Great Divide Samurai

Looking for something a little different? Brewed with rice and barley malts, Samurai is an easy drinking, unfiltered ale that changes the status quo for unfiltered beers. The addition of rice gives Samurai a slightly fruity, crisp, refreshing and clean taste. This is definitely not your everyday unfiltered beer.

2.9

562 reviews

Denver, United States

Community reviews

3.0 Sweet grain and bread malts, light, sweet citrus fruits. Hazy gold, small, creamy, white head. Light sweet. More sweet grain and bread malts, light caramel, molasses, bittersweet citrus fruits, soft carbonation, medium bodied. Boring, sweet malt juice. Keg at brewery barrel warehouse, Denver.

3.5 Aroma is rice/malts, fruit and grainy. The flavor is rice/grains/malts, fruit and a mix of tart, mild sweetness and a slight hint of funk in the finish.

2.0 Flaska, en trappa upp, pitchers örebro. Gul vätska. Doft av bröd och lite löv. Trist och intetsägande smak. Blött ljust bröd med majscorn och ris.

2.7 Poured at the Eastern Oregon Beer Festival a slightly cloudy light yellow brew with a small white head. The aroma was alcohol and rice grain. The body was medium. Very subtle flavor. I tasted the grain and some hops. Aftertaste was a little sweetness and fruit.

2.2 Can from Beers of the World. Aroma reminded me of rice pudding in a somewhat unpleasant way.

2.8 12oz can @ home. Hazy pale yellow pour with a sizeable fluffy white head. Light grain and wheat aroma. Flavors are very mild, grain, light citrus, touch of sweet malt. Drinkable and smooth, just not a ton of character.

2.6 Can - Very clear yellow color. Crisp flavor. Doesn’t linger on the palate for very long at all. Refreshing. Has more of an alcohol taste then I would like but still not bad.

3.0 Sampled at 777th Criderfest in a Willybecher glass, a hazy yellow colour, thin but long-lasting white foam, no lace. Low-level aroma and flavour, good enough, but not great. Light and sessionable at least, high carbonation, refreshing. Too bad about the name though...not exactly racist. But Samurai, really? Couldn’t come up with anything more clever for a rice beer?

3.4 Hazy straw color. Light and fruity aroma...some warm lager fermentation smell, nice cider and saki notes. Taste is light and refreshing, a bit sweet, effervescent. Some light citrus notes. Easy drinking. Not amazing, but interesting.

3.2 Interesting beer. Poured from a can. Pale yellow in color, hazy. Aroma is similar to that of a lager or pilsner. Flavor is like a lager, but with a bit of citrus or fruitiness, and a little bit tart. Smooth, refreshing, easy to drink. A bit fizzy, but not bad.

2.7 pours a hazy pale straw color with a fluffy, pillowy head. aromas of hay and wheat. the beer lacked the effervescent zip that most refreshing lagers and light ales have. underwhelming.

3.1 Sample at Parkville Microbrew Fest 2017. Comes a somewhat hazy pale gold with an average white head. Aroma of malt, fruit, and grain. Taste is malt, citrus, grain, and floral. Enjoyable.

2.9 On draft. Yellow pour, lightly hazy, with a white head. Lightly bready, rice cracker, corn, mild hops, and watery. Easy drinking.

3.0 Sampled at WinterWonderGrass in Steamboat Springs, CO. Pale yellow and pretty clear appearance with a white head. Aroma of toasted malt, light yeast and light zesty hops. Similar flavor, adding a light grainy sweetness and a light hop bitterness (floral, herbal). Light body with a crisp feel and a light dry finish. OK.

2.6 Bright and clearer than I expected from the description. I'm smelling pair, banana, and apple. Faint hops fade into a grainy and crisp finish.

3.2 A light, crisp summer beer. Nice and bright. And a pretty cool can, too. Better than I was expecting.

2.9 Pours a light yellow color with a light fruit aroma. Taste is crisp, lightly fruity, the rice gives this beer an easy drinkability. A nice refreshing beer that could be a poolside beer.

3.4 Apparently this used to be regularly distributed in Japan. Bready fruity aroma on a bright gold body. Smells like a golden ale, it’s got a very dry body and fruity (peach) and soda bread flavor. It’s ok.

2.8 Draft at Hapa Boulder. Lightly hazed pale gold with a thin ring of a head. Aroma shows some pleasant noble hops notes of lemon, apricot, herbs and flowers, though malt (and presumably rice) comes across as saltine crackers and toasted cereals with faint notes of sake / rice hulls. Light bodied, crisp, coarse, a little silty, lightly sweet with medium-low bitterness. Watery and plain in the mouth, and while the nose doesn’t have depth, it’s mostly clean and shows the hops well. Earlier Rating: 8/6/2007 Total Score: 2.5 12oz bottle First impression is of a witbier, but there’s that unmistakable sweet rice scent that you pick up after a little though, because it almost pretends to be wheat and coriander. White grapes and pears round out the fruit-sweet nose. Sour up front, very salty and starchy, coarse and rough, the salitness is perhaps the most I’ve ever tasted in a beer. Very strange. Some lingering salted pear and lemon on the back try to get in, but I think it’s pretty much ruined on first sip... a salty mess.

2.5 Draft at Urge. Pours clear gold with a thick, fizzy white head. Tastes like pale malts, dry cracker malt, corn, and very light citrus hops. Light body and low carbonation. Smells like pale malts, corn, light citrus hops, musky.

3.0 Rated based on notes taken 7 Apr 2012 -- From the bottle at IFS in Pueblo. An interesting and pretty refreshing beer.

2.3 Pours a pale yellow. Aroma is thin, bready, yeast. Taste is pretty plain, hints of grain, lemons, bananas and bread. Very mild and plain. Very light body, medium carbonation. Watery. Not my favorite.

3.2 "fruity and crisp as advertised. cloudy yellow tight carbonation. this would pass for a nice enough brew (especially in the sumer) for most breweries, but not great divide. probably my least favorite for this great brewer."

2.7 bottle. golden with one finger head. very light body with some mild hops. very lacking in flavor. underwhelming.

2.2 Rated on 12-09-2009 (Bottle) This beer pours a small white fizzy head with short retention, transparent/slightly hazy pale yellow body, fizzy carbonation, and one ring of lacing. The Aroma is rice, crisp and fruity. The Taste mimics the Aroma and it has a dry finish. The Palate is tingly and this beer is medium bodied. Overall, I did not enjoy the flavor of this beer as the rice just does not jive with the rest of the beer and thus this is a beer I will not seek out or recommend.

1.6 Bottle. A- Rice, cereal, grass. A- Pale orange color, hazy liquid, minimal head. T- Quite bitter, strong rice and grain tones. P- Medium body, average texture, average carbonation, crisp grainy finish. O- Strong tastes of rice and grain. Not as refreshing as I was hoping for.

3.0 One of my least favorite Great Divide beers. I wanted to like it. I’m always excited to see great brewers experiment, especially when they go lighter. This beer, unfortunately, has an awkward palate, grainy with an overly mild character.

3.1 July 2010. From bottle. Cloudy golden yellow with a white head. Fruit, malt and grassy aromas. Interesting ale, but not my kind.

3.1 Hazy light golden pour. Good carbonation. Medium bodied with some citrus and floral hops. A decent but not really good beer.

3.3 Bottle @ Delirium Cafe. Nice head with goog duration. Color is golden. Aroma and taste are sweet malt, grasss, fruits and hops.