Great Divide Titan IPA

This beer has been sitting in the fridge for a little over a month after a trade with a fellow BA. Realizing that I want my IPA's as fresh as possible I decided to stop being lazy and enjoy my first beer from Great Divide out of Denver, Co. On the side of the label they actually tell you what month and week the beer was bottled. I LOVE this feature and wish that more breweries out there used it. This particular one I'm drinking was bottled the first week of June, making it relatively fresh. From the writing on the bottle:

Brewed for hop disciples, Titan IPA is a big, aggressively hopped India Pale Ale - starting out with piney hop aromas and citrus hop flavors, and finishing with a rich, malty sweetness that is balanced with crisp hop bitterness.

On the pour it is one of the best looking IPA's I've seen. A perfectly clear and crisp golden orange, with a well developed frothy head (which was actually better than what is pictured, as I snapped that a couple minutes late). The aroma is pretty good, reminding me much of the Ballast Point Big Eye IPA, with some piney and floral character from the hops, but also a distinctive sweet aroma. The hops come across to me as earthy, leafy, and piney. By the back of the tongue you get a lot of slick malt sweetness, almost reminiscent of a double IPA. The carbonation in the bottle is very fine (seems like smaller bubbles than usual), creating a pretty smooth and un-harsh type of mouthfeel. In the top tier of better IPA's I've had, earning it a 4.4 on BA.