It’s been quite a few years since I largely fell out of love with Great Divide, and that after a hot and heavy affair between thee brewery and me in the early days of my own American beer odyssey.

A bright orange body with a thin, collar left behind. Light chill haze exists in the body.

Nose and tastes are both extremely sweet. The sugar is really VERY high. The beer is not quite as viscous as one might expect. It sits more easily than the sugary nose and initial tastes might suggest. There’s a light herbal element and it reminds me a lot of those hard, cough candy twists (bodied sweets) that I used to eat as a kid. That must be the birch.

It’s all too much for me. I can mange about 6-8 oz before the rest gets drain poured. For me, another Great Divide bust. And not a cheap one. Lightly medicinal alcohol burn is not really my cup of tea.

For me this drinks like a bad English Barleywine, coupled with a cheap cough syrup and aged in a plastic home brew container.

Alcohol isn’t really present until one gets to the finish where it is no more than warming, but coupled with the tree element it’s pretty awful. Sappy and grating on the palate.

The label boasts that this is aged on Birch wood and has birch syrup added, and goes on to describe itself as embracing ‘reverential tradition’. Err? It also boasts ‘revolutionary innovation’ which usually means it tastes bad – in at least that regard this does not disappoint.

Bottled on May 14 2013.