What I wanted to have on Open It!

Sometimes, things don't go as you have planned.  I wanted to participate in Open It!, but that was derailed by a head cold, sore throat and my beer buddies surgery (he couldn't drink for a week).  So the bottles that I wanted to drink with friends, were left in the back of the fridge.

Among those bottles was the Avery Seventeenth Anniversary Lager, a dry hopped black lager- which quite possibly could be the first dry hopped lager that I have had, I don't remember having one before.

My nose is still not on top of its game, so the aroma may have been severely compromises.  The scent pulled heavy malt, with a nice citrus hop.

I was expecting it to be dark, and it was.  Not pitch black, but darker than many porters.  It poured a nice head, as you can see in the picture.  The head actually lingered around quite a bit.

When brought to my mouth, I could taste the hoppy bitterness before it touched my lips.  But when it got to my tongue, the malts were the star.  Nice chocolate malt flavor, does give way a tad to earthy, somewhat grassy bitterness.  Nicely balanced, the beer is smooth and perfectly carbonated.  The alcohol provides little burn, even though it is 8+%.

Overall, this was a very good beer- one I kind of wish I grabbed more of.