Great Divide Yeti Espresso Barrel-Aged Stout Review

Okay folks and folk-dancers, I know I am a little bit late to the raving about the Espresso Yeti train, but it is a big and delicious train, so I am going to jump into the boxcar with the rest of the bums.

This review begins with a bit of the nostalgia that washed through my mind while I savored my first sip of this outstanding beer. A few years ago, before I decided to stop trying to drown myself, I went up to the kayak park in Lyons, CO. We stopped at a malt shop in the little downtown area after an exhausting day of rescuing boats after I bailed out of them, and I got a raspberry chocolate milkshake. This thing was serious. It had the type of chocolate foam on top that takes four kids blowing into a glass of chocolate milk to make. The first sip wasn't even cold, because the bubble crown cushioned my tongue against the onslaught of the chill with gently settling layers of chocolate, milk, and a hint of raspberry. The dear little cherubs just kept landing on my tongue, and then giggling as they popped and disappeared into a rich and playful netherworld. This is how I describe the aftertaste of the Espresso Yeti.

Drink this beer slowly. Not only does it have a high alcohol content, the lingering and changing tastes are worth every bit as much attention as the initial sip. I've found that most coffee or espresso infused beers tend to taste more like a cold, watery coffee than a beer, but this one bucked the trend. The stout carried the coffee so that it never tasted bitter, but felt more like a piece of silk running along my tongue. Most of the taste settled right in the middle third of my mouth, with very little front-of-tongue and the back of my mouth remembering little of the flavor but a lot of the texture.

To tell the truth, I don't often look at the beer enough to take any kind of exhausive look at the head, the lacing, the color, and all that crap. With a beer that I enjoy, I'm usually too busy having a Harry Met Sally moment over in the corner to even be able to remember anything more than "it was dark" "it was foamy", "it was orangey", or something similar. It was dark, with a decent frothy head on it. That's about all I got. The whole beer reminded me of froth. It was like getting slowly consumed by a delicious bubble bath.

I know that I'm not the first one to recommend that anyone who has the means goes out and tries some of this, and I have no problem adding to the chorus of its supporters. Get some. Do it. Before it's gone. Because I will be drinking more.