Great Divide Ridgeline Amber Ale (Arapahoe Amber)

I had it labeled as an Arapahoe Amber. While I generally enjoy amber ales, and most things from the Great Divide Brewing Company, I shouldn’t have tried it in between some really great flavor belgian ales, that was a mistake. HOwever, back to the beer, while tainted by my earlier statement, this beer would probably hold up well in, oh, let’s say a beer-off with several other quality amber ales.

From the bottle: pours a hazy amber with a huge head, Im talking the top half of the glass. Slightly sweet floral smell with a touch of honey and soap. The flavor is a soft malt with a light hop presence. The palate is slightly crisp, making it an easy drink.

Malty breadlike aroma. Sweet smelling. Dark tea color with a frothy white head. Low profile flavor palate. Malt, honey bread. Very toned down. Still pleasant just not inspriring.

This beer pours a cloudy orange color with a thin white creamy head with mild creamy lacing. The aroma is almost pure sweet malt and barley with heavy notes of brown sugar. A hint of citrus and grass in the nose as well. The flavor is medium to full bodied and completely confusing on the palate. To stick with the amber fashion this was strangely nutty with sticky honey in the finish. Also noted are wood, citrus, hay, grass, sweet malts and perhaps brown sugar...but man is there a lot of nut quality here. The aroma is actually quite nice. Its not as strong as I’d like but whats there is sweet and refined..the flavor however confuses me greatly. Medium carbonation levels, not something I could drink a lot of. Finish is dry and relatively murky...uninteresting. Aftertaste gets worse as it warms so drink it quickly.

Poured a fine amber hued body and a decent cream-colored head. The aroma is rather mild, hints of caramel and toffee with a lite pine hoppyness in the finish. Again… This beer is a lawnmower like offering from Great Divide? Mildly malty placidly hopped a bit nutty and bready… drinks very easily, but nothing very interesting, that’s for certain!

Deep amber. Off-white head. Malt and esters in the aroma. Malty, slightly roasted flavor balanced by a generous portion of hops. Light/medium body. Easy drinking, session brew. Decent.

This beer is malty, indeed. Semi-sweet, somewhat buttery flavor with hints of caramel. Slight hop presence. Slight bitterness. Smooth drinking and medium bodied.

12 oz bottle - Arapahoe amber - Poured a dark copper color with a slight tan head. Aroma is caramel and nuts. Flavor is mostly the same, very nutty, caramel, dough. On the palate this is medium bodied, but the aftertaste that lingers on this was very hard for me to get past. Something earthy gets left on the palate. This one disappointed me. I expect more from Great Divide..