Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale

Brewed by Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: American Pale Ale
Denver, Colorado USA

Smelled fantastic, and without reading the label, you do in fact smell grassy citrusy notes. It poured picture perfect, a dark orange with a fluffy sudsy head. Tasted very earthy and grainy, and was a bit malty for my liking. Oh there was a ton of hop flavor, but the earth tones and malt could have been scaled back a bit.

Bronze with decent head. Outstanding fresh hop medley. Perhaps Amarillo & Chinook. Citrus dominant aroma with orange and lemon highlights. Citrusy flavor with strong bitterness component. Grapefruit develops. Probably better defined as an IPA. A lot of IBU’s for an APA.

Pours a burnt orange with a frothy white head, remnants of which stay for the duration. Aroma is grassy with wood chips and caramel. Flavor is fresh, grassy and bitter. Extremely drinkable.

22 oz. bottle. Pours an amber/copper color with a medium sized white head. Aroma of fresh grapefruit and pine. Nice hoppy bitterness. Surprisingly lighter bodied than I expected, finishes very smooth for such a bitter ale.

On tap at the brewery, amber color, with a white head, fresh floral hop pine niddle nose, with some citrusy, lemony, fruity accents, a light toasty, caramel malt note, with a grassy, cedary aroma follows through on a medium-bodied palate with a light toasty malt character, with a juicy flowery hop citrusy accent of lemon and grapfruit, , with some faint coniferous, piney notes, with a hint of mintiness resin, leading towards a lingering piney hop bittreness finish.

20081021 Bomber from Spirits RB. I’m sure I have had and rated this beer back in 2005 in Denver, so I’m not sure why I never entered notes. Glad I decided to pick it up for a refresher then, because it’s nice stuff and in fact better than I recall. Medium amber color with sudsy off-white head of stickily lacing loose foam. Aroma is stark with mild but clean toasty malts and a bold perfume of grassy, resinous hops. Medium light body, again nice and clean and fresh, and then a very nice hop profile that is at once extremely bitter and quite astringent, and yet not bracingly so. The hop pungency is very nicely played off of the lighter body, making this both suitable for the hop fix, and also refreshing and quenching. If it wasn’t so silly expensive, I could imagine drinking this stuff by the gallon, but not at seven bucks a bomber or whatever this was.

Draught.l White creamy and lasting head. Clear amber body. Powerful hops aroma and flavor. Low carbonation. Long aftertaste.
Earlier Rating: 1/19/2008 Total Score: 3.7
Bottle. High and creamy long lasting off-white head. Clear amber body. Lovely barley malt aroma with heavy hops notes. Hops is of course dimnant with a pleasant, relatively sharp bitterness that stays a long fime. Low carboantion.

Mmmmm, clear bronze/amber, thick white head with lots of lacing. Full leafy aroma, soft and fresh. Grassy but not really citrusy, i love beers that highlight and focus on complete hop character. Lighter in body than most fresh hops beers, soft and simple.