An IPA a day #3

IPA number three in my lead up to International IPA Day is Great Divide Hercules Double IPA.
Great Divide are based in Denver, Colorado (Yep, I'm going there!!!) and their Double IPA comes in at a hefty 10% abv.
What you get from the bottle is a deep orange, classically tawny coloured beer which leaves a good head lacing your glass.
Bringing the glass to your face you get the aroma of piney hops along with a hit of citrus and surprisingly a hint of the malt sweetness on the back of that aroma too.
The Centennial, Columbus and Simcoe hops balance out with bitterness what would be an over the top sweetness made by the amount of malt that has to go into this bad-boy. For your mighty 85 IBU's(International Bittering Units) You get a resinous piney taste along with hints of Orange peel and the toffee malt character sweetness coats your mouth with a lovely boozy warmth to finish off the taste experience.
With such a weighty ABV, this is a beer that should be enjoyed with some sort of food, a hard, strong cheese or some sort of spicy dish that the beer can go head to head with!
First brewed in 2004 the recipe has not been tweaked once since it's inception and I put my hand on heart and thank the brewers at Great Divide for that!

Open it! Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti

Beer of the day No.2 and it's a biggie, one of the beers that I've recently had on draught at The Rake that I have been particularly impressed with. On draught it's a mere 11.5% abv, in bottle it's an almost sessionable 9.5%!

The first thing you get is coffee, the second, coffee the third co...you get the point! A MAHOOSIVE beer that is so drinkable that you won't know you've had too much until well, you've had too much!
I'm pissed, not too pissed but nicely buzzing and I know I've been drinking a rather titanic beer today. Worth every penny of the 12.50 that Utobeer sell it for. This beer is one of the favourites of the Great Divide Brewing crew and is now one of mine too.
If you have a bottle anywhere in your home then for the love of all that's holy, OPEN IT!