Great Lakes variety?

BB1313 will answer that one soon enough

 

I've never seen it consist of anything other than their core beers: Dortmunder, Burning River, Eliot Ness & Eddie Fitz.---Not that it's a bad mix or anything.

 

One of (if not THE) best mixed 12's in beer, if you ask me!

 

I agree, not one bad beer in the bunch. I could be mistaken, but back when Holy Moses was a year round beer, wasn't that in the variety pack as well?

 

Nope. its been the same since they replaced Commodore Perry with Eliot Ness. The Commodore Perry had a much shorter shelf life than the rest. So a 30 day freshness shelf life when put on the side would steer people away from the pack when the other 3 were perfect tasty beers. So they replaced Commodore with Eliot Ness which will last on par with the rest of the pack.

I remember the Commodore Perry days, and Im not that old.

 

Just got the Great Lakes sampler a few weeks ago and everything in it is solid. I never hear much about this brewery, but everything I've had has been top notch.

 

Guy I know said, "Great Lakes doesn't experiment much, but everything they do is spot on for the style."

In other words, if someone asked you "what's a Dortmunder supposed to taste like," you'd give them a GL Dortmunder. If the question was, "What's a porter supposed to taste like?" you'd give them an Edmund Fitzgerald. If the question was about a Vienna Lager, you'd give them an Eliot Ness. And so forth and so on.

And oh by the way, the late, great Michael Jackson considered GL Dortmunder the best example of the style brewed anywhere.

 

Ok so whats in the pack. No one has answered this.

Edmund Fitzgerald - Am. Porter (best porter if you ask me)
Dortmunder Gold - Dortmunder (and a fantastic one at that)
Eliot Ness - Vienna Lager (solid brew, heavy on the caramel)
Burning River - American Pale Ale (solid APA).

Commodore Perry used to be there instead of Eliot Ness. Its a heavily citric hopped English IPA. One of my faves as well.

 

I wish I could argue, but they pretty much stick to malty German styles, smoke, and a very, very few West Coast IPAs. I talk about their pub exclusives, naturally. I mean their hefeweizen is solid. But they pretty much smoke things (Engine 20--smoked PA, Big Black Smoke--smoked porter), or change the malt a bit.

Their big offshoot was Alberta Clipper (a beautiful absolutely amazing fantastic dark chocolate raspberry porter) and Hop Madness (used to be the Quitness and was over dry hopped and bitter--I love it).

Please someone correct me if Im wrong.

 

Put me in the camp of hoping they stick to the classic styles and refrain from all the gimmicky beers many brewers are putting out. I have heard they do play around with things, but they won't release anything unless it's up to their standard.

 

Couldn't agree more. I can appreciate brewers who push the envelope, but it's nice to have some that stay true to the style on a consistent basis.

 

Holy Moses used to appear in the variety packs occasionally. This doesn't happen any more though.

 

I'm not trying to tick you off ( really ) & the fact that GL did remove CP does make sense because to freshness , but 30 days shelf life ? I can believe 90 day like Erie Monster. But also could be 120 days . Would be nice to know.
I know the EM cause I e mailed and ask but only got EM.

Cheers

 

I think it is 90. my bad. Id just gotten back from a distillery tour/tasting, and was a bit fuzzy. lol.

 

Just found some 90/CP. 100/BR DG/110 & EF 180 days
Surprised me a bit

 

Too late, not only are they going full-speed ahead into Gimmick Land with the "archaeological" beer they're "recreating" - what's worse, they're also not very original in their gimmickry. Maybe the beer will end up being hopless and they can call it "Gimmicky Gruit".

 

They said they are just playing with the recipe while working with the University of Chicago. They said themselves it probably won't taste very good and it probably won't ever see release.

 

"Put me in the camp of hoping they stick to the classic styles and refrain from all the gimmicky beers many brewers are putting out. I have heard they do play around with things, but they won't release anything unless it's up to their standard."

"Couldn't agree more. I can appreciate brewers who push the envelope, but it's nice to have some that stay true to the style on a consistent basis."

Ditto all that. There's enough breweries out there that are all over the place. We need a few like GL whose beers we can trust to hit the style in the bullseye.

Wonder if some breweries go extreme because they can't really make a well-balanced beer?