Great Divide introduces Lasso IPA, the lowest-alcohol beer in its lineup | Cafe Society | Denver | Denver Westword | The Leading Independent News Source in Denver, Colorado
Navigation

Great Divide introduces Lasso IPA, the lowest-alcohol beer in its lineup

Great Divide Brewing, which made its name with enormous, potent beers like Yeti and Hercules, will continue a newer romance with lower-alcohol beers in January when it debuts Lasso, an IPA that will carry the lowest ABV in the brewery's lineup. Brewed with three kinds of hops -- Columbus, Centennial...
Share this:
Great Divide Brewing, which made its name with enormous, potent beers like Yeti and Hercules, will continue a newer romance with lower-alcohol beers in January when it debuts Lasso, an IPA that will carry the lowest ABV in the brewery's lineup.

Brewed with three kinds of hops -- Columbus, Centennial and Cascade -- Lasso will be 5 percent alcohol by volume and carry 50 IBUs, low for an IPA these days.

See also: Great Divide tentatively plans a large new brewery in Denver's River North

Great Divide has introduced two other low-alcohol beers in the past two years: Nomad, a 5.4 percent pilsner, and HeyDay, a 5.2 percent Belgian-style wit.

"We think it's a good fit. IPA fans want something they can have a few of, and Titan is still a little beefy," says Great Divide spokesman Doug Christie. Titan, Great Divide's regular IPA, has a 7.1 percent ABV, while its Hercules double IPA is 10 percent.

Several of Colorado's bigger breweries have been flirting with low-ABV beers over the past year or so. Odell released Loose Leaf in May, a 4.5 percent ABV pale ale, that was only available in the Fort Collins brewery's seasonal mix-packs. Several other breweries experimented with Berliner weisses that hovered around the 4.0 ABV mark.

Avery has also been promising to release some low ABV beers in the near future -- and probably in cans -- including an IPA and a stout, but those beers may have to wait until the Boulder brewery builds its new facility next year.

"We've certainly developed an outstanding reputation for our big, high-ABV beers," says Great Divide founder and president Brian Dunn in a statement. "But we really take pride in our entire collection of balanced beers, regardless of alcohol content."

Lasso will be a year-round beer, available in six-packs. It replaces Hades, a Belgian-style ale that Great Divide stopped producing on a regular basis earlier this year.


Follow Westword's Beer Man on Twitter at @ColoBeerMan and on Facebook at Colo BeerMan

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Westword has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.