Beer Review: Abita IPA, JW Dundees Sample Pack, Great Divide Hercules Double IPA, Terrapin RoggenRauchBier

Ok, some quick beer reviews:

Abita IPA:
Not a bad IPA, good color. Smooth up front with a little hint of sweetness. Hop flavor comes on rather strong at the end. All in all a very good IPA, stands up to some of my favorites (Sweetwater IPA, Dogfish 90 minute).

JW Dundees Sample Pack:
This came with 2 of each of the following: Honey Brown, American Lager, Pale Ale, Pale Bock, IPA, and a Hefewiezen. Here are the ones I have tried.
American Lager: Not all that impressed. Pretty bland, some sweet malt but not much else there.
IPA: A good IPA, nice hop finish, not too overwhelming. Probably a good intro IPA.
Pale Bock: This one surprised my. Never heard of a Pale Bock before so I was a bit wary. Very smooth with some nice roasted malt flavors to start and some great hop flavors to finish. Almost like a very dark IPA. A neat beer and the most drinkable of the sampler pack so far.

Great Divide Hercules Double IPA:
A big IPA. I would put this on par with my standard big IPA, Dogfish Head 90 Minute. Not as sweet as the Dogfish, hides it's alcohol content better (9.1% abv). Smell is not quite as floral as the 90, color a bit redder and darker, hops are nicely balanced in the end. Finish bitterness not near as in your face as the 90. A great "big" IPA. I'll buy it again.

Terrapin RoggenRauchBier (Side Project #2):
The only RauchBier (Literally Smoke Beer in German) I can compare this too is Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen. The Marzen was very up front with the smoke smell and flavor. My bartendress described it as "Smells like Bacon", and it did. Very smokey, some hints of hickory and maple and right in your face about it. The Terrapin is a bit different. On first smell the smokeyness is hard to pick out. If you didn't know what a Rauchbier was I think it would be very hard to put a description to the smell. Pours very dark brown, maybe a hint darker than Newcastle. Good smooth flavor, more like a brown ale as well with very little to no smoke flavor in the beer. Good clean finish. A nice beer but for a Rauchbier I was expecting much more smoke flavor so this is a bit of a let down for me.