Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout

It's been pretty quiet over here and sorry about that. Had some stuff happen and was away from the house for a bit. But, I'm mostly back now so here's a short one, some simple thoughts on Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout. Think the bottle was around a year old but I don't know for sure.

Super roasty nose with hints of chocolate. Basically what you'd expect from a stout. Surprisingly thick body though. First sip had a mix of bitter, roasty hops and burnt, smoky roast. Basically continued that way with only real change being the bitterness lessening as my palate adjusted to it. Solid offering from Great Divide and a tasty imperial stout. They make four different variations on this, too, which are all pretty good as well.

Great Divide Colette

I've only been having Tired Hands saisons for a while now, which are almost all awesome, so sometimes it's a little difficult to pick up some others unless I know they are good. I took a slight risk in the Great Divide Colette since I knew nothing about it, but turns out it's actually pretty decent. Great Divide stuff usually is, though, so it wasn't too big a risk.

Nice nose on it, very saison like. Basically flowery, herbal, and minty. Started sweet and fruity up front, sort of reminiscent of apples. Finished with more of the herbal, minty spice. On a nice, hot day this would be fantastic, just sitting on the roof deck out in the sun, enjoying it and relaxing. Of course it's hard to think about those times when you wake up and it's snowing, but we'll get there!

Great Divide 2008 Old Ruffian

About a year and a half ago over Thanksgiving, I found a bottle of Great Divide Old Ruffian on a store shelf with their old style label. Unfortunately, the old label was before they began bottle dating so I had no real idea how old the beer was other than they changed their labels in the beginning of 2008. I figured whatever and bought it anything figuring the barleywine would hold up to age well. I finally opened it about a week and a half ago after having it in my refrigerator for a long while.

Really wonderful and strong nose. Tons of sweet fruit, caramel, and a pleasant aged hops character. Really inviting. Unfortunately, at least at first, the body didn't follow the awesome nose. Caramel still existed with some bitterness and even something reminiscent of chocolate, but everything was slightly muted with some cardboardy oxidation. As I drank more, though, the oxidation lessened (probably as I got used to it) and more of the sweet fruit and aged hops came through making it much better. In the end quite enjoyable even if at first I was a little worried.

Great Divide Hoss

That's it for pumpkin week for now. I still have a few more but I needed a change of pace for a few days. To start, I opened a bottle of Great Divide Hoss.

Hoss is a lager brewed with some rye. Sweet bready nose, basically what you'd expect from a good lager. Very clean. Has a nice bready malt flavor with some slight rye spiciness in the finish. The maltiness was really pleasant and the rye added a nice second dimension to the lager. Really clean, well made lager and very enjoyable.

Great Divide 17th Anniversary

This was brought to my last beer tasting night but we didn't get a chance to open it. Since it's been sitting in my fridge since then I figured I'd finally give it a try. The 17th Anniversary is a wood aged double ipa.

Smelled good. Grapefruit and a sweet caramel with a little bit of wood. Starts with grapefruit, caramel, vanilla and what I felt like was chocolate but the last was probably my imagination. As I drank more, some oak characteristics stated to come out and added a nice dimension to the hops and caramel sweetness. Pretty tasty and really easy to drink. Quite enjoyed this.

Great Divide Belgian Yeti at the Kite & Key

I stopped by Kite & Key for my usual Tuesday visit and luckily the Great Divide Belgian Yeti was still on draft. It's a new variation in the Yeti Imperial Stout series and people have been saying good things about it since it came out so I wanted to try it.

Chocolate, roast and coffee in the nose. First sip had some chocolate and roast with some slight bitterness. I didn't get any other flavors from the Belgian yeast at first but it was super cold.. After letting it warm up for a while, I started getting a hint of sweetness with some clove and banana. Since I didn't have a ton left by that point, it was hard to get a full impression, but I imagine at the right temperature it would be full of those flavors straight from the beginning. All in all, a tasty addition to the Yeti series, but I'd like to get it again to get a better feel for it.

Absolutely Awesome Stout Tasting

Before attending the Troegs Splinter Black release, I was sent a message on BeerAdvocate asking if I'd be up for trading a bottle to a local in Philly.  I said if I got some extra bottles, we could work something out.  However, after seeing what he had to offer we both decided that instead of trading for more bottles to sit on our shelves, lonely and undrunk, it would be a lot more fun to get together and do a tasting where I'd bring a bottle of Splinter Black and he'd bring some stuff.  It may seem odd meeting up with a total stranger, but I'm an odd guy so it evens out.  We met up at The Belgian Cafe just before Christmas to ensure that neither of us was a crazy murderer and, after realizing we were both relatively normal (well, almost normal), decided to do the tasting some time in January.

