Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout

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

The bottle looks good, the beer in the glass also. Very dark foam. Starts strong-malty and prickly, notes of coffee and liquorice, woody finish. A bit too prickly I think, but still good!

Aged for 7 months. Rich aroma of coffee, dry chocolate, cerries and bourbon. Awesome oily black pour, with a fantastic choco-nute ruby tinged head. The lacing is out of this world. Fresh roasted coffee, touch of dark chocolate, fresh roasted almonds, and a hint of butter and diacetyls dominate flavor. But are backed with this overriding astringent, biting, acidic hop tone that puts me off a bit. Typical of GD, too many hops unbalances the beer for me. Alcohol hides well. Dry smack, with some charcoal notes. Aftertaste has decent oat, earth and grass notes. Solid but not astounding, again hop imbalance throws me off. Bitter hop sugar aftertaste.

Side by side done with the oak aged Yeti

Black with a dark, oily tan head. Lots of spotty lacing. Big malt bill. Complex. Roasty, bitter, and very vinous. Port and tobacco. Grapes and figs. Brown sugar and alcohol. Bitterness comes thorugh first in the flavors. Then a sharp and acrid bite of fruits. Chocolate coffee come out next. The roast blends in well. Alcohol is almost hidden, but shows itself towards the tail. Thick but not cloying. Bitter and sharp finish of dark malts.

I have some kind of mental block with giving perfect scores so tIhis is as perfect as I can get. The flavor this beer has should be illegal. Thick black pour with a tan thin head. Taste is of coffee, chocolate, and malt with a smokey undertone. The bitterness made me smile...the milky mouthfeel made my heartbeat. If I weren’t married I would have proposed to this snow beast then and there.

22 oz. bottle pours a pitch black fluid with a nice brown head. Awesome lacing. Earthy, woody smell with toffee and fresh hops. Viscosity is 10w 40 weight motor oil. Taste is of toasted malts, coffee,dark chocolate with a slight sweetness of dark plums. Has a pleasantly bitter blackened malt, rich coffee taste finish followed by a nice, fresh hop tasting burp. Dec 2004

Pour is black with a small tan head. Aroma is deffinatly chocolate with a very stong roasted malt and caramel. Flavor is lots of burnt malt and toffe with some lingering chocolate and alcohol. A very spot on example of the style.

22 oz bottle dispensed in quart mason jar. Completely opaque black liquid with one finger, large-bubbled, dark brown head which quickly disappears. Aroma is molasses, chocolate smoke and light metallic hops reminiscent of some English bitters. Initial taste is sweet malty, soapy with tingly pine hop finish way past the end. Further tasting has more hops (Cascade?) on the front. Full-body is smooth and roasty-dry. Strange brew; seemed too sweet at first, now seemed more hoppy toward the middle, and back to the too-sweet malt syrup-from-a-can-taste at the end. Alcohol is well hidden. Only complaint is the bottle needs a swing-top; definitely need to share this one, as the beer is way too sweet (and strong) to drink a 22 oz by yourself, unless you have about 3-4 hours to kill. I made a 7% ABV doppelbock (which I thought was too sweet) that tastes similar to this one! This one seems a bit overrated.

22 oz bomber, 2003 Maverick label - thanks to Aubrey for the trade. This one had been sitting in my cellar for about 2 years before I finally got around to cracking it open for a tasting. Poured dark brown-black with a tan and slightly orange tinged head leaving spotty lace. Aroma of chocolate, dark roasty malts, coffee, herbal hoppiness still evident. Flavor is also of chocolate, coffee and charcoaled malts, lots of bitter roastiness with herbal hop notes. Full body, smooth in the mouth and gently carbonated. This was enjoyable but not as good as the more recent vintage Yeti labelled bottle I had a few months earler (but didn’t rate).