Great Lakes The Doppelrock

I know it's a bit late in the season for a doppelbock, but how can you go wrong with A) a doppelbock and 2) anything from Great Lakes?

Great Lakes The Doppelrock is a very exciting beer for me. One of my favorite styles from one of my favorite breweries. It starts like a doppelbock should, dark brown color and a big creamy head. The nose is basically just dark, sweet malt, but it's huge.

Lots of dark sweet malt in the flavor, along with nuttiness and bittersweet chocolate. Almost no hop presence, but that's fine with this style. A little bit of wood and alcohol warmth. Bit of a sweet and dry finish. And a very late sour hit.

This is one of those that's great to drink or to sip and savor. Overall, an excellent beer. Very good example of the style.

Grade: A

Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA

While retrotagging all my previous reviews (so now when you click on Great Lakes in the tags below, it'll bring up all the beers I have reviewed from Great Lakes), I noticed my IPA reviews were quite thin. Here's an attempt to rectify that with Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA. Hazy orange with hops and fruit in the nose. The first thing I notice in the taste is some malt but the hops certainly make their entrance known with a fruity finish. The aftertaste is lingering bitterness and peach. Pretty dry, too. Hops are pretty big, but not so much as to make it undrinkable. I've had more aggressive and less aggressive IPAs. I like that there is some complexity other than a hop bludgeoning and nothing else. True IPA freaks may not like this as much as I do, but I think it's quite nice. Not a huge ABV at 6%, but it'll get you where you want to be for sure!

And who is Commodore Perry, you ask? A War of 1812 naval hero who utter the famous phrase "Don't give up the ship!" Or as Great Lakes has tweaked it, "Don't give up the sip!"


Grade: B

Great Lakes Conway's Irish Ale

If I had to pick out one brewery that really got me into craft beers, and one that I compare all other breweries to, it's Great Lakes. Maybe it's because it's the only craft brewery readily available around here. Maybe it's because their sampler introduced me to both porters and IPAs. I will always have a soft spot in my heart and Great Lakes. Conway's Irish Ale is another winner! Crisp dark orange color with a tight white head. There's nothing overpowering in this, and that's why I like it. It just tastes good! If you really want to search for flavors, you'll get some bread, a little bit of roast, maybe a hint of apple (but not sour) at the end with a dry finish. It's one of those I don't really want to get too technical on in the review other than to say "Try it. You'll like it." Give me a 6 (or 12) of this on March 17th. I'll leave the green stuff alone!

Grade: A

Great Lakes Christmas Ale

Happy New Year! Of course, I do realize it's been a long time since I've posted. But fighting two bouts of bronchitis in a month, numerous holiday get togethers, and work, I haven't had much time.

Even though the season has past, I want to write about Great Lakes Christmas Ale. Here in Ohio, and especially in Cleveland, Christmas Ale is a seasonal delicacy. It's something people stock up on the moment they see it because they know it won't last. I posted an article recently that even showed in November, Christmas Ale outsold a 24 pack of Bud Light by more than 3 times!

This is the beer that first turned me on to holiday spiced ales, which is what my current batch of home brew is. It's elusive, you've got to pick it up when you see it because it likely won't be back. Even in a craft-beer-fearing-town such as this. Of course, it is with good reason. It smells of honey and spice and pours a deep orange, almost copper. It tastes of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, with a subtle honey finish. And at 7.5% ABV, it's holiday cheer in a bottle! Without a doubt, one of my favorite beers and I can't wait until next holiday season for it.

And thanks to my friend Liz for both the last 6 pack of the season and the gorgeous glass!

Grade: A+

Great Lakes Brewing Company Nosferatu Review

Seeing as how this beer is called Nosferatu, I expected it to be one of two colors. Dark as night, or blood red. It was neither, rather it was amber. Despite the color being not what I expected, this beer certainly has "bite". They call it an Imperial Red Ale, but it tastes and feels much more like an IPA to me. It has all the familiar characteristics like the dry finish, the huge hoppy, almost piney flavor. It's quite good. And, like every Great Lakes beer, the label is awesome. The vampire really does remind me of Max Schreck.

Grade: B

Great Lakes - Edmund Fitzgerald

Great Lakes Brewing Company is one of my absolute favorite breweries. Based in Cleveland and opened in 1988, I haven't had a beer of theirs yet that I haven't loved. The variety is incredibly wide, including lagers, ales, a porter, and seasonals.

Edmund Fitzgerald


This is Great Lakes' always available porter, which is one of my favorite styles of beer. Oh, and just because a place calls itself the Porter Pub doesn't mean they actually serve porters. But that's another story. It pours an incredibly dark, almost black, amber color. It's full and smooth with a complex, smokey flavor mix of chocolate and coffee with just a hint of bitterness in the back of the throat. Fantastic lacing, too.

A note about porters, stouts, and other dark beers. They're not meant to be enjoyed at next to freezing temperatures. Let it warm up a bit - Great Lakes says it's best at 55 degrees. When beers like this are too cold it can mask the flavors. And you don't want that, now do you?

As it warms, the bitterness does get a little more aggressive, but it's far from overpowering.

Grade: A