We talked a bit more after Christmas and came up with the date of January 15th.  He invited a friend of his who also lived nearby and after a few more messages we decided to make it a stout tasting.  For this one, we were doing it at my apartment.  They arrived around 3:15 and, lo and behold, his friend Josh turned out to be one of the random guys we met on the way to the POPE during the Craft Beer Express.  I honestly couldn't believe the coincidence.  Just really random.  We quickly set out the six bottles on the table and couldn't wait to get started.

From left to right, we had: Olde Hickory The Event Horizon, Olde Hickory Hickory Stick Stout, Big Sky Ivan the Terrible, Surly Darkness (finally!), Troegs Splinter Black, and Dock Street Prince Myshkin.

Sunday at Capone's

Jo and I went to Capone's and enjoyed some great buffalo wings and beers.  As usual, their draft list was excellent and they have 25 cent wings on Sunday so it's a great place to watch some football.  They are doing some construction on the place, but the back entrance is open so don't think they are closed because of the closed front doors.

I started off with a sampler of 4 beers.

Starting with the front left beer and going clockwise I got: Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela, The Bruery Autumn Maple, Amager Imperial Stout, and Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout. 

The Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela was interesting.  It's supposedly a Pumpkin Ale but I couldn't detect pumpkin in it at all.  It smelled lemony and sort of tart.  Just a little bit of head on the sampler, but I'm guessing there would be a bit more in a full glass.  The first sip was mildly tart as well but not too strong.  Very smooth flavor.  It was similar to Nodding Head's Berliner Weiss but with more body and not quite as tart.  As I drank more of it, the beer got more tart but nothing crazy.

After that was the Bruery Autumn Maple.  Smelled mildly Belgian as it's made with some Belgian yeast.  At first, there was only some yam flavor with a mild sweetness.  Hard to find the Belgian flavors in the beer as a result of the yams and maple.  Nice thick mouth feel to it.  The second full sip I took was just full of yams.  I couldn't believe it and took another sip just to be sure I was sure of the flavor.  Super interesting to be drinking that taste out of a glass.  I liked it but a full glass may have been a bit much.

Following that was the Amager Imperial Stout.  Amager is apparently a brewery in Denmark, who knew.  The Imperial Stout had some slight roasty notes and a little alcohol on the nose.  The taste, however, was full of roasted malt flavor with no alcohol presence.  As it warmed up, the alcohol was slightly noticeable, but not out of place.  Not a bad Imperial Stout but nothing too special to me.

Finally, the Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout.  I talked about the family of Yeti stouts from Great Divide in this post, my first time at Capone's.  This will be the second of the four I've had and hopefully I'll be able to have the other two at some point.  Jo smelled some wood flavors in this but I didn't notice much of anything.  Pretty big espresso flavor in the first sip, but it wasn't crazy.  Nothing like Founders Breakfast Stout for example.  The coffee does sit on the tongue after each sip though.  Nice thick mouth feel to this one.  As it warmed up, the espresso becomes more noticeable but again not bad.

After the sampler, I tried to get a glass of Rodenbach Vintage 2007 but they were out.  Instead, I got a Southern Tier Pumking

There wasn't any head on it but you'll just have to trust me since I forgot to take a picture before drinking a bunch.  It smelled of pumpkin and a lot of spices.  Interesting smell, pretty much what a lot of people think of when they hear of a pumpkin beer.  The Pumking was very sweet with a lot of spices.  Kind of crazy how much pumpkin pie flavor they packed into this beer.  Even with all the spices and the high sweetness, it was still quite drinkable.

Went into the bottle shop before we left and man I love that place.  They have so many good beers.  Even if the prices can be a little high, there's just so much to find.  Every nook and cranny is just jammed with random beers.  I could come out of there with so many if I didn't care about money.  Ended up getting a Hoppin' Frog Boris the Crusher, an Oatmeal Imperial Stout, and a 2008 Rogue Imperial Porter.  The Rogue had an absolutely sweet bottle although it's no real surprise because if there is one thing Rogue does well it's make cool bottles.

Full Beer Saturday

I had a full day yesterday with going to Capone's, a beer bar in Norristown, for lunch and spending some time at the Hulmeville Inn with my buddy Greg.

The first stop was Capone's in Norristown.  It looks like a normal diner from the outside, but once you get inside and are given a draft list you know this isn't a normal place.  Their draft list was probably 20 beers long with lots of really interesting stuff.  They had Ballast Point's Sculpin, Russian River's Consecration, and a lot of other really great beers.  It was almost entirely limited release beers which is just awesome.