Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout

Brewed by Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Denver, Colorado USA

Bottle. Pours a black body with a dark tan head. Roasty coffee and chocolate malt, vainlla, with a complex but not cloying hoppiness. I felt this one came together better than the oak aged version.

Good aroma, sweeter than I expected, almost a toasted coffee and caramel with a whiff of the alcohol. Pours super dark, like used motor oil. Impossible to see through. The head is minimal, with a brownish foam. It tastes like an IPA version of Celebrator. The hoppy notes are very apparent at the end as this is certainly full bodied. Based on the pour, I was expecting it to feel much heavier than it was. The aftertaste lingers long after you finish swallowing. Overall, quality beer, although I’m not a huge hop fan. I’d like to try the oak-aged version as a comparison

On draft. Pours a black viscous body, with a finger of mocha head as well as nice lacing. Smells like an chocolate and coffee IPA. The aroma is extremely floral hops. The flavor opens very piney citric hops then roast cacao, caramel, toffee. As it warms up the flavor becomes a little fruity, sweet, and even slightly cinnamon. Also if it gets too warm it becomes phenolic and the hops become cloying, but it’s still a great beer.

Pours as black as motor oil revealing a foamy brown head. Aromas of chocolate, cocoa, hops, toffee, roasted malts and caramel. The flavors here are quite complex. The hops overtake most of the other flavors at first with a piney/citrus note then other flavors come through such as the chocolate, caramel, toffee, coffee and leaves a bitter burnt roasted aftertaste. Nicely done brew all around but my only qualm is that it reminded me more of an IPA rather than an Imperial Stout.

Bomber! Pours black with nice brown head, mostly diminishing, nice lacing. The aroma is big and roasted, lots of chocolate, some fruity esters, some citrus hops, a bit of alcohol. The flavor is very dark bitter chocolate, roasted coffee, dark fruit, caramel, a touch of citrus comes at the end. The texture is thick and creamy, very coating. The finish is long and warming. This was good, so I think I need to have the Oak Age Yeti again cause it sucked the first time around.

Getting my notebook online. Bottle. Pours a rich chocolate color. Great chocolate and malt flavors, roasted coffee. Very good. Had at the same time as the Oaked version. A nice way to compare the effects of oaking. A nice long bitter finish.

355ml bottle (Cracked Kettle, Amsterdam)
Black, brief tan head. Sweet, almost-chocolatey roasted malt aroma; some touch of hops just breaks through. Smooth palate, gentle carbonation. Quite a punch of burntness, quite charcoaly, and almost astringently bitter. The hops balance that interestingly with an almost sherbetty and bitter orange-zest zing. Becomes a bit sludgier and slimier in the mouth as it warms, makes me wonder if I’ll need a spoon by the time I get to the bottom. Rather lacking in subtlety, but it obviously wasn’t designed for subtlety (I don’t honestly think most of the Colorado brewers can do subtle, even if they tried). Finish is burnt, piney, and a touch metallic. And sticky. Pretty OK sipper, but not one I’d want any volume of. Alcohol quite bold, but surrounded by malts and hops it doesn’t jump out as being excessively boozy, just very big. Oak age it for the win.

I tried this during a RIS sampling evening at my house. My overall impression was that this was terribly over-hopped to the point that it tasted more like an IPA than an impy stout. Reminiscent of Stone’s 11th Anniversary Ale. And compared to the other RIS’s we tasted, this was my least favorite. A: very dark, decent head and lacing S: quite hoppy, some roasted and smoky overtones t: much too hoppy for my tastes. while I expect there to be some roasted and hop bitterness, this was just not balanced well enough for my tastes. M: Thick, but too much lingering hop bitterness D: With so many other RIS choices, I wouldn’t spend the $$ on this again.