Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

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

Black with dense brown head. Aromas of espresso, chocolate, and sweet anise. Taste is intensely espresso with an astringent woody edge against the sweetness into the finish Carbonation is brisk. $10/22oz

Bottle. Pours a rich, dark brown with a thin tan head. It already looks good! Aroma is good, but not what I expected. There’s certainly a vanilla-ey oak, chocolate and maybe some coffee, but only a bit. The flavor was really about the same with a touch bit more of the coffee. The finish was dry and bitter. Overall this is an awesome beer and I can’t wait to get more and their other styles.

Short rating. 22oz bottle. Just a little coffee on the nose. A bit of soy. Some rubber band. Plenty of chocolate and vanilla wood tannin. 9.5% asserts itself when nearing room temp. Not horrible though. Pours thick, oily black with a sustained dark, dark khaki head. The coffee, chocolate, vanilla and malt are actually in excellent balance on the tongue. Espresso and vanilla bean infused whole chocolate milk with some oak tannin for good measure. Creamy, viscous body that almost coats the tongue. Lightly bitter, green and slightly astringent finish. I really didn’t want to like this beer... coffee beers are not my thing at all, but, damn... excellent stuff! Thanks Steven!

Holy shit, I am stunned. I have never been a fan of the "Yeti" series of beers from Great Divide but this is licking inside the bottle good. It pours an opaque brown/black with a very small yet dark carmel head. Not too much on the nose, a bit of coffee and vanilla. The flavor is awesome, kind of like a malty chocolate milkshake with a bit of vanilla espresso tossed in (really damn good); mouthfeel is a bit thin but matches. Finishes a bit bitter like you were chewing on chocolate covered espresso beans with tiny bit of hops to boot. I would lick this off of a freshly paved road.

Bottle - Pours black with a sexy tan head. Yeah. Surprisingly not a ton of coffee on the nose, and I really didn’t get the oak, either. Smelled more nutmeg, vanilla, milk, and a bit of cinammon. Taste is deep, dark chocolate and surprisingly light coffee. I don’t get the coffee until the finish, where it’s pungent and bitter. Nice hops on the finish, too, along with some dark roast malt. Smooth and a bit thinner than I expected, but overall a fine, fine beer.

THOUGHTS: I passed by this for a while thinking it was just a new label for the Oak Aged version. I had this on what I figured would be the last cool night for a while in early June. I thought it would be my last imperial stout until things got cooler again. This really did taste a lot different, but the original Yeti was still there. Hid alcohol very well. Nice, but a little tame for a Yeti. The hops and espresso bitterness didn’t blend that well at first, but they eventually blended nicely. The hops were a little subdued in the aroma compared to the flavor. It would be interesting to see how this one ages. Once again an impy with some coffee, not one of those ramped up coffee stouts. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a very dark brown that was an opaque black in the glass with an average, light brown head that mostly diminished and left good lacing. The aroma was moderate milk chocolate, strong coffee and chocolate milk; light pine hops, wood, slight vanilla, hazelnut and some dark fruit. The initial flavor was very sweet and bitter; while the finish was rather sweet and very bitter with a long duration. There was chocolate milk, chocolate syrup, coffee, pine hops, dark chocolate and slight dark fruit. The full body was almost like a milk shake. It was somewhat oily, but also rather creamy with fairly soft, yet tingly carbonation with a light alcoholic finish.

Tasting GABF. Black as night. chocolate head. Big expresso and wood in nose and taste. chocolate sweet malt with back bitter bite that is very coffee like and leaves expresso on the tongue.

On tap at GABF. Brown black with a mocha head. Oak, roasted malt, cocoa aromas. Full body and very smooth. Luscious flavors of espresso , vanilla, molasses. Long finish. Fantastic.