Great Divide Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA
15th Anniversary: 2009
16th Anniversary: 2010
17th Anniversary: 2011
18th Anniversary: 2012
Based on our most award-winning beer, Denver Pale Ale, this copper-hued treat is a celebration of everything Great Divide does best. Plenty of malty sweetness provides a backdrop for earthy, floral English and American hops, while French and American oak round off the edges and provide a touch of vanilla. Thanks to everyone who’s supported us for the last 15 years - here’s to 15 more!
16th Anniversary: 2010
17th Anniversary: 2011
18th Anniversary: 2012
Based on our most award-winning beer, Denver Pale Ale, this copper-hued treat is a celebration of everything Great Divide does best. Plenty of malty sweetness provides a backdrop for earthy, floral English and American hops, while French and American oak round off the edges and provide a touch of vanilla. Thanks to everyone who’s supported us for the last 15 years - here’s to 15 more!
3.8
862 reviews
Denver, United States
Community reviews
Bottle--my beer was bottled on March 20, 2012. Hazy amber color with a medium white head. Aroma was rich in hops along with some malt. Loved it. Hoppy bitterness on the taste along with some wood, I guess. The hop bitterness followed through on the end. Produce place.
bottle of 17th Anniversary. Deep golden with small head. Imperial IPA with wood aging. The wood does a nice job of muting the hops, though the effect is subtle. Might have been a bit better fresh, but it’s good as-is.
Aromen något diskret men smaken ligger fint i munnen väl balanserat sedan kommer en explosion av Pina colada därefter komer en fin beska. En konstig men rätt god öl.
Bottle, rated from backlog. I will write a more extensive rating if I come across this brew again
Multiple samples @ Empire Brew Fest. 17th Anniversary…. Huge mango and passion fruit nose with hints of wood. Taste is slight malt sweetness, caramel and earthy hops with a tiny hint of citrus in the end. Mango shows up again with peaches dipped in caramel. The oak is really comes out after it warms. Medium carbonation, mouthfeel is soft. The bitterness is only a hint without any trace of the ABV to be found except for a slight warming feeling as it travels down your throat. This was a really nice treat at the Brew Fest, absolutely high end.
Another home run for GD. Well balanced aroma of floral hops, a slight sweetness and oak. I’ve had this a while and it aged well. Nice copper color with a small head. Carbonation was below average, which worked well. Great blend of flavors with bitterness up front followed by mild malt tones. This had an earthy feel with the oak finishing out the flavors. Full and almost creamy palate. Great beer.
17th Anniversary
A - Pours a clear amber copper. Great retention from the root beer foamed head. Average lacing.
S - Candied grapefruit flesh, canned pineapple, mango, wood, sweet vanilla
T - Big dose of rich caramel/toffee malt, maple, woody around the edges. The woody vanilla comes out more in the taste than the nose. Sweet tropical fruit in the background. Piney bitterness on the back end. Vanilla and wood on the finish.
M - Smooth and creamy, medium to full bodied.
The malts really shine here. The hops are there to do there job but take a backseat to the Malt, vanilla, and wood.
Serving type: bottle
05-05-2011
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18th Anniversay
Bottled on March 21 2012.
22oz. served in a snifter.
A - Pours a garnet hued copper with a fluffy off-white head that very slowly melts. Nice lacing.
S - Herbal grassy hops, oaky alcohol, robust caramel malt, bready yeast, almost get notes of cinnamon, wood is very mild.
T - Hop oils attack up front, herbal, pine wood, grapefruit pith, the wood seems raw and creates a bold combination with the hops. Big sweet toffee malt works with the oak to create a smokey bourbon like flavor. Finishes with green whole cone hop bitterness that follows through.
M - Full bodied, low to medium carbonation, lush and sticky feel.
The wood combined with the hops creates a coarseness that scraps across the palate but works if you like it rough. There’s a cotton candy like flavor in here that you would find in a single malt scotch and works nicely. A robust and sweet maltiness comforts the palate and blends very well with the wood. Head over heels better than last years anniversary.
Serving type: bottle
04-21-2012
17th Anniversary on tap at Iron Monkey in Jersey City. Pours a cloudy orange golden color with a thin head. The aroma is like a cedar closet with some bready malt. Very little hop aroma. On the palate it comes across like a delicious barley wine. The sweetness is toned down but there is a nice toffee caramel and toast profile. Pretty solid stuff.
Bottle to flute
Vanilla, bourbon, bready.
Slightly cloudy amber with a thin tan head. Taste is very malty, with, surprisingly subtle hoppiness. Great mouthfeel - oily and creamy with a pleasant alcohol bite at the end.
Bottle 18th - Piney with some nice malt backbone. The wood is there although in the background, this bottle is 8 months old. Clear amber with a thick off white head. So very smooth and rich on the palate, with the ever so slightest alcohol warmth on the throat. Malts are forefront with the hops and bitterness coming in shortly after. More of a symphony of flavors all playing nicely rather than fighting. The oak really comes through with the malts adding a nice depth. Caramel, toffee a bit of alcohol are all there. Very nice.
18th anniversary Bottle from Sprout’s Eastlake: Appeared as a dark dense golden honey with a fluffy cotton foam head up top. The nose is dominated by bread and whole wheat fragrances with no apparent aroma of the wood aging yet somehow the wood aging must have mellowed out and practically hides any trace of them. It isn’t until my first sip am I reminded that this is a Imperial IPA style because the hops in this beer deliver an immediate dosage of bitter hops while a secure backbone of malts holds this heavy hitting beer up. I say its heavy hitting because the alcohol is apparent but it can’t compare to the bold smoky flavor left behind that might be overly wood aged—IMO.
