(Boulder, CO) – Avery Brewing got label approval for its fifteenth anniversary ale this week, set to be released June 1. According to the commercial description, Avery Fifteen was brewed with “black mission figs, hibiscus flowers, white pepper, and a very unique strain of brettanomyces yeast.” Historically, the anniversary ales have received the best beer ratings out of all of the brewery’s offerings.

Avery also recently reported that it will be expanding its work with barrel-aging. From the latest newsletter: “26 French Oak barrels arrived at the brewery last week after a long trip from Norman Vineyards in Paso Robles, California, and their arrival marks the beginning of a new phase of production for Avery Brewing Company. With enough cooperage on hand to produce upwards of 650 cases of finished product, Adam has tapped Andy Parker, who is a Senior Brewer on the Avery staff and our resident barrel-aging expert, to commence production of a brand new oak-aged beer. Still no word on what this beer will be (we’ve heard whispers of a Baltic Porter style), but sleep well knowing that we’ll have a few hundred cases of barrel-aged, increasingly complex product to distribute at some point in 2009.”