A note to the gang at Great Divide Brewing Company: Change the packaging on Hibernation Ale. Mention how chocolaty it is. Use a big font. Chocolate is a good thing. People like it. They crave it. Some people even identify themselves as "chocoloholics." They will buy your beer. They will tell their friends. You will become rich, all while brewing a tasty beer.
Pop the top on a 12-ounce bottle of Hibernation Ale, a winter offering from the Rocky Mountain brewer, and the first thing you'll smell is, well, chocolate. Not a fine chocolate -- hey, we're not judging here -- but rather something along the lines of Hershey's Kisses and Count Chocula's boozy offspring.
There's no way it could taste as chocolaty as it smells, but the reddish-brown beer's malt character does impart a smooth, chocolate flavor. The beer's label says its dry hopped, which lead me to believe the beer would have much more of a bitter kick along the lines of Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale, another dry hopped beer. However, there's no bitterness here, only a smooth taste with a slightly spicy finish. (That "spicy" finish is probably more of an alcohol burn. Hibernation Ale packs it in at 8.1 percent.)
