Archive for the 'Great Lakes' category
Great Lakes Brewing Co. “Burning River” Pale Ale
This is the last (and very tardy) review from a batch of beers sent to us by Kevin over at KevBrews. I don’t know much about this brewery and, frankly, I don’t know why it’s taken us so long to drink it – I think it just got lost in the ocean of beer that currently resides in the beer closet. Seriously, you guys, there must be 100 beers sitting in there just waiting to be reviewed. If we were actually good writers, you guys should be really excited. As it is, we aren’t great writers, but we do like to drink – so, it’s just something for us at SevenPack to be excited about. Anyway, back to the beer:
This brew pours a cloudish dark golden color and smells super-malty. There isn’t any bitterness or citrus in the nose, just a big, fat, malt bomb in your face. And, the flavor follows suit. This starts with a bready sweetness on the tip of the tongue and only gets sweeter and breadier through the mouth. This contributes to a smooth and full mouthfeel. However, it also leads to a rather one-sided beer. There is very little hop presence here. Rather, this is just full of a rich sweetbread flavor that goes from beginning to end, leaving that same flavor on the aftertaste. For a fan of uber-malty brews, this would be a god-send. In my opinion, this is a good beer. But, being as I prefer a bit more sharpness in my beer, this isn’t quite my cup of tea (or beer, as the case may be).
Great Lakes Christmas Ale
This beer comes to us from one of our most frequent viewers and, hopefully, soon to be contributors to SevenPack, screenname-Kevbrews. We have almost exhausted the beer selection in NC so we decided to “trade” a few our regional brews for a few from his area and judging by the smell of this beer I think I’m gonna like what we got.
This beer pours a deep copper with a flash of ruby. It has a fruity aroma, I’m detecting rasberry. The tastebuds are initally met with a floral hoppiness. It is a very clean flavor that suddenly erupts in the back of the throat. Here the tongue is exposed to the spicey concoction typical of most Christmas ales. This flavor is heavy with cinnamon which efferveces into the nasal cavity. Again, this flavor cleanly dissipates leaving no abrasive after-taste. Overall I would say this is a quality brew, one that I wish I could get in NC. – Matt
My initial impression of this brew is that it smells delightful. Quite spicy and mildly sweet. However, in the mouth, I was rather surprised. Upon first contact with the tongue, there was none of the bite or sweetness that I expected. Rather, the beer traverses the tongue, nearly reaching the back of the mouth, before a flavor positively erupts and moves both upwards into the nasal cavity and forward across the tongue. My first impression of this flavor was ‘piney’. However, after a bit more education and tasting, I understand that this flavor comes from the ginger that is brewed into this beer. In addition to this ginger flavor, there is some sweetness and spice lent from malt and some cinnamon that is added to the beer. Overall, I’d say that this beer takes an interesting path for a Christmas ale. It forgoes some of the extreme maltiness or sharp spice of other Christmas beers, and instead opts for an interesting ginger flavor that makes this beer taste a bit more fresh and ‘green’ than other interpretations. This is extremely drinkable, and it doesn’t give away it’s 7.5% abv. The only sad thing about this brew is that I only have 1 bottle! Thanks to Kevin at kevbrews.blogspot.com for an excellent contribution. -Ben
