Great Divide Brewing Company's 15th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA

I don't usually like wood aged beers. They usually fall into two groups that either taste like someone added vanilla extract or like they added bourbon. In other words, too much of a good thing. But I have yet to have a Great Divide beer that wasn't excellent, including Oak Aged Yeti, and this was a unique beer that I hadn't even heard of, much less tried, so I jumped on it.

Pours a deep reddish amber, like a hugely malty barley wine. Great tan head that gets pillowy and stays. Smells like a mellow pale. The oak apparently evens it out quite a bit so that it doesn't hit you in the face with a bread smell that most beers with this much malt would have, and there's just a trace of hops that wavers between floral and grassy.

Huge body, and while not as bourbon-y as many oak aged beers, it's still a little too much bourbon flavor for me. The 10% ABV is well hidden. The aftertaste is amazingly peppery. I think this is the first time I've really had that stand out in a beer, although a few have it listed as a characteristic. Gets more bourbon flavor as it warms, and the alcohol gets more noticeable in the smell as well.

I hoped for a little less bourbon, along the lines of the smell. Still, a very good beer. You can taste the Denver Pale Ale in it.