Great Divide Hades

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

bottle from liquorloft tally. aroma is dough, champagne and fruit. taste is sweet bread, apples, light pepper and honey and a little funk. bright yellow pour.

Bottle 66cl. @ home.
Clear medium yellow color with a average, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, white to off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, toasted, moderate hoppy, flowers, citrus, rubber - gum notes, coriander. Flavor is moderate to light heavy sweet and light bitter with a average to long duration. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. (230608)

12oz bottle. clear light yellow with a small white head. spice and perfume aroma. yeast, coriander and floral notes in the taste. acidity in the finish. not my favorite offering from great divide k-6.5

Draft sample at brewery Tap Room, Denver, CO, 8/12/08. Pours clear, urine yellow. Nose is alcohol, slight wheat, mild funk. Taste is bread and apple, dry and mildly fruity, maybe slight alcohol flavor and heat. Relatively tasty.

Hazy straw yellow, estery floral/perfume aroma. I’m not sure if there is wheat in this, but this has a wheaty character to it, along with flowery yeast. Unfortunately there is a rather harsh hot alcohol note in the finish that detracts from the overall palate (which is average at best really).

0,66 l bottle - shared with Asgeir and Sølve. Clear golden color, fine white head. Aroma has fine floral hops and fruit. Flavor is a fine mixture of belgian style ale and american hops. The hops are in front, then there is yeast, malt and spices. Sweet and dry finish.

Funny. All the beers I drink that use Hell, Demons and the Netherworld as a thematic motif tend to be brutally dark beers. Hades Ale? Not so much. It’s colored like white grape juice, with a diminutive head that’s quick to retreat. Same with the aroma - white grape juice, apple juice, soapy cleanliness, wheat, and a little grapefruit. From here the flavor gets a little more intensely bitter and a little more sweet, with an additional touch of kettle corn, caramel, a squeeze of mango, and a good, healthy dose of alcohol. The flavors are on the weaker side, but still a nice medley - like a low grade Duvel.

I’ve written before and will likely write again that Amrican brewers just don’t, with rare exception, do the Belgian styles well. Yes, I’m a snob. Hades is a good beer, but it is more fizzy than malty and more watery than rich. It does succeed, though, in being yeasty and spicy, with light citrus and coriander and grassy notes.