Great Divide Brewing Co, Denver Co
Yesterdays beer class featured Great Divide Brewing Co from Denver Colorado. They are an actually a brewery (vs brewpub). The founder/owner Brian Dunn was there to speak with us. He was oddly tight lipped about the contents of his beer. Apparently he considers the malt/hops/yeast he uses to be trade secrets or something. Seems kind of sucky to me. Departing from previous brewers he didn’t seem to admit to any sort of illegal activity.
The brewery itself produces 6,000 barrels a year and was opened in 1994. Apparently he opened the brewery with only $235,000 in capital which is the smallest number I’ve seen to date.
The line up of beers was pretty good. There were two Imperial Stouts and two IPAs with only one beer I really wouldn’t have drunk (Cool Aid beer). He uses the same (won’t tell us which) strain of yeast in all the beers and generally retires the yeast after 10 generations. He believes the higher alcohol and fruit beers mess up the yeasts (acidity is off) and doesn’t re-use the yeast out of the barley wine or wild rasberry ale.
First beer was the Samurai, an unfiltered rice beer. They make it as a draft only summer seasonal. Since it was made with rice it had very little body and was generally a fairly inoffesive light colored beer. Not bad but generally not how I like my beer.
Second beer was the Denver Pale Ale. This was an English style Pale Ale (Good hops flavor and aroma but not very bitter). This beer came in at 5.4% abv with 41 IBU and was dry hoppped. A nice Pale Ale all around.
Third was Titan IPA. This beer came in at 6.8% abv with 65 IBUs and was dry hopped. Since he wouldn’t tell us what went into the beer I don’t have a lot of information about the contents or the process in regards to this beer.
Fourth was the Hercules Double IPA. Yep a double IPA all right. 85 IBUs. This was the least balanced of the beers, which the style almost demands so no reason to hold it against him. The beers have gradually been picking up more color and it has attain a nice deep coppery color by now.
Fifth beer was the Old Ruffian Barley Wine. You could tell this was a barley wine but the alcohol didn’t knock you over. This beer came in with 10.2% abv and 90-95 IBUs. It is aged about 2.5 months before it is ready.
The sixth and seventh beers were two versions of the same beer. Both were the Yeti Imperial Stout. First was the “normal” one the second spend 6 weeks aged with oak chips. Both were very good the oak aged was a bit smoother but I almost liked the sharper edges on the normal one better. Some information was wheedled out of him about the malt in this beer. Appearntly it is 70% 2-row malt with the rest being made up of chocolate, carmel and roasted malts. Lets see these beers come in at 9.5% abv with 75 IBUs.
The eighth and final beer was the cool-aid beer. Wild Raspberry Ale is appearently based on a brown ale with tons of red and black raspberries thrown it. This version of cool-aid isn’t as bad as many I’ve had but I still prefer beer. This is apparently their number selling beer after the IPA I believe. This beer weighs in at 5% abv.