17th anniversary Bottle from Pacific Liquor: Poured a dense golden liquid with a thin layer of foam head. As for the aroma, there was a slight hint of wood from the barrel-aging process with subtle notes of earthy hops. The flavor is subtle with the earthy bitter hops being smoothly refined by the wood barrel which has morphed this double IPA into a complex and sweet malty beer that suggests orange peel and honey.
A: 7 a: 3 f: 8 p: 4 o: 15
22oz bottle courtesy of my wife. 18th anniversary bottle. Pours a hazy copper with half finger white head. Lacing is chunky and sticky. Aromas of floral hops, citrus, pine, and oak. Taste is caramel, toffee, dry oak, grapefruit, mandarin, and some brown sugar and vanilla.
22oz bomber, 18th Anniversary, bottled on March 21, 2012. Pours a slightly opaque amber close to a caramel apple. Virtually no head. Aroma is pretty mellow, perhaps because of a year in the cellar. Taste is mellow and very even, no hot spots at all. Both the taste and aroma have subtle vanilla notes, with a nice hop finish. This beer aged very well. Spectacular.
Subtle oak aroma but overwhelmed by earthy citrus hops. Cloudy copper color with big yeast chunks covered with a thick white foam. Bold hop bitterness with a full body. Long lasting bitterness but delicious.
Bottle of the 17anniversary aged in cellar fridge. Pours a dark copper, malty aroma followed by the alcohol. Very good full bodied beer.
Sweet and woodden taste. Herbal at the nose with a bit of nuts and chocolate. The sweetness is balanced by a strong bitterness, making an ’harmonious extreme’ beer.
Very bready malty. But a nice amount of hops in the aroma. Not bad but quite balanced. Nice vanilla warm taste from the oak. Quite good, but not amazing
Smells very malty to be an ipa..Nice golden-brown-ish. The taste not bad, but a little too strange if you ask me. Good mouthfeel. Good beer, but i like the concept more than the beer!
Bottle. Pours a hazy copper with white head. Aroma is dank hops with oak shining through. Dry woody flavor with good hops and malt backbone. Very nice beer.
Nice fruity smell and taste. Very well balanced. You can taste some vanilla.
Hazy amber colour with a small off white head. Nice mild and complex aroma. Fruity, light hoppy and some wood. Full body with a really great balanced sweetness. Also a nice bitterness. Rich, but not overkill. Some plums in the flavour? Nice balanced sweetness with some wood and hopps in the flavour. Lovely beer! Smooth carbonation and very well hidden alcohol.
[Bottle, 18th Anniversary, from Systembolaget Nordstan in Göteborg, Sweden]
Amber. Lots of wood in the aroma and taste. Oaky, rich malt, prominent hops. Unique and the more you drink it the more it grows on you.
Pours a hazy amber orange with an off white headband sweet woody aroma. Taste is well balanced, of hops, fruits, malt, wood, and caramel with a bitter finish. Unique, good tasting brew.
Pours a rusty copper color with a small head. Nose is woody, oaky with a malty sweetness. Taste is not overwhelmingly sweet but oaky with some mild bitterness, very smooth and drinkable. Finish is short and sweet. Descent and solid. quaff score 8 / 10
Bottle. Pours clear reddish amber, small off white head, bit of lacing. Aroma is caramel, pine, light wood. Flavor is the same, light port, medium sweet, light bitter. Quite malt forward, and clearly aged. Medium body.
[bottle from Orange, CA]
Slightly cardboardy spicy vanilla oak and pine aroma. Almost clear dark bronze under large white bubbles that lace the glass. Tangy and salty vanilla oak in front of sweet caramel malt that is balanced slightly overmuch with hops bitterness. Faint apricot and plenty of dried fruit--even some nuts together with a sherry-like. Medium body, medium carbonation, lingering tangy bitterness.
18th anniversary. Aromas of oak, vanilla, and citrus. Poured copper with about 2 inch white head that hung around. Complex taste. You get the oak and that really balances it the traditional hoppiness. Very smooth.
17th Anniversary Bottle on 23 April 2011.
Deep ruby tinted coloured body with a copper glow and a thinnish, fast-dying two centimetre head and a ton of sediment floating in the balance. Aroma of pungent wood, oak, vanilla, peat, alcohol and a light earthy and nutty hoppiness with some good malt as well. Full-bodied; Pungent alcohol, pit fruit, oak, vanilla, peat, grass notes with hops and caramel by far the strongest - very nice, and very flavourful. Aftertaste is quite potent and complex with the oaky and woodsy flavours going full force, then some nice sweetness like a barleywine coupled with the hoppiness of an imperial IPA make for a very well done combination. Overall, this is reminiscent of a hopped barley wine to me, but with perhaps some more oaky and earthy flavours than you even find in a Barley Wine. This one was aged quite nicely, and still showed a bunch of complexity and surprisingly a good amount of hops - but without so much bite. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Whole Foods in New York, New York (Bowery Location) almost a year ago on 25-November-2011 for US$9.99 sampled at home in Washington the day before Thanksgiving on 21-November-2012, and the bottle was roughly a year and a half old.
Bottle share of the 16th. The aroma is kinda hoppy, but reminds me more of a barley wine than a ipa. The appearance is cloudy, burnt orange. The taste starts a little hoppy and finishes more barley wine than anything else. The palate is a little too hop dry for my taste. Overall, a good beer. Would buy one fresh to see if it is better.
Bottle shared at a Den Haag RB tasting. A lovely reddish amber pour with a medium bubbly head. A lovely rich hoppy malty woody aroma. The flavour follows the aroma with a huge chewy hoppy rich warm malty flavour. A superb flavourful ale.