Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti

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

Serve in Snifter

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Bottle courtesy of ilovedarkbeer. Dark brown pour that edges on black. Big alcohol aroma. Some chocolate as well as some peppery elements as well. Smooth taste of chocolate and rich malts. Finish has a bit of milk but turns into aged coffee.

Shared during some monday night football with curly, scottyp, and barrios. Sampled side by side with the regular, oak aged, and expresso versions.This one has a mild aroma, with a cocoa powder flavor that is verging on vegetal. Still pretty hot and boozy, but this is the youngest of the four. I think this is my least favorite of the lineup.

Great Nose makes this seem very promising. Pours a dense black with a rich chocolate colored head. Nose is Roasted chocolate and pepper and some nice malt complexity. Flavor is not very good though. No real chocolate flavor, no real vanilla like the oaked yeti and a really strange offputting bitterness. Kind of astringent and a clumsy chili pepper finish. A mess. This beer has great aroma a great body and great look but its lacking the most important thing. Taste. A poorly executed experiment by a usually solid brewery.

Loved the Espresso version, so expectations were very high. Color is black, head is tan in color, but not as thick as expected. Some chocolate comes through in the nose, but not much. Tastes like a Imperial Stout should, but more coffee than chocolate. Did not enjoy as much as the Espresso.

I have been seeking this one out for a bit. Great looking beer, almost black with a frothy, brown head. Strong aromas of dark coffee and chocolate. Tastes of dark coffee/chocolate, lots of burnt notes, hints of oak, and ends on an unnecessary peppery burn. The hops, bitter notes, and burnt flavors dominate what could have been a rich, chocolatey experience. Chalky mouth feel, and quite dry. While this is still a nice impy, I was expecting something more. Or possibly just something else.

Poured from a 22oz.. bottled on March 24th... Appearance: Cavernous darkness with an intensely espresso-like color of a head. Aroma: Dominantly chocolate with the oak not being as prevalent as I would have expected. Taste: Strong, full body with chocolate being the most notable of the flavors while the oak fell a bit too subtle for me. Palate: Medium carbonation for a filling brew. Overall: This yeti is a true beast! An intense experience but not something I’m going back for. Serving type: bottle

Mahogany-hued obsidian. Thin and compact khaki foam. Complex but merely decent nose of ink, blueberry skin, grapefruit, prunes, tar, peppery alcohol, seared fudge, vanilla beans, black licorice and raw/sugary/newly cut oak. Carbonation is snug and firm on the palate. Relatively thin-bodied. Slickly plumlike, initially, with an oily espresso-laden body. Surge of alcohol and cocoa lend dryness while fusing with the fairly intense cayenne bite. Grapefruit-hop twang remains merely suggestive, thankfully, so as to not obscure the vibrant ink, fruity esters and gooey liquefied-black-licorice tingle. Pungent oak generates ample vanilla which harmonizes with the wafery pale malt notes. Cayenne-induced fervor highlights the deep-rooted charcoal as it steadily heightens in intensity. Sufficient nuance lends itself in the form of nuts, toffee and tobacco, though the malt isn’t particularly deep or textural. Closes with grapefruit bathed in chocolate which is hushed by drying notes of cocoa, oak and smoky char. Oak perpetually lingers and pummels the lurking subtleties. Overall I find the oak overaggressive as well as excessively pungent, flabby and sugary (as is the case with Oaked Yeti). Regular Yeti lacks the bells and whistles, and remains my favorite of the bunch as it is a fairly clean and well-focused showcase of malt.

Sampled September 2009
A steady pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a four-finger thick, darkly browned head that leaves lots of lacing on the sides of the glass as it slowly subsides. The beer is nice and dark, perhaps not perfectly black, but pretty close in its opaque darkness; it shows no differently when held up directly to the light. The aroma is a mix of spicy oak, roasted coffee, toasted whole grain and some lightly hot alcohol. The aroma seems a bit one dimensional as a lot of malt complexity is drowned out by the spicy, raw oakiness.

My first sip is lightly sweet, thick and chewy; the middle is nicely chocolate tasting, but the finish makes this disappear except for some bitter cocoa notes. The finish has a significant oak character that provides a spiciness, some lingering astringency, a peppery oak note that now that I think of it is actually a spiciness that is actually from the cayenne that I had forgotten about up until this point. The roast grain contributes a significant bitterness to the finish and there also seems to be a green hoppiness here despite the “hops being toned down”; this mixes with the raw oak character and the cayenne to provide a sharpness to the end of each sip. This is a thick and chewy beer that is not so rich as to be overly cloying; the body has a fullness to it, but the beer is still fairly drinkable (at least for an Imperial Stout). A touch of chalky roast malt character comes out as the beer warms up and a bitter espresso note becomes more noticeable as well.

Despite my complaints of one-dimensionality, I am actually enjoying this; especially as the beer warms the oak character is held much more in check and in balance with the other flavor components; the aroma never really gets all that interesting though. The spicy cayenne adds a nice touch to the finish that this spice-freak enjoys; even if it is somewhat subtle; it lingers on the palate and lips quite nicely though. The beer is actually quite nice and definitely enjoyable over all. The aggressiveness of the oak, hops and cayenne in the finish really helps to tame the big sticky malt character that would otherwise dominate this beer. Chocolate flavors, while noticeable, are not anything out of the ordinary here, and could even be attributed to malt character (even though this beer does have chocolate in it).

Pours with a nice, thick brown head. The nose is slightly spicy (hot spicy), with rum, vanilla, bourbon, and brussels sprouts. Kind of sloppy. In the mouth, it is bright up front, carbonic, fading into and slow, syrupy midbody and rough aftertaste—notes of caramel, marshmallow, carbonic acid, maple syrup. A bit harsh overall.

UPDATED: AUG 8, 2010 shared 2010 bomber on 8/7/10... pitch black pour with a 2 finger tan head. big spice nose - the cayenne takes over - way too much for me... would like more chocolate - especially since its called "Chocolate Yeti...". some lingering oak as well on the nose. medium body with some cocoa, more hot spice and light oak. spicy finish with a bit of chocolate... this beer should be called Cayenne Oak Aged Yeti.

bomber poured into a snifter.... pitch black pour with a huge 3 finger tan head.... absolute beauty. aromas of mild chocolate, a touch of oak, and big roasted malts... I was hoping for a bit more out of the aroma on this one.... not quite up to par with the regular oak aged yeti.... medium body with slight chocolate notes on the sides with a huge spice presence up front that carries through to the finish... this spice dominates the palate and really conquers the beer.... i don’t get much chocolate from this with the spice being so powerful... with that said, the spice adds a very nice and interesting element to the beer, but is turned up a bit too much.... wish there was more chocolate on this one and less spice.... overall a nice twist of an imperial stout, but its leaving me a bit confused and disappointed.