Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

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

Picked up 12-oz bottle from Cellar’s Wine & Spirits in St Paul, MN. Pours a semi-hazy copper amber brew with a thick and lumpy off-white head that has excellent retention and lacing. Aroma of strong grapefruity and piney hops, a touch of ice tea, light caramel malt and some spice. Taste is medium to full bodied, some carbonation with flavors of over-powering grapefruit, some citrus juice, and a touch of caramel malt. Finish is quite bitter with a long lingering grapefruit and bitter aftertaste. This one will keep the hopheads happy.

Bomber. Poured a deep, hazy, eerie orange with a light wispy whitish head. Powerful grapefruit and pine forest in the nose, with a sweet caramel backing. Equally-aggressive flavor profile, showcasing the bright citrus and piney hops, but the caramel and other sweet malts really hold it together. Bitter, fruity, and somewhat dry on the finish. Not overly complex, but extremely well-done.

grapefruitiness. The malt. I could stay on this all night and there is balance and flavvour despite the bitterness. Brought by a generous Yank to Radekfest 05. I had a bottle many months later and enjoyed the bitterness, malt and nuttiness

Bottle (650ml). Shared with GregClow, my bottle. Poured cloudy orange with a small foamy off-white head. Aroma is full-on orange/grapefruit resiny hops with sweet malt backing - juicy, lightly sour, some funky hops in there too. Taste starts orange juice-sweet malt, then the hops begin to build - ripe grapefruit, then grapefruit pith - there’s some woodiness, it’s not really that harshly bitter, but this is really all about the hops (mostly west coast, with some UK-style funkiness in there). Mouthfeel is lightly lively, astringent, decent body - very nice, not all that sophisticated, but a good hop monster.

Interesting hopp aroma, high notes, very intense hard working nose. Nice, medium bodied, hops were nicely incorporated to whole .Nice sticky hoppy aftertaste. Malt well balances whole design. Big, rich, juicy brew that is drinkable and surprisingly balance for its style.

Nice dark amber orange colour with a godd size white head that diminishes leaving a still respectable white covering. Big hop aroma that is not as big as it could be but is interestingly different, perhaps because of the hops used. Mouthfeel is excellent, and contains complex levels to it that confound my attempts to pick them apart. Hops hit the back of your throat with force initially but are better team players in therest of this deceptively easy drinking beer. Many thanks CaptainCougar!

This beer was sampled at the San Diego Real Ale Festival courtesy of cquiroga. Orange gold color. Medium head. Aroma is malt, fruit and orange. A full bodied Imperial IPA. Malts are fruity, orange and sweet. Hops are grapefruity, citrusy and orange. A very nicely balanced 2x IPA. Lots of flavor stuff going on in here. The bitterness and sweet compare and contrast with every sip. Nice smooth taste. Crisp dry finish. Excellent beer. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and dry. Aftertaste is bitter with a fairly pronounced hop bite. This one is in the top echelon of Imperial IPAs.

This bottled brew poured a medium sized head of fine to large sized off-white colored long lasting bubbles that left behind a hazy yeasty semi-transparent dark yellow brown colored body and a fair lacing. The aroma was a welcome relief from the English IPA’s we have had of late. It had much more hops in the aroma and actually smelled like an IPA! Oh wow! The mouth feel is awesome! A really strong hoppy caramel malt tingle that lingers into the finish saying, "Yes! I am an IPA!". Very strong hop content with a vinous spicy caramel malt note.