Great Divide Grand Cru

Brewed by Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Denver, Colorado USA

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

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Bottle at USA comes to Skövde. Clear amber beer with a small offwhite head. Malty aroma, yeasty, hay, caramel, rubber, bready, roasted, metallic notes. Mslty flavor, hay, roasted, caramel, yeast, bread, fruity, brown sugar, toffee notes.

pours a clear brown with a red tint, a medium size tan head, and some lacing. smell is of cocoa, caramel, malt, and some nuts. taste is sweet, roasted malt, some caramel, and peanut butter. ends a little oily.

22oz bottle from Belmont Station. Excited about this, and a little let down. Pours dark cherry in color, clear, small off-white head. No lacing. I go for the aroma waiting for some sourness, but nothing. Smells more like a quad than any other Grand Cru I’ve had. Aroma is dark fruity, some chocolate, sugary. Flavor is sweet, boozy, a little spicy on the end. Where is that zip that I got from Ale Smith last week and Rodenbach time and time again at Max’s? Maybe that isn’t what Grand Cru’s are all about, but this is the only one that hasn’t been like that. It is a complex beer with an exquisitely nice mouthfeel and finish, but not what I expect from a Grand Cru.

Bomber poured into tulip. Exquisite looking beer, dark ruby red, plum-like in color with an ample frothy light brown head. Wonderful belgian dark aroma of spice, dark fruits, yeast, licorice, and alcohol. Taste is more of the same with a nice warming booze effect going down. Very soft on the palate. Cloying sweetness dominates the taste though. Tasty for sure but a little more bitter complexity in the flavor would take this to the next level.

April 18th, 2011 - Many of my first exceptional beers (way, way back in 2007) were Grand Cru’s. The individual who introduced me to Lady Craft Brew is a refined European with a taste for excellence, and a distinctly French distaste for the plebeian. He worked his beer budget in order to afford the top shelf Belgian beers, focusing his scant currency on Grand Cru style beers. He had good reason. Drinking New Belgium’s Abbey Ale and then moving to a true grand cru makes you question New Belgian’s, well, Belgian credentials. These days a lot more American brewers are on board, and for good results. While they may not be based in Belgium, expert producers like Great Divide have no trouble concocting these Belgian treats for American audiences. Great Divide’s riff on the style pours and produces a deep, pomegranate red color, topped with a mahogany colored head - a clue that suggests heavy and deep flavors ahead. Strawberry, crisp and fresh from the CSA box dominates the nose. It’s a lovely smell to find with a bright aroma, and reminds me of my first visits to a farmers market where the vendor let me cram my face into a wooden pallet of the things and inhale like a drug addict with a fetish for fruit. The taste returns to what the color augured: dark, sticky fruits and spices and a swing dance with my palate. The flavor isn’t as dark or deep as raisins, but closer to light fig, and plenty sweet. Apple and red grapes round out the higher side of the sweet spectrum, lifted by a medium body and an electric carbonation. Now, I want to return to the beginning of my review where I applauded American efforts to brew Grand Cru’s or BSA’s on American shores. There IS a difference, at least here. Somewhere between the mouthfeel and the flavor this leans a little closer to a stout, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Great Divide’s Grand Cru isn’t a shameless copy of any number of the Belgian Strong’s I’ve had in the past. It’s a cover, and a fine one too, which everything that makes this style good, but a twist and contribution that serves this brew, and its drinker, very, very well.

Bottle (2011) and served in my St. Bernardus chalice: Pours a ruby purple brown with a small but lasting head, oily legs and some lace. The aroma has notes of Special B and roast, moderate 2-row and aromatics, hint of chocolate and smoke too. Quite fruity with plum, prune and blueberry overtones. Earthy, floral and bubble-gummy Belgian yeast notes too. The taste is utterly shocking, rich dark fruits, massive dark candi sugars, twangy acidity for some semblance of balance and a ton of earthy overtones like mineral water, wood, flowers, and even a faint smokey note. Damn, really is this one of those moment in time when the stars align? Because this is simply one of the best Abbey Quadruples I have ever had. Even the lush mouth feel has just enough carbonation to keep it fresh and enjoyable. No really, did I get a bottle at the apex of what it could be or are my fellow Ratebeerians that jaded? Well fuck me running, I have been aging one of these over a year and alas it is no more. <insert sad face>

22 ounce bottle into tulip glass, bottled 1/12/2011. Pours very hazy dark red color with a nice 2 finger fairly dense khaki head with great retention, that reduces to a good cap that lingers. Good soapy lacing clings to the glass. Aromas of big raisin, prune, caramel, toffee, biscuit, molasses, toast, nuttiness, tobacco, earth, clove, and yeast spiciness. Very nice aromas with very good balance and complexity. Taste of raisin, prune, molasses, caramel, toffee, toast, biscuit, nuttiness, clove, tobacco, earth, and light yeast spiciness. Lingering notes of dark fruits, molasses, caramel, toffee, toast, biscuit, nuttiness, and light yeast spices on the finish for a good bit. Great flavor balance and complexity; pretty much zero cloying sweetness. Medium carbonation and medium-full bodied; with a fairly creamy and slick mouthfeel that is very nice. Alcohol is extremely well hidden with only a slight warming noticed after the finish. Overall this is a highly excellent Belgian strong dark ale! A ton of nice balance and complexity; very smooth to sip on. Highly enjoyed this one, very impressive.

One of the better Grand Cru's I've had. Great presentation. I've enjoyed the Blue Moon Grand Cru more. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

On draft, but keg from 2010. Amber pour with a decent head. Plenty of caramel malts..also some dark fruits and sweetness, Taste adds in some toffee and some Belgian yeast in there. Tasty, tasty, tasty.

Pour on tap at Town Hall, dark brownish black pour with thin to no white head, aroma brought notes of dark caramel, toffee, some molasses, some nice dark cherry, belgian dark fruits with some raisin and plum, some slight hints of dark balsamic as well which seems a bit out of place. Taste is some slight dark cherry, chocolate, some dark raisin, fig and plum, balsamic and acetic notes come through, some dark toffee comes in finishing fairly sweet.