Great Divide 16th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA
Scott strikes again, fresh out of Colorado, my trading buddy sent me a Great Divide 16th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA last week. I don’t really want to sit on this one, I’ve been looking forward to this since Adam posted this on BeerNews.org. I’m super excited to try it; Love IPA’s and I love oaked beers, time to see how Great Divide put these together in a beer.
Here is how Great Divide describes this beer
Based on our most award-winning beer, Denver Pale Ale, this copper-hued treat is a celebration of everything Great Divide does best. Plenty of malty sweetness provides a backdrop for earthy English and American hops, while French and American oak round off the edges and provide a touch of vanilla.
Style: IPA
Bottles: 22 oz. Capped and Foiled
ABV: 10%
Glassware: Tulip
Suggested Food Pairings: (per Great Divide) Bacon and blue cheese hamburger, barbecue ribs, Point Reyes blue cheese, sticky toffee pudding, caramel cheesecake
Appearance:
The beer is a very pretty, clear, and copper color verging on red. It has some strong red highlights and a creamy bubbly head with some real nice foam cling to the glass.
Aroma:
One of the most important parts of the beer, especially to an American Pale Ale, you really want to be able to get a great aroma. Surprisingly this beer has a fairly muted aroma. I’m picking up soft notes of tropical fruit and a bit of vanilla and oak, but nothing that “Wow, your in for something!”
Taste:
Big malty up front flavor that gets slowly dragged into the oak and vanilla as it enters the middle mouth. Then the hops start to take over, along with a bit of booze on the back of the tongue. The Beer finishes very bitter grapefruit and stays on your palette for a long time.
Overall Impression:
I’m enjoying this beer. Has interesting flavors that only seems to work with the big malty profile up front. With out that big malty front, the oaking of this beer would not have worked. I’d be very curious to see how this beer changes over 6 months.
I haven’t even opened my bottle yet and I too am curious how this might age! Think I might grab a second bottle to stash away.
Yeah Lee, I need to find another bottle. This makes two great (but different) Oaked IPA’s I’ve had over the last week. The He’brewed R.I.P.A. on Rye was pretty killer too. I need to find more of both. My rep thinks the 16th is going to be in NJ next month, I sure hope he is right!
@IDrunkThat made a comment on twitter which I neglected to mention in my review but would like to share, this beer is “a testament to good aging w/out a barrel”
I JUST saw theses at my local speciality shop the other day. After trying Great Divides “Yeti Stout” I had no choice I had to pick up a few bottles :).
I tried the Yeti actually on Lee’s suggestion a few nights back and was so impressed by this brewery. Their not that far from me I might have to pay them a visit.
Anyway…
I’ll be opening up one of the bottles here in a day or two I just can’t wait, which is why I bought a few bottles (some for friends). One shall age, and one I shall drink now. I’m already anxious to taste the difference. If I even half way share the opinion of IDrunkThat, I’m going to be smitten!
Ilya
If you can try to get a hold of the 3 Great Divide Barrel Aged beers, BA Ruffian, BA Yeti, and BA Hibernation. They are spectacular, although very hard to get. Let us know your thoughts on the 16th anniversary. I’m still looking for another bottle, hopefully it will come to NJ soon!
@Simply Beer
I took the last 3 bottles at the shop by my place. I’ll see if they have more. If I can get a hold of more, I would be more than happy to send a bottle up to you. Lee same thing for you if you can’t get a hold of any more up there. I’ll let you know what my thoughts are when I try it but if I can find more, I’ll send them on up! 🙂
Ilya
I happen to live down the street from this brewery – I have two bottles at home, one aging for 6 months and one for a year. Looking forward to them changing over that time.
@Paul, you are one Lucky guy! Living down the street from Great Divide, must be nice. I hope to tour GD when I’m out there in Nov for the Beer Bloggers Conference.
@Paul…..you lucky son of a…..
Enjoy it man!!! It’s fantastic stuff…I can’t wait to see how it ends up myself after it ages 🙂
So I just opened up one of the bottles last night with my brother. The other one I left to age. http://twitpic.com/267m3h
Pretty good yes, but we also had the Hercules Double IPA that night right before the Oak Aged and have to admit both of us were a bit disappointed with all the hype. It was good, but I have to say that personally the Hercules was far better.
Is it just me or does anyone else agree?
Ilya