For this year’s NYC Craft Beer Week we chose Avery Brewing from Colorado as our featured brewery.  Despite their year-round offerings, including staff favorite Avery IPA, they offer some great seasonal and one time only brews.  As part of our Craft Beer Week celebration we are offering 10{0886acb4f5be58b49bf4e022446f4168c3918f2aad77c1481cecb92c8f2156f3} all Avery large format bottles to  Beer Week Passports holders, if you don’t have one you can pick one up at the front counter.

One of these featured brews is Avery Eighteen Anniversary ale, every year Avery brews a celebratory beer for each year that the brewery has been open, this years offering is a Dry-hopped Rye Saison.  Saison ales originated in Wallonia, the French speaking region of Belgium, to be given to farm workers for hydration since there was often a lack of potable water.  Brewed in autumn or winter and stored until the late summer harvest, saisons tended to be strongly hopped during brewing in order to preserve the beer through the long storage period.  Despite the strong hopping of the beer saisons tend not to be bitter and because it is bottle fermented there is a pleasant yeast taste with a touch of citrus and spice.  The use of rye malts in the recipe adds a mild floral tone, while the dry hopping adds a touch of bitterness that adds a balance to the fruit notes.  Dry hopping is a process in which dry hops are added to the keg or fermenter after fermentation.

All in all Eighteen is a well-rounded yet complex take on a lesser known but very traditional style.  Avery suggests pairing with wild game, diver scallops, or a potato lentil soup.  This is the only batch of this particular style that Avery plans on brewing so get your bottle before they are gone!