Great Divide Brewing Company

Great Divide's beers appeal to be on several levels, the least of which is flavor. It seems like, for a period of time, I was bringing these beers home from the liquor store and I was often disappointed with how they tasted. There's a lot of like about Great Divide and I really want to keep giving them chances, even if it doesn't always pan out... They've got a great label design, their beers are priced fairly and they're from Denver. Like I said, Great Divide has a lot going for it, unfortunately their beers aren't always on that list. It's not all bad though, there are some bright spots in their line up and those are the beers that keep me coming back to Great Divide.

Commemorative beers are fun. Mostly it's the one-off rarity of the beer that gives it an exotic flair. Knowing this is probably the first, and last, time you'll have this beer is fun. A lot of breweries do a once-a-year brew to commemorate their anniversary. It's sort of like a birthday beer, a gift from the brewers to you, their loyal drinkers. The story of this bottle of Great Divide's 16th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA really started a year ago when I picked up a bottle of their 15th Anniversary Double IPA. I'd seen those black foil topped bottles a number of times and finally decided I'd give it a shot. I was really surprised how much I liked the rich flavors in that Double IPA. Here we are a year later and I'm excited to try the 16th Anniversary version of that same beer.

I picked up a bottle of Great Divide Dunkel Weiss this week mostly because I've never seen it on shelves before at my local liquor store. Hefeweizens are one of my favorite styles, the more weiss-ier the better. Dunkelweizens are an interesting take on the style, taking a richer and more savory approach to what is essentially a lighter summer wheat. The getting darker malt to play nicely with cloves and banana flavors can be a difficult task. Great Divide makes some awesome beers so I had faith in their ability to pull it off. What I found in the Dunkel Weiss was a bit disappointing, it turned out to be more Dunkel than Weiss.

Great Divide's Hades is a Belgian style Strong Ale that smells deceptively sour, less spicy than it should and generally just... swell. The Hades follows the long held Belgian tradition of naming beers after devils and the underworld. The flavor of this beer is a bit of a contradiction, being so light and fruity. There is less sour yeast flavor than I was expecting based on the name and style. Other Belgian Strong Ales tend to be a little... stronger all around. That's not to say the Hades is a bad beer, it's just a bit more mellow than you might be expecting.

Very first impressions of this beer was that it was just another heavy porter that promises chocolate or vanilla accents but ultimately fails to deliver. After a few sips though, my impressions changed a bit. After I'd gotten used to the oakiness of the Yeti I was able to better pick up on the chocolate flavor. The one word that comes to mind to describe this beer is bittersweet... The chocolate flavor is definitely more of a dark chocolate flavor, which isn't my preferred chocolate but it's probably the best choice for brewing - especially when there is oak involved. The bitter chocolate and the rich oak flavor go well together and have an interesting balance in this beer. Speaking of bittersweet, this dark chocolate and oak combination made me realize that while they weren't the flavors I was expecting, my expectations were probably unrealistic. I mean, would a milk chocolate oaked stout work? Probably not as well as you'd think...

I'll admit it, this beer was sitting in my fridge for quite a while. There aren't a whole lot of foods I like to pair with pale ales and given that this is a Double IPA I just didn't know what to do with it. Well, I've finally opened it up and I'm absolutely amazed at the flavors in this beer. Great Divide brewed this as their 15th anniversary so it comes with all of the typical commemorative perks like a special label and oak aging. The label is a bit of snoozer, not that I base my beer purchases off of looks but it just doesn't scream "special release" to me. Honestly though, it's all uphill from there. Everything else about this beer is absolutely amazing. This beer has many great aspects, you could almost call them contradictions. Contradictions of what the established India Pale Ale style is.