Great Divide Old Ruffian

Pours a small head with a conrete lacing. Dark golden brown with a cloudy appeareance. Piney super hops is the only thing I can smell at first. It has caramel and banana undertones. Taste is very bitter and very sweet with piney hops and caramel and banana undertones. Mouthfeel is watery, but smooth, and a little carbonated. It also has a slight coffee undertone.

Pours a ruby amber with an orangish off-white head that is thick and lingers. Sweet dark candy aroma with some vinous character. Very busy flavor; lots and lots of everything. Lots of sweet roasted malt with caramel, lots of hop bitterness, lots of citrus spicyness. Really good and really big.

Im a big fan of barley wines, and this is a good barley wine! It pours almost orange and the taste is filled with all types of fruits and hops, and after drinking it it leaves you with the long linger tastes of fruit and amazingness! I’ve had alot of Great Divide, and keep getting more and more impressed. Great Barley Wine!!!

12/09/07 big banger. Mmm what a unique barley wine. Taste and aroma of grapefruit. Unlike other barley wines i have had, this one is not grape sweet. Not the most expensive beer, i wish this came in a 4 pack. Thank you great buddah.

I happily uncap this benign beast with my favorite (yes, I have a favorite) opener, unwittingly unleashing a starry-eyed djinn of pinesap and zest of mixed citrus (lemon, orange, and lime, in that order)… and I haven’t even poured yet! Slate-colored clouds suddenly span the sky (this is true!) as the beer settles in my glass with sleepy feline grace, emanating an uneasy aura of mango and pineapple, poundcake laced with countless liqueurs… and a menacing fog of darkest chocolate, exotic tobacconist, wet wool, and muscular ethanol. The flavor: shockingly mild; bready and pear-y; a false beacon of safe harbor… then a slow count to five, after which emerges a round bitterness emerges that that slowly transforms into furious alcohol flame. A smoky hoisin aftertaste with the dim inertia of baled, Depression-era newspapers… the plodding palate, thick as a jello shooter, yet somehow not smothering… almost sensually slippery. Ethanol surrounds the partaker in an avalanche of paranoia; a nightmare of being buried under stacks of leather-bound encyclopedias, alarmingly aware of being pummeled into numbness. Holy f**k! Steeped in Stephen King surreality… a rollercoaster of vampirical paradoxes; a buttercup bloom amidst scorched earth; a whirlwind schizophrenic experience of Poe-like proportion, positively gothic with murderous eroticism. Truly (and thankfully, temporary), a trip into the dark side.

Rather good. Very hoppy, and the flavor was sweet, citrusy and floral, but it didn’t overpower me. I would be interested to see how it fares if i drank it from a bottle. Be warned though, this stuff will get you drunk fast. It was one of the first beers I tried at Holiday Ale Fest and it almost made me want to take a break from the rest of the offerings at the festival.

Aroma of caramel and floral hop. Reddish tinged amber color with a white head. Medium to full body with creamy carbonation. The flavor is primarily grapefruit, with backing caramel malts. Some pine resin kicks in. The finish is almost gummy with hop. The malt sweetness tends to drain away, and the hop is fantastic in a fairly non-bitter way. This is really an exceptional drink.

Good thickness without getting syrupy, and great hop finish. I am not feeling the citrus, its there but pretty subdued for the style. As good as it tastes, its a pretty unimpressive pour, but it smells good. For what its worth - great name. Any beer that starts with the word old is good in my book, as I drank this just kept saying "Old Ruffian" over and over again.