Review #3 - Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

Posted by: Stonecipher

Jan. 31, 2011

Last night I was very happy to be sitting down with a large glass of beer after racking my brain all day with class and work.  Like the Dreadnaught, I have tried Great Divide’s Hercules Double IPA in the past, but I did not review it.  I remember enjoying it, but I was also eating at one of my very favorite restaurants in Chicago, Bad Apple on Lincoln, just kitty corner from the Half Acre Beer Company – home of Daisy Cutter Pale Ale.  It’s always tough to tell if the burgers or the beer is better there, the selection of both is phenomenal, but I digress. 

Here are some basics for the Great Divide Hercules Double IPA –

ABV: 10%

IBUs: 85

Brewery Location: Denver, Colorado

Style: American Double IPA

Average Beer Advocate Rating: A-/4.2 – Excellent

My Beer Advocate Rating: B+/3.9 – Very Good

Current Number of Reviews/Rank in the Top 20 on Beer Advocate: 1,184/10^th

Brewery Description: Great Divide Brewing Company

Bottled On: July 1, 2011

By the way, you’ll notice the Avery Brewing Company glass, a Colorado glass for a Colorado beer.  Haven’t been to the Great Divide Brewery yet, but may be making the trip when I’m in Denver and Boulder in March.  That also may have to be the time I review Avery’s Maharaja – One of my all-time favorites that just so happens to be in the Top 20.

So, with the weather getting increasingly worse here in the Chicago Area, I sat down last night to sample the Great Divide Hercules Double IPA and here’s what I found:

APPEARANCE:  Poured a hazy, medium copper into the Avery pint glass.  A decent looking, fluffy white head dissipated rather quickly.  The Hercules is a good looking beer, but there is nothing particularly notable about the appearance.  One thing that was interesting is that this beer did break the streak of my Double IPAs only lacing on the left and right sides of the glass.  The Hercules had a more typical lacing pattern, with big thin rings lining the opposite side of the glass from top to bottom. 

SMELL:  The first word that came to mind when I sniffed the Hercules was intense.  And that’s just the way I like my beers.  The strong, piney hop smell steals the show, but there are also hints of grassy and citrus aromas.  Great Divide certainly knows how to create an appetite and excitement for a hop head.

TASTE:  The first sip was a little bit of a letdown.  I was expecting a bitter hop bomb, but instead tasted more sweet malt flavors.  That wasn’t a terrible thing, just unexpected.  As the beer began to warm, however, the bitter hoppy flavor became more apparent and the sweetness was relegated to the background as a balancing agent.  Hints of citrus, mostly lemon, came through at the tail end of the sip as the bitterness emerged for the aftertaste.

MOUTHFEEL:  If I remember correctly it was Barq’s whose motto was “Barq’s has Bite”.  Well, Hercules has bite, particularly if you hold it on the tongue for a couple of seconds.  The carbonations digs into the tongue, but strangely the rest of the palate seems to get more of a pleasant mouth coating sensation at the same time.  This combination seems to be responsible for making the aftertaste exceptionally strong, an unusual, but excellent feel. 

OVERALL:  This is a somewhat erratic and funky beer.  In my last review I described the Three Floyds Dreadnaught as a roller coaster ride, and the Hercules is the same in some ways, except that the roller coaster is old, rattling and extremely shaky.  For the roller coaster connoisseur, my guess is that the rattle and shake might add to the excitement, but for a rookie, it might be terrifying.  I thoroughly enjoyed this beer, but I can see how it would frighten some light beer drinkers away in a hurry. 

DRAWBACKS:  Once again, the roller coast ride was both a plus and a minus.  The Hercules is a very complex beer and with complexity comes a variety of tastes, smells and feels.  The likelihood that one beer drinker will love all of these is fairly low, so as the odds would have it, there were a few characteristics that didn’t quite do it for me.  One was the appearance.  I do believe appearance is the toughest category to screw up (I mean how often do you look at a beer and say to yourself “Well, I just don’t want to drink that”?), but the Hercules did leave something to be desired as far as its appearance went.  Additionally, the early sips were too sweet for me.  I understand the need to balance the hops out with some malt, but it took longer than I wanted for the correct balance to appear. 

SOUND:  This was a tough one, but I have to go with Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew”.  What can be grating and, well, downright scary to the untrained ear can also be a thing of beauty to a jazz aficionado.  The Hercules is going to be a classic that must be respected, but may not be fully enjoyed or appreciated by everyone, just like Miles in 1970.

