The Stats:
Brewery: Great Divide Brewing Company, Denver, CO
Style: India Pale Ale
abv: 9.1%

The Beer
Hercules Double IPA (India Pale Ale) is an exercise in excess. India Pale Ale, already a full bodied, hoppy and high-alcohol beer style, is taken to a whole new level in this rich, chewy brew. Golden in color, it pours cloudy with a nice medium head, and the beer clears nicely over time. The aroma is full of barley and you can almost taste the beer before ever taking a sip. And once you do take a sip, look out. The alcohol is always at the forefront, but so are all the flavors one would expect in an IPA — primarily, hoppy bitterness trumping malty sweetness — but it’s all turned up to eleven. More of everything, in equal proportions. The end result is a strong beer with strong flavors, an IPA to remember; the only flaw is that it’s so strong you can only drink so much in an evening! Highly recommended.

More Info
RateBeer.com Rating: 99(!)
Brewer’s Info Page: http://www.greatdivide.com/thebeers/hercules.htm

After a long, long, very long winter, I’m here to tell you that spring is on its way, and is settling in nicely. I realize I just marshaled the weather gods to unleash a furious last ditch winter storm sometime in the coming weeks, but I don’t care; Colorado is becoming beautiful again!

I went for a bike ride today, in 70 degree weather under blue skies (and discovered that my new bike has a really nasty propensity for high speed front end shimmy). Last week I read the latest Backpacker magazine and picked out a few choice fourteener hikes I want to do this year. Brenda and I made some headway on our foyer & landing flooring project this weekend, and I hope to be done with that one soon so we have more free time on the weekends to go hiking. This time last year, we had already crested Green Mountain and Bear Peak, but this winter was a whole different animal — one that I hope is an endangered species.

The point is, summer is on the way, and I couldn’t be happier.