In the tradition of Rogue’s Brutal Bitter, this one is an english style bitter in name only. A blast of citric and piney american hops greets the nose, tingles the palate, washing down with a fairly clean and lightly caramelized malt character.

Better than average amber ale. Clearly their goal here is to produce a malt dominated beer without much hop character. Bready,. buttered scone malts dominate, with a hint of caramel and just a little bit of herbal hops.

Bottle
Wooden oaky, citrus and caramel aroma, topped off with a decent shot pine and citrus hops. Hazy glowing red brown, low creamy tanned head. Intense sweet wooden baseflavor, caramel, burned sugar, perfumed citrus and pine hop notes - all in a somewhat agressive rough mix. It has however a nicely elegant exit with citric hops and candyish wooden notes which carry on a long time afterwards. Chewy body, light sparkly mouthfeel.

Dark brown body with thin tan head. Aroma of roasted and burnt malts. Flavor of dark chocolate and smoke and notes of coffee. Slight bitter edge with dry finish. Somewhat thin with a fizzy mouthfeel.

Bottle at RBG Low Countries 2005 Tasting Session
Brown head, excellent lace. Black body. Great nose of malts: nuts, chocolate, coffee, ... Lightly sweet, moderately bitter initial flavour. Somewhat acetic. Lightly sweet, lightly bitter finish. Medium bodied. Nice Stout. Not overwhelming, but good by it’s simplicity.

Hazy brown-red with orange highlights. Good yellowish head. Orange-grapey nose, bit of parsley, very aromatic. Quite bitter taste, typical for Great Divide: nearly quinine-like bitterness. Goes typically too harsh-metallic. Smooth, oily MF, velvety and fatty. Of course FULL-bodied. I do not like Great Divide’s hops. There must be a limit to harshness. Thanks to whomever brought it over, anyway.

Cloudy orange with big, loose bubbled head. Hop aroma with notes of grapefruit and orange. Bitter hop flavor with a finish of sweet citrus. Thin to medium body. Clean, smooth follow-through.

On draught at the brewery, 9/30/2005. Pours a murky, unfiltered maroon to deep chocolate brown-beige with some darker espresso-yellow hues on the edges. Nice to see a creamy, well-retained tan-beige head with some light auburn flecks in there. Great Divide always seems to do very well with appearance/head retention, even in their oak-aged beers and this is no exception. Left spotty lacing on the glass as it receded, but it was a heavy, almost limp liquid that did not produce sheets of lacing. Aroma smelled of very sweet, soft vanilla-cream, butterscotch and hints of bakers chocolate. Notes of dates, old cherries and gingerbread, with a pleasant, almost vinous mix of raisins and cola and more butter toffee. Fairly dry overall, and the oak chips are well restrained. The flavor begins with a mix of light alcohol notes, not sharp and offensive, but strong and warming. Cherries, dates, toffee and buttercream, with a moderate amount of woodiness and lightly bitter chocolate on the end. Very easygoing mouthfeel, low to moderate carbonation, with the texture ranging from sweet and lightly sticky, to lightly slippery on the end. The oak chips seem to replace the spices, and sweet cream and chocolate seem to dominate the finish, with a low hops bitterness and flavor. Served very cold to start, it’s an easy, simple drink and needed a good deal of warming before the many subtle flavors of this English Old ale meets American oak-aged strong ale came forth. Medium-full body overall, though never heavy or burdensome on the palate.