Three Floyds (FFF) Dreadnaught

Posted by: Stonecipher

Jan. 28, 2011

The first time I tried the Dreadnaught from Three Floyds I was not impressed.  I split a bomber with a friend at our local beer bar and my expectations were very high.  I had been drinking a little bit before hand and I was more focused on the conversation than the beer, so I know it didn’t really get a fair shake from me.  So let’s see how this goes.  By the way, in the picture, you will notice, my local pint glass – it was specially selected to house this local beer.  So, without further ado, here is my review of Three Floyds Dreadnaught Double IPA:

APPEARANCE:  The Dreadnaught poured a very pale, almost straw-like color and had a pretty, but fairly thin, maybe a quarter of an inch, head resting on top.  The bubbles were almost uniformly tiny, but as it is sitting here and the head is fading away a few larger bubbles have randomly appeared.  Very pretty, full and foamy lacing lines both the left and right side of the glass, but not the side I am drinking from or the opposite side.  I noticed the same thing with the Hopslam and I am now wondering if this is a typical characteristic of a Double IPA.

SMELL:  It smells a lot like the Hopslam I reviewed last time, only less intense.  Honey and caramel are the most noticeable aromatic qualities.  Three Floyds claims on the bottle that the beer “has an opening salvo of mango, peach and citrus hop aromas”, and while the citrus and mango are noticeable, my nose was incapable of finding any peach.  Interesting, but the lack of peach didn’t upset me to much.

TASTE:  A very complex beer.  The first sip begins with a complete departure from the nose when a hoppy and bitter flavor attacks the palate.  The honey, caramel and pine from the nose, however, are not far behind as they show up briefly mid-sip.  As the sweetness fades away the pine flavor remains, but it becomes bitterer.  Yep, that is the correct word, bitterer, which seems unusual, just like the bitter pine flavor at the end of this sip.  The aftertaste is very bitter and tastes almost like someone just dragged a hop across the tongue. 

MOUTHFEEL:  Just like the taste, the mouthfeel of the Dreadnaught is very complex as well.  At first it seems like be very thin and flat, without a whole lot of carbonation, but at the very end of the sip it not only tastes like someone dragged a hop cone across the tongue, but it also feels that way.  The beer seems to bite at the end.  Interesting and pretty cool feel, it is certainly not the typical mouthfeel. 

OVERALL:  I am very happy I gave this beer a second try.  The first time the conditions were not right and I wasn’t in a situation where I could focus on and appreciate its complexity.  Also, maybe I had a bad bottle, who knows?  The point is, this is a very finely crafted, complex and unique beer.  Three Floyds should be congratulated for every beer they brew, but the Dreadnaught is special even by their high standards.  That said, this is a beer for professionals, unlike the Hopslam, this is not the beer you give to someone to introduce them to the style.  Dreadnaught is only for the grownups at the table. 

DRAWBACKS:  Part of what I liked about this beer was the roller coaster ride it took the palate on, but at the same time, some of the transitions were a little too abrupt.  To cram in as much complexity as they did in this beer, I suppose it requires some quick changes though.  Other nitpicky issues – the color was not very appetizing, the nose could have been slightly more intense and I would have liked more sparkle at the front of the sip. 

SOUND:  This one is a no-brianer.  I was talking to a friend of mine last night who knows how to play Stevie Wonder’s Superstition on the drums and we were discussing just how complex it is on many levels.  If the Three Floyds was a musician it would be Stevie Wonder and the Dreadnaught would be Superstition. 

OK, I wanted to save the stats for last on this one, since I was kind of writing “live” and didn’t want to ruin the “how did it turn out?” surprise for everyone, so here you go:

ABV: 9.5%

IBUs: 100

Brewery Location: Munster, Indiana

Style: Double IPA

Beer Advocate Average Rating: A/4.39 – Outstanding

My Beer Advocate Rating: A-/4.2 – Excellent

Current Number of Reviews/Rank in the Top 20 on Beer Advocate: 1212/8^th

Brewery Description: Three Floyds Brewing Company

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Bell's Brewery Hopslam 2011 Release

Posted by: Stonecipher

Jan. 25, 2011

OK, so with the very first review I'm directly contradicting the name of this blog, oh well.  It's about 3:30 in the afternoon here in Chicago and I have been working on important stuff all day, plus I have this six-pack of fresh Bell's Hopslam in the fridge that is calling my name, so I think it is about that time - time for a Bell's Hopslam from Bell's Brewery.

