Adam's Beer #10 - Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti

The old rule is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but as I said it is an OLD rule.

Great Divide Brewing Company first came out with their Yeti Imperial Stout in the early 2000’s to rave reviews only to follow up a couple of years later with the Oak Aged Yeti...which was a nice upgrade, but unfortunately they only used oak chips instead of the barrel which limited the oaky goodness.

Now, in the last couple of years, Great Divide has fixed a big beer that made it even bigger by adding Espresso to the mix. I am not sure what I enjoyed more…the beer or the suggested food pairings on the bottle: Breakfast burrito, eggs Benedict, hash browns, cheesecake, and crème brulee.

The dark malts give this beer a taste of burnt sugar and a smokiness that makes this the perfect after dinner beer. The tastes are so big I can not imagine pairing this with any food – the mouthful would overpower any other flavors that I would be trying to enjoy.

Overall I gave this Imperial Stout 8 out of 10. I think if I had another bottle I would wait to open it until next winter…hoping that this mythological creature would take on a whole other form.

Mike’s Beer #5—Widmer Brothers Reserve Cherry Oak Doppelbock

I was a little worried when I popped the top on this one. I was going for my third bock in a row. What if it turned out to be just like the others? What if I was stuck in an unrelenting loop of similarly tasting bock beers? Silly me.

Silly because I didn’t consider my source (the bottle was a gift from Adam). Silly because I didn’t trust the brand (which I loved when I lived in Seattle back in ’93). Silly because it came in a cardboard box. And if that’s not a sign of elegance, I don’t know what is.

I’d put this up there with some of the great Ithaca Excelsior! brews: big, complex and tasty, a beer worthy of discussion. It smells like a bock, with a deep, roasted, slightly sour aroma. It tastes like a bock way back in the tongue, but it also has an added bitterness from the oak and cherries. Worthy of its packaging, this brew kept changing from moment to moment, each swallow taking on a handful of different twists and turns.

In the end, I think they overdid it just a touch with the oak. Deep into the swallow, I would be reminded of Ithaca’s experiment with an oaked nut brown. Two beers, two styles, yet with very similar finishes. Yep—got to be the oak. But man—I’d drink this again, for sure.