Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

Brewed by Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Denver, Colorado USA

Bottled - thanks to Reakt for fetching from Utobeer. A gingery amber coloured beer with a decent whitish head. This is all about the hops, but there are sweet balancing malts as well. Some toffee notes also. The hops in the nose and piney and far reaching. Lovely alcohol. just a delicious beer.

Bottle. Amber with a thick off-white head. Aromas are initially tea quickly followed by pine and dry tropical fruit mix. Floral with dusty, prickly notes. Flavours are green, peppery pine with a softening creaminess in the malts. Sweet tropical fruit with bitter grapefruit and a dry woodiness. The alcohol isn’t too evident. Somehow all the strength has been reined in and all that remains is a fairly smooth yet powerful IPA. Very good.

Amber with a big and lasting off-white head. The hoppy aroma includes grapefruit, peach, melon and pine. Huge hop bitterness well balanced by malt and with citrus and pine hop flavours all over the mouth.

Thanks to BrooklynBoy and JPDIPSO for this one (2 is definitely not enough). Pours coppery/orangish, with a big, off-white, creamy head. Big aroma of hops, citrus, honeydew melon, grapefruit. Tastes super hoppy, fruity, piney. Finishes smooth, crisp, hoppy, with a burst of hops, citrus, melon, florals, spice, and even honey at the finish. Unbelievably complex, very well balanced, and one of the better beers I’ve ever had. The Great Divide "regular beers" didn’t blow me away, but their big 3 (Titan, Hercules, and Yeti) definitely deserve their place in the all-time pantheon of ratebeer.

Golden orange ale with a thick creamy off white head. A classic pinhey c-hops aroma, with caramel malt, pines and rich. In mouth, a smooth classic c-hops comes out, becoming intense and tingly. Refrshing, like menthol. Rich and smooth bodied. Mondial 2006.

12oz bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy, off-white, mostly lasting. Body is dark amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (cookie), moderately to heavily hoppy (resin, grapefruit, apricot), with a note of alcohol. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, moderately acidic, moderately to heavily bitter. Medium to full body, velvety/syrupy texture, lively carbonation, moderately alcoholic. Hard for me to drink much of...not very enticing in the aroma, and rough/punishing in the mouth. Better than average mouthfeel for the style, though, and a nice lasting head. Totally understandable why it’s well-liked, but just can’t get any enjoyment out of it.

July 2004: 22 oz bottle, from Armanetti’s in Mundelein, IL. Luminescent copper, very clear, with a large, lasting taupe head. Nose is quite sweet, pineapple predominating with hints of apricots, caramel and tobacco. In the mouth, massively hoppy and bitter, fruits are present as a thin backup to the huge citric/piney hop front, which dominates all the way through the long hard finish. The body is good and thick, and I do find more malt presence than some, but on the whole I think this is a bit overbalanced to the hop to be really drinkable. It’s interesting, extremely well made, but certainly for hopheads only. 8/4/7/4/15 3.8

June 2006: bottle from the same batch as above. At 2 years I was afraid the hops would be too far gone...I’m also interested to read my review above, as I’m increasingly more tolerant of hop-bombs as long as there is corresponding malt or fruit sweetness to counteract the corrosive bitterness; this example delivers in that regard. It’s definitely mellower and easier to drink now though there is a strong dry, somewhat ashy bitterness that resonates on the roof of the mouth for some time after swallowing; the aroma though seems to have opened up with vanilla and green tea leaves adding some nice complexities....quite lovely and I’m bumping this up a bit; I will have to try it again fresh soon, but this 2-year-old is certainly quite fine.

Draught, københavner-smagning courtesy Cockney Pub. Creamy white good mostly lasting head. Deep orange nice colour. Moderate malty powerfull hoppy aroma. Great bitter flavor. Lots of hopps, but still slighty malty/sweet notes. Long great finish. Creamy palate. Great IIPA.