Archive for June 23rd, 2009

• Dinner: @chachahuf chili chicken:smoked thighs then grilled in a chili sauce. Served on tortillas. Also @foamybeer Itsa Stout&3 Hour Tour #

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Brewery: Great Divide Brewing
Location: Denver, CO
Style: Double IPA

Speaking of Double IPAs, Great Divide has a great one in their Hercules Double IPA. After tasting this, I was glad I picked up two for the cellar.

It a great amber gold color with a thick foamy light yellow head. This is quite heavy on the hop scent – very grassy/flowery. Mrs. Ohabeer was not too happy with that as she is definitely NOT a hop fan. I – on the other hand – thought the scent was wonderful.

That hoppiness – not surprisingly – carries through into the tasting. It’s not exactly a hop bomb, but hops it certainly the major component here. It comes on quite strong at the start – flowery/grassy – then rounds out to a more citrusy flavor with a touch of malt sweetness.

I have been working through big hop beers lately in an effort to “embrace the hops”. This is one of those big hop beers that does not cross into the “hop challenge” category. There is a lot of hops with it being some sort of extreme challenge to see how much hops you can take. (In the case of Mrs. Ohabeer, it’s very little. She was not a fan of this.)

I was surprised that – at 10% ABV – the alcohol stays nicely under control. There is no apparent harshness and the body stays in a nice middle range. Then again – this is no session beer. The fact Mrs. Ohabeer was not a fan means the second bomber in the cellar is all mine. That’s a good thing for me as long as I remember to have a little food before drinking the full bomber.