Great Divide Hades

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

It pours a crisp and bubbly yellow with a fairly thick white head and not much lacing at all. An aroma of fresh malts, tart apples, lemons and citrus, sour grapes, pears, and spiciness. The mouthfeel is smooth and rather rich. Flavors of fresh malts, hops, tart apples, pears, lemons and citrus, slightly sour grapes, and bitterness and spiciness. Excellent and very palatable..

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

This is a huge miss by Great Divide. An easy style to replicate, they end up with a Belgian yeasty version of an American strong ale. A cloudy golden pour with a white head. Aroma is yeast, grass, and floral hops. Flavour is a tad on the sweet side and not as well balanced as a good Belgian ale.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

A clear, bright golden colored beer with a small frothy textured, white head rising briefly above. Not much hang time. And there’s no lacing once settled. Sweet malt and grassy hops are discernable in both the nose and on the tongue. Pretty simple, but pretty good. A light-medium body.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

A very good beer. A little overpowering but WTF can you expect from a 7.3 ABV? Floral aroma and a thick mouth feel. Taste is hoppy, sweet and malty. Almost cloying. Oveall, pretty drinkable but I couldn't have more than a couple.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Crisp, dry, assertive golden Belgian style ale. This one far exceeded my expectations. The yeast and malt/hop balance is spot on. Sturdy yet easy sipping, one of the best put together beers within this style. Keeping my eyes out for more of this wonderful brew.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

wow...underrated beer!! this beer was actually the surprise on day 1 of SF beer week. light and crisp, with noticeably spiciness and dry yeastiness. tangy and very refreshing. not super complex, but complex enough. fresh citrus hop and spice aroma. this would be an excellent warm weather beer.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Sampled on 9/19/2010. This Belgian Ale pours a light gold color from a 12oz bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is fruity and sweet, very yeasty with some floral hops, some grass as well. Medium bodied Belgian Ale. The malts are fruity and semi-sweet, most peaches. The hops are herbal and floral. Decent carbonation. Crisp and clean. Yeasty and dry at the finish. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is crisp, dry and clean. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 5 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 5

This beer started out good as I am a fan of the brewery, but it poured very light and not much head and the taste was not that of a belgian ale it tasted like a watered down version. THis is one of the first Great Divide beers I have not been in love with.

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 5

This may be one of the most lackluster "good" beers that I've tried. It had virtually no head, way too much carbonation and minimal lacing throughout. While the flavor was characterized as "average", a couple of other characteristics just fell short.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottled June 2007, Sampled April 2009
A solid pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a three finger thick, slightly meringue like, off-white colored head that leaves some nice lacing on the sides of my glass. The beer is well carbonated with lots of bubbles rising up through the murky, orange-gold colored beer. When held up to the light the beer shows a white-gold color that is similar to a Wit because of the haziness. Fruity aromas of pear and green apple subtly perfume the aroma along with a spicy, almost pepper like character. The finish has some cracker-like grain notes to it that can be somewhat pronounced at times. There is perhaps a touch of herbal honey aromatics here as well. Not a bad aroma, I find that it is pretty nice too. Coming back to the aroma after drinking this for a bit, it can be quite aromatic; spicy, herbal and with a solid fruit backbone, it is really starting to grow on me a bit more than it did initially.

The first sip is lightly sweet tasting with a fruitiness that accentuates this. The beer finishes with a touch of a carbonic bite as well as some lingering, light, but biting bitter hop notes. There is a touch of metallic character here, some touches of white pepper, a definite ginger note and some lingering, turpene driven clove like flavors that lingers on the tongue. The fruit notes remind me most of pears, but there is also a touch of sweet green apple. The hop character is pretty subdued, but there is a touch of herbal hop character that goes along with the more apparent hop bitterness.

Quite a bit fruitier than Duvel, and it is also a fair bit sweeter too. It is quite a bit different than Duvel, but it similarly needs to be enjoyed with a dedicated full bottle and a bit of time as it starts to grown on you if you spend some contemplative time with the beer. But this is quite a bit better than the beers reputation had me thinking. This is definitely an enjoyable beer that is a bit too easy to drink given the beer’s strength.