Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

Brewed by Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Denver, Colorado USA

Bomber. Pours clear honey color with copious amounts of foam. Has an extraordinary floral and citrus bouquet. Medium body with loads of hops. Has a citrus and nutty malt character. Finishes very dry, but the alcohol remains hidden. Absolutely delicious.

Hops..Hops ....and more soap. Deep orange,copper color. Smokey malt..Nice lacing..Aroma clears the pathways..The hops must scare away any virus..Palate is nice, if taste is too soapy. Feels like a 90 minute hops beer.. designed to test the beer drinker. I bet my teeth are white by now.

12 oz Bottle. Pours a deep coppery color with a tight eggshell head and some light sediment. Aroma is filled with pine, citrus, sweet malt, and grass. Flavor is very even nice sweet maltyness upfront then fading into bitter hops and finishing cleanly with a sour citrus taste. Overall this is a very nice imperial but still a bit to even for my liking. (I want more hops!)

Red-gold color with small white head. A malty nose for an IPA, dominated by citrus and cookie dough. Very similar to their barley wine. The taste was similar, though the bitter citrus component faded as the beer warmed. Another quality brew from Great Divide, though it’s like a weaker derivative of their barley wine.

Aromas floral, foresty and citrus. Sweet brittle up front quickly countered and surpassed by hop flavor. Finishes a little bit bitter. Very good but lacking a certain something in the drinkability compared to some other IIPA’s I’ve had.

So I’ve had this beer four times in the last few months. Once bought in Amsterdam, once bought in Australia via the Netherlands and twice from nominally ’fresh’ bottles. The more times I drink it the less I like it. Unsurprisingly, the massive pine aroma is the major feature. Buckets of hop flavour and good bitterness. Malt behaves itself well, certainly not caramelly or overly sweet. Just nice and clean, though there’s an unusual milk chocolate element to the aroma. But it’s all undone by a really harsh soapy, salty, meaty, alcoholic (autolysed?) edge. Overbearing is the word, I suppose. It’s kinda hard going, but the hops keep bringing you back to it.

Bbe 5/08. Dark amber, quite thick lacing head. Nose is sweet caramel malts, flowery hops, exotic fruits, honey, orange zest & cointreau. Sweet and intense malty flavor, flowery hops. Finishes with strong grapefruity bitterness and warming alcohol. Medium to full bodied, slightly oily and smooth palate. Amazing stuff, though not that aggressive for a DIPA.

Pours to a dark honey color with a cloudy unfiltered appearance. Lightly sweet initial flavor with a slightly bitter, strong hoppy finish. Good beer.