First, some basic facts:
ABV: 10.0%
IBUs: Somewhere in the range of 69 - 136.  The debate rages on.
Brewery Location: Kalamazoo, MI
Style: Double IPA
Beer Advocate Average Rating: A/4.43 - Outstanding
My Beer Advocate Rating: A+/4.75 - Exceptional
Current Number of Reviews/Rank in the Top 20 on Beer Advocate: 2,034/3rd
Brewer's Description: Click on the Hopslam thumbnail.

Now, before I dive into this review, it is worth noting that I reviewed this beer last year as well on Beer Advocate and if you click here you'll see my BA review.  My palate was just beginning to become sophisticated enough to understand what I was drinking, but I was too stupid to know that the Hopslam was a DIPA and therefore, pretty high in the ABV department.  Anyhow, I wrote the following review before I re-read the old BA one and it is interesting to see compare the similarities and contradictions.  The one thing that stood out from the first review is the quote I used from a fellow bartender of mine "It's like they tried to fit two beers into that one bottle and somehow they fit."  Perfect description, even for the 2011 release.

Alright, without further ado, the review:

APPEARANCE:  Poured this into a snifter fairly aggressively and I was rewarded with a solid, foamy, quarter-inch thick head.  The bubbles are a mix of large and tiny with the bigger bubbles occupying the area towards the center of the glass.  The brilliant and almost completely clear golden color is reminiscent of the honey flavor that I know is waiting in this glass.  Interesting lacing, it appears to remain only on the left and right side of the glass instead of the opposite side I was drinking from and what remains are foamy pillars that stretch from the top to bottom.

SMELL:  The aroma hits the nose immediately with the Hopslam.  As soon as it is poured out of the bottle a sweet, piney, hoppy and honey smell fills the air.  As I move my nose closer to the glass the honey stands out as the dominating aroma.

TASTE:  Upon the first sip, the first thing that stands out is that this beer is more hoppy than it was last year.  True to its name, the hops slap your palate right up front, but as it sits on the tongue a sweet, honey flavor rises and falls before giving way to a bitter, but slightly piney aftertaste.  It is certainly a dryer beer than last year's release, and that, in my opinion is a good thing.  Bell's Brewery has managed to top near-perfection.

MOUTHFEEL:  Hopslam is very clearly a finely tuned, carefully crafted work of art, and while Bell's nailed the look, smell and taste of this beer, they did not forget about the feel.  My guess is that if this beer made any noise it would sound like Marvin Gaye singing "Inner City Blues".  Anyhow, back to the feel, generally, I like to feel a strong sparkle on my tongue, but the lighter sparkle, combined with an little bit of an oily feel make this beer go down extremely smooth.

OVERALL:  What else can I say about this beer?  I chose to review it first because A). it is in season and is fresh and B). it is one of my all-time favorites.  For 10% this is incredibly easy to drink.  The alcohol is certainly easy to detect, but it is so well balanced with the sweetness and hoppiness that it is easy to see how you can get into trouble with the Hopslam.  Maybe it's for the best that we only get to enjoy this delicious brew for a few months of the year.

DRAWBACKS:  There are not many flaws in this beer and you have to get very nitpicky to come up with any.  That said, the head retention and lacing could be a bit better, although that is not an easy proposition for a 10% DIPA, I understand that.  The only other thing I would change about this beer is that it could use a touch more bite on the mouthfeel.  Like I said, nitpicky.  But that's what you have to be when you're looking for drawbacks to an exceptional, near-perfect beer.

SOUND:  OK, I know beer doesn't produce a sound, but to add a little twist, I'm going to try to match up each beer to what I believe it would sound like if it could talk, sing or play some music.  To be fair, I think many of us have tried to talk to our beer at some point in the past, so hey, don't be too tough on me for this.  As I mentioned before, though, this beer is smooth, savory and sweet all at the same time and that is how I view Marvin Gaye's voice.  Given that Hopslam is one of my favorite beers it is only fitting that it would sound like one of my favorite songs "Inner City Blues".  In case you don't already have this gem in your music collection, here's a link to Marvin's "Gold" album on iTunes: 



Thanks for checking out the review.  Hope you enjoyed it and I hope you can get your hands on some Hopslam sometime soon.  It really is an exceptional beer.  Go ahead and leave a comment, tell me what you think of the blog, the beer or the review.  If you're too shy to do that, send me some Beer Mail on Beer Advocate, the user name is StoneTSR.  Cheers!