Coach Boone and Youst from the classic Disney film “Remember the Titans”. This was a great movie, albeit a little sappy but tells of an interesting time in our nation’s history and how sport brought together people of different ethnicities and socioeconomic strata to fight for a common goal. Blah blah blah. The good thing here is I’m about to talk about beer.
Titans from Greek mythology were 12 Gods that essentially ran the universe. A way to explain the natural phenomenon of every day life. The seas swelled so Oceanus was angry, it was really hot, so Helios was having a bad day, etc. They ran the world, so you can see the connections to Football, and beer…
I was getting worried that this beer had gone bad. I had had it in my bunker for almost a year, and sure enough the date on the bottle was September 2009. I knew I needed to drink it quickly or I was going to be wishing I had as I poured it down the drain.
I don’t know about you but IPAs are hard to get into. Funny thing is I almost always like them when I do, but if I have a choice to open and drink something else, I almost always do. Funny, I enjoy the flavor of IPAs but I think they get a little boring sometimes. Always so fruity and piney…whatevs. I want to be challenged. For that reason alone I could see myself getting into sours some day, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet.
So here we are with Titan IPA from Great Divide Brewing in Denver Colorado. I know these guys make good beer because Jim and I went to their brewery and had several while we were in Denver for GABF. We both love Yeti, but we haven’t branched out too much from there. So I finally cracked open the Titan IPA.
Well it poured nicely with a deep orange body and a one finger dense white head. It’s aroma escaped and hit my nose before I even poured it, another good sign as there were no off putting smells there. Nosing the beer in the glass there was some citrus and pine, almost a tropical smell as well with pineapple and perhaps a hint of banana.
The flavor was good. It was a solid IPA. Very piney with that pineapple flavor coming through. There was also the bitterness that was followed by a bit of an astringent flavor. Now I don’t know if that flavor is always in Titan IPA, or if it was there because I waited a whole year to drink it, but it was actually quite pleasant and made for an almost barrel like quality in the brew.
All in all a good experience and a nice IPA. I guess that the name implies some sort of dominance, and while I would say this was a good IPA it is far from the best Ive had, I can think of several off the top of my head that I like better, including Pliny the Elder. But this is available and Pliny is not, so I guess that means the Great Divide brew wins. Anyway find some and give it a try. If you are a hop head, you’ll like it a lot, if not, its pretty good too.
-Don
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
Good beer, awesome brewery. We also went to the brewery during GABF and these people were so nice and accomodating.
I’m a hop head, there is just no doubt about it. The problem being is that the market is saturated with them, and 80% of them are average at best. But, the other 20% keeps me interested enough.
But a year old IPA? No way. That WOULD be boring.
Funny thing was this really had a punch to it like a regular IPA. It actually aged well. Still had plenty of IPA goodness. 🙂 I agree that 80% of them are average. This one was better than that, but the whole genre of beer is getting overplayed and it is beginning to affect people’s opinion and perception of what a good IPA is.
I personally don’t mind some IPAs with some age on them. Sure they aren’t as bold but I had a 2 year old bottle of Maharaja and thought it was still a damn good beer.
Now this beer is really awesome fresh so I would say to you to get a new bottle and have it right away just to see.
I agree Mike. I need to get a fresh one and drink it. Probably will do that tomorrow.