Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti

Brewed by Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Denver, Colorado USA

22 oz bottle, bottled on 7/16/09. Pours a dark black-brown with a creamy dark brown head that diminishes to a thin film that laces the glass.

The aroma is sweet lactic chocolate, with some cayenne and black licorice and roast.

The flavor is sweet lactic chocolate with a lot of roast, some licorice and a tarry cayenne pepper bitter finish. The cayenne pepper adds a note of red hots that is interesting and gives a little burn in the finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and a little watery.

Overall, an excellent beer. I like what the chocolate and cayenne adds to an already fine stout. I like this a lot better than the oak aged yeti. A little better in the nose and mouthfeel and this could be a perfect beer.

Maybe it was just me but too much heat from the ABV, maybe it was the combination of flavors but I love the espresso, the solo oak aged is a little hot but manageble, regular yeti very drinkable, but this one not so much. I can appreciate the complexity within the beer, but again the hotness from the alcohol is too much. I’d compair it to a fresh Goose Island’s burbon county stoudt, very upfront with the alcohol but with a few years an awesome beer. Will cellar for a few and check back.

Deep black motor oil colored pour with a dark brown head. Roasted malt, chocolate/cocoa, oak aromas. Taste is of roasted malt, chocolate, vanilla with a little heat coming out at the end. It is noticeable, but not overbearing. Great lacing up and down the whole glass. All the flavors come together to create a wonderful beer. This one bomber is all I could drink in one sitting, but I would welcome it back again.

sample from bottle at the brewpub - Pours black with a tan head. The aroma is roast malt and a big chocolate blast. Flavor is the same along with plenty of dark chocolate and hops bitterness. It’s full bodied and very tasty. Strangely I didn’t really notice the peppers. I’d thought cayenne would have jumped out at me.

Draught@SBWF 2009
Pitch black color, some brown head. Suprisingly not much chocolate in the nose: wood, coffee and vegetables. Woody, coffee, vanilla, dark malts, chocolate and some milk in the flavor. Warming alcohol. Somewhat papery aftertaste.

Draught@SBWF2009. Deep ambery brown colour, small brown head. Aroma is chocolate, mild notes of wood as well as some slight roasted notes and coffee as well. Flavour is roasted malts, chocolate, alcohol and mildly burnt notes. Quite syrupy notes as well.

Bomber shared with a friend. Pours a deep black color with some mahogany at the edges topped by a small, foamy tan colored head. Some drippy spots of lacing line the glass. The aroma just exhudes with rich dark and bittersweet chocolate with just a touch of roastiness in there. The flavor is just chocolate forward as the nose foreshadows. Rich dark and bittersweet chocolate melted and blended together with some light roastiness and hints of vanilla from the oak. I didn’t get much of the cayenne spices but maybe just a dash of it on the finish. The flavor is definitely like a gourmet chocolate bar. I don’t think I have had a beer with this much chocolate in it. Full bodied and silky smooth on the mouthfeel with balanced carbonation. This dark chocolate just lingers on the finish and gets a bit too sweet with the more you drink. This is a rich, decadent dessert beer for sure, and one that is very good in small doses. A chocolate lover’s dream beer.

(Draught at Stockholm Beer Festival, 19 Sep 2009) Black colour with frothy, brown head. Malty, roasted nose with notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, black coffee, liquorice and toasted grain. Malty, roasted taste with loads of dark chocolate and cocoa, some coffee and roasted oats. Full body, smooth mouthfeel. Fairly dry. Decent cocoa bitterness. Very nice beer, almost in par with the other verisons of the Yeti, but with a chocolate twist to it.