Great Divide Brewing Company's 16th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA

This is one of the first breweries that I remember being different. And although I traditionally don't like wood aged beers because they're overdone with scotch, I'll try everything Great Divide makes.

Pours slow, with a ton of body. That's a good sign. Deep amber with a huge tan head and a great smell. Slight vanilla that comes from the oak, but mostly floral hops and a slightly sweet malt.

Tastes about the same. Solid body and a great bitterness that isn't affected by the oak, which isn't too scotchy like some brewers try to make it. Good stuff, and another reason this brewery has set itself apart from the start for me.

Great Divide Brewing Company's Wild Raspberry Ale

On the one hand, I like very few fruit beers. On the other, Great Divide is one of my favorite breweries. Here goes.

Wow, throws off a huge sweet malt smell. Not really raspberry, but sweet and bready.

Pours a deep amber, like a red ale, not red like raspberry. Hopefully that means they were subtle about the raspberry.

Good for a fruit beer. It's as bitter as a pale, but not as sharp. It's dulled by the sweet raspberry taste, and then everything fades pretty quickly to a bitter hops and raspberry taste.

I wouldn't ever look for it again, but it's one of the better fruit beers out there. Not in your face like Fort (the one exception to the rule that too much is a bad thing), but enough to tell what it is without completely abandoning the taste and feel of a beer.

Great Divide Brewing Company's Saint Bridget's Porter

One of my favorite breweries. Not one of my favorite porters.

Pours fairly light. Opaque once in the glass, it pours almost like a schwarzbier or a doppel bock. A little too transparent for a porter, if you ask me. Reddish highlights straight through the glass, instead of at the edges. Decent tan head for a porter, it stays a little longer than most.

Grainy, slightly vinous smell.

Roasted grain taste, with more grain and more tannins. Tastes very good, but it has a lackluster body that a porter shouldn't have an is unbelievably weak out of this brewery.

With a bigger grain bill this could be a much better beer. Great taste, but dragged down by the feel.

Great Divide Brewing Company's Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti Russian Imerial Stout

Another rarity in Texas, so I had to grab it when I saw it at Spec's. One of my all time favorite breweries too, and Yeti was my gateway RIS. The Oak Aged Yeti is an excellent, not-so-bourbony beer as well, so I'm thinking this one is going to be great as well.

Pours thick and opaque. Slow. Fantastic deep coffee-brown head that slowly recedes. Great roasted malt smell with a hint of bourbon and slight sweetness. The huge roasted malt keeps the bourbon back, but it's stronger in this one than Oak Aged Yeti. Bit of a milk-stout feel, smooth, like lactose would give it. Hoppy bitterness fights through as well. Cayenne? Eh, I noticed it after I read the label, but I would have preferred it without it. I initially thought the zip to be from the higher alcohol, but I guess it's the pepper by the way it stays in the aftertaste. You feel it more than taste it though. I've seen worse things done to beer for sure, but that just seems off.

I hope Great Divide isn't going the way of some of the other breweries that run odd one-off experiments from time to time, but I guess the market pushes in weird directions.

Good beer. A step down from their standards though.

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.

Great Divide Brewing Company's Hibernation Ale

I was cleaning out the last of the winter seasonals today, and thank God all of that Shiner Cheer is gone, because I found this one sitting in the back. This is the second Old Ale I've posted about, although Lancaster's winter warmer is a bit better.

This slightly-bigger-than-your-average-winter-ale, without the spices that are associated with a warmer or many winter seasonals, pours a great ruby-ish amber with a strong light tan head that stays forever. Smells malty, bready, with a slightly nutty hint to it and a bit of alcohol common to winter seasonals.

A bit more hoppy than many winters, with no spices. Still very nutty though, more as it warms. Not quite as strong as Rogue's Hazelnut Brown, but it's pronounced. It's fairly dry as well, with a medium body that combined with the nutty taste makes this one feel and taste like a nut brown ale. Very good, but I prefer it colder to keep the nut taste down.

Great Divide Brewing Company's Denver Pale Ale

Although I like this beer, it's just not even close to some of my favorite Great Divide Beers. It's a damn sight better than most pales, but it's not even close to their own Yeti, Fresh Hop, or a few others.

Pours an almost amber yellow, with an enormous tan head. The head actually gets in the way, kind of like pouring a Duvel too fast. It gets pillowy and develops large cells, but takes forever to recede and allow you to finish pouring, even in an imperial pint glass.

Slightly grassy bitterness hits you right off the bat, backed by a sweetness from the malt that seems to indicate it will have a bit of body.

Unfortunately, after such aggressive carbonation, it seems like the body suffered a bit, like it gave up too much as a result of the over-carbonation. That's the only real weakness in this beer though, as it has a solid bitterness that seems well balances by the grassy hops and although the body feels weaker than it should it still has a decent malt backbone to even everything out.

Good beer, I'll have to judge it a second time and see if other bottles are so heavily carbonated. If that slowed down, this would be one that I'd keep handy at all times.