Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

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

One of my favorite double IPA’s!!Great hop flavor which starts strong and finishes slightly sweet. Good thick body but not too thick. An IIPA Powerhouse!!!

Had this is 5/17/2004. Aroma is fresh and hoppy. Color is a hazy orange with good carbonation and a nice head. Taste is bold and hoppy. Starting with a full/medium body that goes down with a bold rich feel. Finish comes on with a rich malty flavor that is backed by a fresh hop flavor and a full hop bitterness. OK this is the best beer Great Divide has ever made. This beer kicks ass, it is full of flavor, it’s rich, hoppy, and bitter, and all of this is very well balanced. The only bad thing is, it is a bit rich, not like Arrogant Bastard, in fact it seems mild compared it that, but it is still a great beer.

I love great divide. Beautiful hoppy aroma, with a mild malt backbone. Nice pour with a small off-white head. Flavor is just as good, lots of flavor, yet well balanced for an IPA. Pairs well with marijuana.

This is divine sweet hop candy at it’s glorious peek. Appearance: Pours a deep copper color; orange amber, beautiful; with a big off-white head and sheets of heavy lacing. Smell: Thick malty aroma of orange, caramel, bread and grapefruit that is truly enticing. Taste: The flavor is sweet and malty like a fruit juice character but the fruit that has been juiced in the magnificent HOP! Hop oils galore in the bold but balanced DIPA. I this genre Hercules is not the most bitter. It actually leans towards malty despite its big hop bitter. The hop character is more like lots of tiny hop bugs nibbling at your mouth than it is like a huge hop spike that is hammered straight through the roof of you mouth exiting your skull. The sweet hoppy flavor does not scramble your brain it only teases your sense to the point of elation and drops off just before wearing you out; making this an extremely drinkable DIPA. The finish is lip-smackingly dry; and the aftertaste is fantastic, leaving you wanting more. Mouthfeel: It feels like a medium body beer but the active nibbling hops create a sensational creaminess that makes the body feel more fluffy and yet exceptionally smooth. Drinkability: WOW! What can I say! This one down with exceptional easy. The finish is a bit dry but I like it that way. And the ABV, well, you’d never know it; ‘till you had a few. Is it a session beer? Of course not at 9.1% but I’d easily put a few back; and I sure wouldn’t mind having a couple cases in the cellar to work on for the next several months. Hope this is helpful. Cheers!

Bottle, bought locally in rural MA. Thick, sticky, wonderfully balanced--hides the alcohol very well. Wonderful pine and citrus aroma holds out a lot of promise, and the taste more than delivers from start to bitter finish. Hard for me to see how any fan of this style could complain even a little bit. One of my very favorite DIPAs, and the best one easily obtainable in our parts.

Can’t believe I haven’t tried this before now. Bottle poured into a snifter; dark orange with amber hints, and a huge fluffy white head that never went away (beer’s been gone for 30 minutes, actually, and the head’s still there). Nose is candied melon, blood orange, grapefruit, with freshly wettened pine needles on the back end. Tastes of ripe orange and pine; intensely floral, with massive hops. One of the most velvety mouthfeels on a IIPA I’ve ever tried. Absolutely marvelous.

Aromas of cut grass and pine. Almost like working in the yard without the sweat. Hop flavors evident on the front end. Finishes with a nice malt balance.

Bottle from Ölbutikken in Copenhagen. This is an incredible x2IPA. I don’t know how you balance a beer with 85 IBUs but Great Divide pulls it off beautifully with this one. You can’t help but be overawed with hops the second you let this monster out of the bottle, as a powerful aromatic wave of lychese and tinned mandarins in syrup crashes over you. The first mouthful obliterates the senses and it’s not until your tongue recovers that the subtleties of the marmalade and malt backbone to this beer sing through. The mouthfeel is a little honey-like and somewhat sticky. A stunning beer. As a lover of hops it doesn’t get much better than this.