Great Lakes Stout
Great Lakes Brewery

this is real nice in a nitro!

473 mL can served barely chilled; dated Sep 8 2025. Day 20 of the 2025 Toronto Brewing advent calendar.

Pours an inky black colour, showing glints of brownish-red near the edges when held to a bright light. Just over an inch of foamy, beige-coloured head rises from the surface, receding gradually over the next five minutes; a creamy collar and a thin cap live on, with a fractal pattern of webby lace produced after each sip. Looks great to me. The aroma is understated yet appealing, consisting mostly of roasted malt: mocha, dark roast coffee, bittersweet chocolate, leafy hops and molasses.

Pretty good, at least for a lighter stout. I'm getting dark chocolate, espresso and some molasses/treacle sweetness, as well as a roasty, slightly ashy note by mid-sip. A little bit of milk chocolate sweetness, but it finishes more bittersweet, with leafy, earthy hops and baker's chocolate dissipating into a roasty aftertaste. Light in body, with moderately low carbonation that adds a little bite to this brew's smooth mouthfeel.

Final Grade: 3.88, a B+. After reading GLB's marketing blurb, it turns out that Great Lakes Stout is a re-labelled version of their old Shinny Pants Session Stout, which I hadn't seen in at least five years - and I suppose that explains why. Comparing this to my old review notes, there's definitely a lot of overlap... though I also believe that the disdain for light/session stouts that I once harboured has softened over time. This is a stout that I could actually see myself drinking one after another, but probably only during the winter - my enthusiasm for stouts tends to ebb during the warmer months, before predictably flowing back in January. Worth a try if you enjoy lighter stouts.

 

 

Pours obsidian black with very little light penetrating the edges of the glass. The chunky, compact head lasts a while. Roasted malts, dark chocolate, tobacco in the aroma. The taste is roasty and dry with loads of roastyness and some cocoa nibs and coffee beans. Astringency in the back is somewhat distracting. The mouthfeel is light bodied with light carbonation. The finish is lightly bitter with long lasting roasty notes.

A nice dry stout with a somewhat anemic malt profile. I wouldn't recommend.

So, I was debating not reviewing this one. Mainly because I am at odds with this offering. That said, I will applaud that they were honest about it. This is a "Session Stout" and seems to wants to dispel the notion that dark means heavy, which they literally have listed on the side of the can. I agree with that sentiment, dark does not mean heavy, but that's why we have English Mild Ale, Porter, Dunkels and Schwarzbier. Stout is meant to be thick, heavy and drink like a meal. So I instead opted to be a bit more brief then normal here, as I do feel I need to justify my review, if only to be fair to those who don't share my view here.

Black as night, this is not as you get some clear brown, translucence at the bottom of the glass, with only a finger and a half of quickly disappearing head. It's hard to screw up the look of stout, but this manages it, as even the head looks far to soft and sudsy as opposed to creamy. The smell, hits some right notes, predominantly burnt malt, but even after warming in comes across as timid. Thankfully, the beer itself has a strong burnt malt backbone and while lighter does offer a bit of smoke. Points get deducted for the lack of head, and because it's thinner, it drinks more like a lager. I wouldn't call it light bodied, but I wouldn't call it medium bodied either. I mean, this is crushable, I suppose but I am left asking why? The only time I'd want this is if I had to drive after a soccer match, and wanted two beers, but even then, I'd still probably prefer one sipping stout.

It tastes fine, and it's serviceable, and if you aren't of my opinion on the style, then it certainly holds merit, but this isn't for me. It's far too crushable to be a proper stout, and really apart from maybe certain Dunkel's, probably the lightest dark beer I've ever had, which was by design here. Just not a desirable design for a stout in my eyes.