Ghosts of Avery past at Pints

Halloween may be over, but demons still are headed to Pints Alehouse this weekend.

The three Demons of Ales from Colorado’s Avery Brewing head a lineup of 11 big, mostly barrel-aged Avery beers at the North Spokane pub on Friday and Saturday.

Those include the 2016 Samael’s barrel-aged English-style strong ale (16.3 percent alcohol by volume), 2015 The Beast barrel-aged Belgian strong dark (17.2) and 2016 Mephistopheles imperial stout (14.6)

The lineup also features:

– Four other imperial stouts aged in bourbon barrels: the 2016 Vanilla Bean Stout (10.8 percent ABV), 2017 peanut-infused Nuttiest Professor (15.2), 2015 Uncle Jacob’s (17.1 ABV) and 2016 coffee-infused Tweak (17.5).

– A pair of pumpkin offerings: 2015 PumpKYn spiced pumpkin porter aged in bourbon barrels (15) and 2017 Rumpkin pumpkin ale aged in rum barrels (16.9).

– Two sours: the oak-aged Apricot Sour (7.3) and cabernet sauvignon barrel-aged Amicitia (8.2), the 47th and latest entry in Avery’s exclusive, experimental Barrel-Aged Series.

Except for the sours and Vanilla Bean Stout, which will be served in standard goblets, the other, bigger beers will be poured as 5.5-ounce snifters. The entire lineup also will be available to go in crowlers and growlers, at premium prices to be determined.

It’s the third annual Avery event at Pints. The first focused on the Demons for Halloween, with the taplist expanded last fall.

“It’s been growing every year,” says Pints owner Derek Quist. “I’m really excited for this year. There are some good standards and some great new additions.”

And with chilly, possibly snowy conditions in the weekend forecast, he adds, “The weather is going to be perfectly suited for drinking some big beers.”

The future of the event has been clouded a bit by Avery’s decision to discontinue production of the Demons series starting this year, though vintage kegs are kicking around. Quist still has some Samael’s in his cellar and is keeping his eye out for more Mephistopheles and Beast.

“We might be able to keep the Demons in the mix for next year,” Quist says. But no matter what, he says, “Our plan is to continue to do an Avery event around Halloween, just because they have such an amazing barrel-aged program.”