons, the angel of death, accuser and destroyer. Filled with enmity towards man, he planted the vine, the forbidden tree of paradise. Behold his venom and vengeance, both sweet and tempting, enticing you, his spellbound victim, within his wings.
Samael’s Ale is a super-caramelly, oak aged English-style strong ale. Perhaps the least hoppy (sacrilege here at Avery!!) beer we’ve brewed, to accentuate the malt. The oak is very apparent in this rich and high gravity ale, adding additional depth and complexity with a woody and cask-like nose and a pronounced vanilla flavor on the palate.
This potent ale is the second installment, along with The Beast, of our “Demons of Ale Series”.
Brewed with Rocky Mountain water, malted barley, turbinado sugar, hops, yeast, and American oak chips.
2011 - 15.53%
2014 - 14.2%
2015 - 14.6%
Samael’s Ale is a super-caramelly, oak aged English-style strong ale. Perhaps the least hoppy (sacrilege here at Avery!!) beer we’ve brewed, to accentuate the malt. The oak is very apparent in this rich and high gravity ale, adding additional depth and complexity with a woody and cask-like nose and a pronounced vanilla flavor on the palate.
This potent ale is the second installment, along with The Beast, of our “Demons of Ale Series”.
Brewed with Rocky Mountain water, malted barley, turbinado sugar, hops, yeast, and American oak chips.
2011 - 15.53%
2014 - 14.2%
2015 - 14.6%
3.7
1041 reviews
Boulder, United States
Community reviews
2007 version in 2017. Deep reddish color. Big cherry, oak, slightly sour, vanilla, burnt raisins, brown sugar in the nose. Low alcohol brown sugar, some oxidization, burnt raisins, oak. Full body. Super intense. Really nice stuff.
Bottle from Bin 22. OMG! This really hit the spot right now. Tastes perfect. Medium to dark amber, small white fading head. Nice sweet malty aroma, very welcoming, caramel, toffee. Taste too favors sweet malts, some woody notes, caramel. Doesn’t present itself as boozy, but its apparent. Smooth, but ass-kicking. Good night.
Ab InBev? I caught on that I was a sap for writing free reviews on Amazon long ago. And when IMDB got absorbed... there went my reviews into the corporate pockets. So, I pull out from the sell-out here... it was nice. But how is ratebeer going to attract new users now that this news is public? The next time you go to a pub, are you going to admit to people you’re a RateBeer user? The first thing they’ll say is It’s owned by InBev. So people are going to stop telling others to join. And if RateBeer does attract new users, it’s going to be sort of people who don’t care about the war against big beer...and, in that way, the ratings will get skewed. Eventually it becomes like UnTappd...just a social network with lots of people who are not really into beer and don’t really know anything about it.
Pours a clear mahogany from a bottle, quickly dissipating off-white head. Aroma of turbinado, big boozy oak, flavor adds some vanilla syrup. Very good beer.
Pours somewhere between copper and amber, with a nice foam. Nose is a lot of dark fruit: raisin, fig, and dates. Caramel and oak round out the scent. Taste is big and fruity with lots of caramel. There is some toffee, some more oak and a lot of booze. It’s really sweet. Medium bodied and super sticky. I wish it had more spice to play with the sweetness. As is, it’s pretty decent but would likely be even better when a couple more years on it.
Rich amber/cider color; Medium creamy body; Aroma of sweet malt, oak, vanilla, molasses, rich fruit, floral, & some sherry notes; Flavor of sweet malt, oak, caramel/toffee, syrup, rich fruit, some spicy hops, and sherry notes; Warm finish; A bit too sweet - but pretty good overall.
Quite a bit better then we expected for the alcohol content. Pours a beautiful bright cloudy orange with a white head. Smells of orange and cream, pear and apple. Taste is very orange cremesicle with green apple and lots of boozy warmth in the finish. Had in the bottle.
Bottle. Deep orange with a white head. Booze, sugar, strawberry jam, and sugar cookie aromas. Opens with a fruity sweetness and finishes with a boozey aftertaste. Heavy body with a sugary feel.
12oz bottle 12/25/16 ’16 Vintage (Binny’s Plainfield)-41° in Snifter-Pours a murky orangish amber with a big off white head. Aroma of caramel, funk, toffee, and roasted malt. Taste of the same with a bit of alcohol on the back end. This full bodied brew is well balanced and is a nice sipping brew on a cold night.
Amazing taste, though a bit flat. I’ve held it for a few months before drinking.
Bottle sample at Crafted Drafts on 11/6/16. Clear copper pour with a medium off-white head. Aroma of malt, candied fruit, booze and oak spiciness. Malty flavor with spicy oak and sweet caramel accents before a candied fruit finish.
0.355l bottle. Wonder where I might have bought this one. It been in the cellar for a couple of years anyhow. On the pour it’s not far off blurry, loaded with small unfiltered particles floating about, a medium sized greyish filmy head and a warm copper colored body. It smells a lot this. Really candy and malt heavy. It just smells super concentrated, there’s definitely a woody element in this also. Sweet sticky dried concentrated fruits, a nice warming alco dunst and tones of something almost spicy. A really hefty aroma for sure. Oh, it’s no less in the taste! Really really sweet and sticky. I’ll even call it cloying. Sugary, really warming. Malt drops and a rush of syrupy sweet red apple concentrat. It’s thick and syrupy in the mouth and it’s just below average on the prickling carbonation. It gets much more woody in the second and third sip. It kinda balances the sweetness with a oaky near pungent woody bitterness. The cloying shock settles after a while. Doubt I’ll be able to finish the whole bottle though, but a small glass was quite nice. 12.11.2016
Very sweet, notes of vanilla and caramel, as well as a fruit I cannot place maybe apple, malty with very little hops. Smooth and silky, with a deceptive strength.
