Great Divide Ridgeline Amber Ale (Arapahoe Amber)

Formerly brewed at Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
Denver, Colorado USA

Pours amber with decent tan head. Yeasty aroma, average flavor, mild bitter aftertaste. Had better. Maybe its because I was slightly under the weather at the time.

A bit hazy amber appearance. Caramel and fruits dominate the flavour. Finish is slightly sweet and malty. Some hops present too. An acceptable beer.

Decent amber ale, smooth & drinkable but nothing really to write home about, deep amber in color with a decent sized brown head, very nice lacing around the glass, very subtle malt aroma, medium in body, deep malty flavor with a nice balance of hoppiness, malty finish

surprising, the color is amber, there is a big fat frothy beige head atop. caramelly malts balanced with hoppy bitterness dominate the aroma. the flavor has an unusual sweet fruitiness combined with a sourness typical of a lot of cream stouts. hops are only mildly perceptible in the flavor.

pumkin pie russet tones greet the glass, and a sesame seed colored head manages to pile up and sustain a raft of suds three or four bubbles deep. aroma bespeaks a slightly musty lawnbag kind of malt character. and there are peaches, yes, but only peaches as detected through a thin layer of unspiced cobbler crust. flavor is decent, and the carbonation tapers down to smooth over the life of the bottle; body is welterweight, sweetness is featherweight. hops have the savage bite of an overfed guppy, which is to say, negligible. overall trajectory drops it waaaay short of greatness.

Very smooth caramel maltiness on the palate. It could use a touch more hops and a fuller finish, but still a very drinkable amber.

I didn’t care for this. It makes the right choice in being "bigger" rather than "weaker", which is to be commended, especially in the "amber" style which gets a fair number of imposters. But along the way it made some other less fortunate decisions, in my mind. The appearance was excellent--rich red/amber with a wonderful billowing head that had my little kids impressed. Slightly metallic aroma and hints of caramel, but the tasting was a real turnoff--like toasted chestnuts and walnut shells with some sweet potato pancakes (make that "potatoe" using the Dan Quayle spelling, since there is a street called Arapaho near my house and thus I find the "Arapahoe" to be similarly odd). The palate is decent, smooth and rich, but the lingering edge didn’t suit. Good effort with this one, but in a pure "the taste is the test" way this was not my beer.

Tap at Come Back Inn, Madison WI for $4.75/pint. Fresh hop aroma with some diacetyl. Nice. Clear amber with a small, light tan head that reduces to no head. Could be the glassware. Initial mouthfeel is thin. Disappointing for a Great Divide beer. I think GD would be best served retiring this one. I just noticed that the initials for this brewer are GD, the same as those for the brewpub I had just come from earlier in the evening, Great Dane. Not a very goo beer. Amateurish. Could be a victim of dirty tap lines or just beer that had been sitting in the lines. Or, just may not be that good. My rating is similar to the average.