Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

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

Very unique imperial stout. Pours like oil/ink with a huge tan foamy head. Loads of vanilla/oak flavor, roasted malts, coffee, and dark chocolate. Sticky and creamy on the palate. Slight bitter finish.

Pours a perfect black, no light survives. Tan head. Strong aroma of oak, vanilla, whiskey, chocolate, burnt toast, and roasted malts. Flavor is big on the oak and whiskey, lots of cocoa powder, dark chocolate. Finish has a bit of oak and alcohol. Mouthfeel is thick, although not the ideal "motor oil" consistency. I don’t think that I’ve ever had a beer that stands up so well to the wood aging, though. Excellent.

Bottle. Black with a nice foamy brown head. Aroma is hoppy with notes of coffee, chocolate and vanilla. Flavors of burned malt balanced by the malty sweetness. Heavy coffee and chocolate flavor. Creamy and lovely palate. This is a personal favorite!

Crazy unpenetrable abyss of black poured into the pint...hell, even the head is almost the shade of night. A deep mahogany roasted smell. Taste...heavy, syrupy, strong flavours of burnt chocolate, marshmellow, whiskey and scotch notes, irish coffee. Finish is powerful and strong highlighting bitterness, vanilla, and alcohol. Simply stunning.

Bottle. Creamy lightbrown excellent fully lasting head. Black colour. Powerfull hoppy and malty aroma. Moedrate bitter not very hoppy flavor. Exstremely rich of chocolate and vanilla notes. Lightt woody. Moderate biiter long great finish. Creamy palate. vry good but aroma and flavor doesnt add up!

Tasted 6/21/08. 22oz bomber. Pitch black hue with a khaki ring of bubbled head. Woody, cocoa, oaky, nutty, sugary, carame, vanilla, dark chocolate, and a touch sulfurous. Good quality nose! Full bodied and thick. Coating and cloying. Touch dry finish. Solid alcohol note. Moderate hop bitterness. Sweet sticky malts; both cooked sugar and dark chocolate. Syrupy. Good woody oaky vanilla flavor that really melds well with the beer. Slight effercescence. Spicy honeyish note. Coffee acidity and bitterness. Toasty toffee flavor. Good complexity. Money!

(22 oz. bottle from Julio’s Liquors) I’ll stick with the regular...Pours very, very dark tobacco brown, virtually opaque. About two fingers of cinnamon-mocha brown head. A larger head than normal for an IS. Head recedes to about 1/4" and stays. Aroma is surprisingly mild - dark chocolate, coffee, maybe raisins - nice but really not that much going on. Also a bit of slightly sour hoppiness. Mouthfeel is milk-shakey, full and smooth, much like regular Yeti. Nice big brown weepy rings of lacing. Better lacing than most IS’s. Taste of dark and bitter chocolate and coffee. As it warms there are maybe hints of dark fruits. I was getting a raw hop pellet taste too which detracted. The alcohol becomes more noticeable as it warms. This is a quality beer but the flavor just didn’t stand out to me compared to other IS’s and the regular Yeti. There wasn’t even anything here that said "oak-aged" to me. Medium-strong bitterness towards finish and leaves a bitter chocolate/coffee aftertaste.

22 oz. bottle, split with my roommate. Consumed on 7-3-08. Purchased a few months ago, cellared since then. Rich, hoppy aroma features roasted coffee, bitter chocolate, milk chocolate, Belgian-esque candy sugar, cream, and citrus (the latter from the hops) scents. Pours a dark chocolate brown with a large amount of light brown to grayish tan head. The head looks like the inside of a malted milk ball. As my roommate said, the beer appears like a more solidified version of a root beer float. Moderate to large amount of long-lasting lacing. The complex taste is sweet and dryly bitter simultaneously. I also can really taste the oak. Fruit flavors: raisin, black cherry, plum. Also roasted coffee, milk chocolate, and vanilla (the latter from the oak). Lemon and grapefruit from the hops. The beer has a good, dry hoppiness overall, making it my kind of imperial stout (I’m an IPA man at heart). Perhaps excessively sweet. Alcohol noticeable but not overpowering. Long, dry finish and aftertaste. There is also a dull, pruny component to the aftertaste that tastes better than that description makes it sound. Full body. Smooth and somewhat oily in the palate. A touch of sharpness and alcohol burn. My roommate is a Miller Lite kind of guy, and he was blown away by this beer, calling it the best beer he’s ever had. I wouldn’t go that far myself, but it is darn good! I hope this beer will help convert my roommate to craft brews.