Smells slightly funky, chocolatey, oaky and boozy with a strange lactose quality even though that is not mentioned anywhere in the description. Unique see through light red color with virtually no head. Tastes very sweet - vanilla, brown sugar, no hops at all and a slight booze burn. Good, but I prefer a barley wine with some hop presence. Good low carbonation palate that is befitting of such a strong beer. I thought this would be better. I am aging a bottle but I don’t know how it will improve due to its lack of hops.
Draft at Slaters. Brown-ish pour. Aroma of lots of vanilla, oak, caramel, butter and ripe fruit. Full sweet taste of thick vanilla, oak, boozy caramel, pine herbs, malt and raisin. Tasty, would be even better with a lower abv.
Tap at Clubhouse BFD. Pours orange Ruby color, slightly white head. Aroma is boozy caramel, bourbon, bubblegum, toffee, super sticky sweet. Flavor is boozy (burns it’s so boozy), caramel, toffee. Barrel aged whisky character. Wow, that’s a big beer.
Location: On tap at Harry’s Hofbrau in Redwood City, CA
Aroma: Sweet caramel, slightly herbal, candy, liqueur
Taste: Very sticky sweet buttery caramel with some light herbal / earthy wood notes
Overall: Holy sweet! Reminded me of a big syrupy Mead.
Smell is light oak and Slightly sour...taste is holy shit sweet vanilla tasty goodness... explodes the mouth it so bold and flavorful...sweet so you can’t drink much more than the one 12oz...
Pours a nice deep amber into the glass, with an initially small head that reduces to nothing. The nose is sweet, of caramels, toffee and woody oak. Flavors transition into a true English-style Barleywine, with very little hopping, concentrating on the malt contingencies. Toffee, caramel, vanilla, confectioner’s sugar, honey, sucrose and light buttery diacetyl notes finish with an alcohol toffee burn. The mouthfeel is syrupy, with a full body and complex, oily palate. A very nice replication of the English-style Barleywine. Sweet, substantial and complex, this is a great nightcap.
12 oz. bottle to a tulip glass. Pours dark, clear mahogany, with a medium, beige, velvety head. The nose is strong oak and butterscotch, with notes of brown sugar, black cherries, and some light pine. Cloying sweetness, with a hint of bitterness that doesn’t mitigate the sweetness. Very heavy body, with a syrupy, thick, sticky, and creamy mouthfeel. This is a strong, aromatic, and very oak-forward beer. Akin to Innis and Gunn, but better.
Samael’s
Toffee, oaky, alcohol, vanilla, Brown sugar, grassy, earthy, light, light citric notes, bit of vinous acidity, rich and complex.
Amber colour, small beige head, light amount of lacing.
Immensely sweet, heavy amount of oak aging, lots of toffee and caramel, vanilla, lightly bitter, you can feel the alcohol, but considering ABV it’s well integrated.
Fullbodied, soft carbonation, long oaky and warming finish.
Would really like to have had a couple of bottles to cellar. Rounding off the sweetness would probably benefit this impressive beast of a beer.
Sampled at the W&C Place Beer Fest 2016. It poured an amber color with a tan head. The aroma was of caramel, sugar, dark fruits, vanilla and oak. The taste was similar to the aroma with more vanilla, oak, booze and caramel. Very tasty.
2014 Vintage: very high powered and very sweet but I guess par for the course at these alcohol levels. Has a leaness mid-palate that is a bit unusual for BW but regardless a meal of a wine and won’t leave you wondering.
Bottle dated 4/2102, Batch #8. Boozy nose, caramel, deep dark fruit. Gold/copper color. Super sweet initial, caramel, tart dark fruit, seriously irritating alcohol, and a light stinging finish. Heavy and hot. Nice, I suppose, but so sweet and boozy. Hard to hold all the elements together.
Bottle. Oxidized nose of caramel, raisins, booze, vanilla. Flavor is treacly caramel, booze, vanilla, bourbon, raisins. Bitter finish. Rather English in character. Good but a bit syrupy.
This was one of the best oak aged else that I've had. The underlining barley wine was excellent and the aging was on the spot. Very enjoyable. Very balanced.
Poured into snifter a bottle brown with light brown head and lace. Aroma was pure malt, caramel and sweet on the nose. Taste was Carmel malts with slight hint of wood, alcohol hides fairly well for a 14%er. Unbelievably good and amazingly an easy drinker.
Beautiful pour, very little head but huge aromas. Tastes very sweet, alcohol is very upfront, sweet caramel, burnt sugar, restrained alcohol. Amazing beer.
March ’14 bottle date, from Steve’s in Fitchburg, served at cellar temp. Gorgeous reddish/pink/orange pour with almost no head. Aroma has dark stone fruits, oak and sweet malts. Taste is dark sweet fruits, strawberry, stone fruits, toffee and heavy oak. Quite sweet and quite strong. Medium to full bodied with alcohol. Finishes sweetly fruity and oaky. Not cloying but pushing that at times. Unique. 13.5
April 2012 bottle, batch 8 @ 15.47%. Lots of floating sediment on the bottom was a bit off-putting, but with a nice slow pour and swirling that remaining produced a nice hazy orange pour with nice head that came alive with the sediment added. Aroma of sweet caramel, raisin, malt. Taste of same with a slight alcohol tinge at the end but leaves a sweet vanilla-like taste on the palate, desiring more. The burn is gone from when this was fresh. Fantastic and worth a share.