Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti

After another successful trip to the liquor store last night, I tackled another beer on my list:  Great Divide's Chocolate Yeti.

I had it in a 22oz bomber bottle (bottled April 7, 2011), poured into a footed pilsner glass, both straight up and over vanilla bean ice cream.

The Yeti is a viscous very dark brown with a dark brown head.  Nose is a strong pleasant oak, with an undertone of bittersweet chocolate.  The first taste gives a feel of the high octane of the brew (9.5% ABV), but also a nice maltiness, oak, and chocolate.  Finish includes the bitterness of the hops, and definitely some spice from the cayenne pepper (!).  Overall, this beer is very bold, and honestly, probably would be better to mellow out for a little while (my bottle was only 2 months old).

Over ice cream was outstanding.  The float was made with a double pour over 3 scoops of ice cream in the same type of pilsner glass.  The richness and sweetness of the ice cream helped mellow out the strong ABV, and while I ate some ice cream with a spoon at the beginning, the end of the glass with the ice cream melted into the Yeti was fantastic.  Although this chocolate stout hardly needed more to seem like a dessert, the vanilla bean ice cream was incredible with some Yeti on top and made for a delicious way to wrap up my day.

Overall grade:  B+