Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti

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

I’m kind of surprised this beer rates so high. It was so-so. The beer pours t a black brown body with a thin bubbly tan head. The aroma is heavily peppery with some chocolate and light oats. The flavor has a huge green pepper all the way through that’s overtly distracting. Medium bodied.

Black with a medium sized beige head. Sweet aroma with burned malt, espresso and dark chocolate. Flavour had burned malt, dark chocolate espresso and canilla. Finished sweet and full.

Bomber. Good chocolate candy bar aroma with some vanilla and oak. Black body with tan head. Cramy chcoclate vanilla thickness but the bittering part had me taking few asprian the morning after. Easy and smooth on the palate. May have to buy another one of this good stuff.

Sample from bottle thanks to WeeHeavySD at the SD Strong Ale Fest 09. Pours a dark black with light tan head. Chocolate, coffee, cocoa nibs, and then some spiciness coming from cayenne pepper. A touch of oak. An interesting imp stout with the pepper, which is quite enjoyable.

Sampled on 12/4/2009. Bottle from WeeHeavySD opened at PP Strong Ale Festival. This Imperial Stout pours an eclipse black color from a 22 oz bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is chocolate, coffee and vanilla. A medium to full bodied Imperial Stout. The malts are chocolate and coffee, hints of oak and wood. Hops are earthy and mild. Good balance. Nice chocolate flavors throughout. There is a touch of pepper at the finish. Not as roasty as most Imperial Stouts, but the chocolate and the slightly pepper bite make up for it. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter with a touch of pepper.

Bottle from SL. Totally different than expected. Pour was pitch black in color, nice brownish to tan colored head, subsides to a thin covering with good continuous to splotchy style lacing. The aroma was strong chocolate, vanilla, some oak, fusels, and something off in the grass-spice arena. The flavor was chocolate, bitterness (thought it was hops, maybe the chocolate nibs as labelled), spicey peppery finish, long lingering cayenne in the after after taste with a tad bit of burn. An intriguing way to heat things up, but I think I prefer a straight up hop approach.... unless you make an impy stout with too strong chocolate syrup messing things up and the hops dying, where you salvage the alco-bomb with a hot pepper afterthought. Not saying that’s what they did here, just sayin’. I kinda liked this.

Bottle from WeeHeavySD opened at PP Strong Ale Festival. Thick tan lasting head. Black color. Mellow, chocolatey. Leans dry. No roastiness. Very good.

22oz bomber. Pours deep ebony with a thin dark tan head of big-bubbled foam that leaves spots of lace on the glass. The aroma is complex - and a little musty with subtle notes of red wine, less subtle notes of espresso, and chocolate with a soft grassy earthiness. There is also a touch of alcohol in the aroma. The flavor has a great maltiness up front with chewy chocolate and coffee malt -- very nice start. The thick, tangy, viscous malt continues, leading to a mid-palate full of fruity esters, complex malts, and chocolate. There is a thick, tangy, viscous malt with a mesmerizing residual sweetness throughout. The finish is dry and chocolatey with wineline fruity complexity and booziness. The mouthfeel is effervescent but also smooth with a creamy thickness and a medium-full body. Overall, not as chocolatey as expected (or as chocolatey as I had hoped), but still a fantastic beer.