Great Lakes Eliot Ness

Brewed By: Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, Ohio
Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from Jewel-Osco in Chicago, IL; 2012
Style/ABV: Vienna, 6.2%

Tonight I am taking a spiritual and flavorful trip to Cleveland, Ohio to check out Great Lakes Brewing Company. Someday I might have visit them in real life. You can take a stroll to the Great Lakes Brewing history page to get the full story about the brewery. Once upon a time in 1870 to be more exact, Cleveland had 30 breweries. By the 1980s, all of those breweries had closed their doors (probably due to the post-prohibition micro brewery buy out: watch Beer Wars). On September 6th, 1988, brothers Patrick Daniel and Conway Daniel opened Great Lakes Brewing Company. It became the first microbrewery in the state of Ohio. The brewery expanded both in 1992 and 1998, and in 2010 and 2011 the brewery spent over 7 million dollars to improve their brewery and brewery equipment. The brewery produces over 100,000 barrels annuals, and serves 13 states and Washington D.C.. According to the Brewers Association "top 50 breweries list" from 2010, Great Lakes Brewing Company is ranked #22 for beer sales as a craft brewer, and #31 for beer sales in general (in America).

Tonight's beer is described as an amber lager with rich malt flavors that are balanced by crisp noble hops. This beer is actually a Vienna Lager, a style probably most famously known in terms of Sam Adam's Boston Lager. If you roll over to the BJCP you will see that the Great Lakes Eliot Ness is actually listed as one of the recognized commercial examples for the style. It is also noted that the Eliot Ness is unusual as it clocks in at a pretty high 6.2% ABV and formerly 35 IBUs. This is a style with big German malt aromas, malt complexity in the taste, and some hop bitterness to balance out the finish. The Eliot Ness uses Munich malts, Caramel 30 malts, and Cara 45 and Harrington 2-Row Base Malts. In fact, I really recommend you check out the brewery's page on the beer. The brewery gives out very clear ingredient information, and how the ingredients are used in the beer. The beer uses Hallertau hops, a U.S. version of the classic German noble hop. Now here is a slight revision or inconsistency: the 2012 version of this beer clocks in at 27 IBUs, while past years this beer hit 35 IBUs. This beer packs 6.2% ABV. Let's see how it looks and tastes.

Great Lakes Eliot Ness

The beer pours an amber/red/orange color. There were 4-fingers of moderately foamy, dish-soap like head, made up of medium bubbles. The head is an amber/orange color. Head retention is nice, and there is nice lacing on my glass as the head pulls away. There is a moderate stream of rising bubbles, so I'm guessing this is moderately carbonated. The beer is transparent and you can see right through it.

The aroma on this is undeniably German, with huge Oktoberfest-esque malts that are rich and heavy. I'm getting those rich toffee aromas that manifest as raisins and twizzlers, similar to a Doppelbock. There is a hint of faint noble hop that is earthy, and hints of really really overripe bananas or banana bread; probably a play on the toffee. A touch of booze.

Wow, this beer has a huuuuge amount of flavor and depth, but it drinks exactly like a Lager in terms of heaviness (or lack thereof). I'm pulling out a ton of noble hop bite: pine, earth, herbal, lemon skin and lemon rind. There are a ton of caramel and toffee malts in here as well, with hints of bread and alcohol grain. The finish is impressively dry, but light, with some bitterness softened by malt roundness. I'm also getting touches of twizzler and banana bread. This is really interesting and flavorful....

...but surprisingly light! Drinkability on this is huge. I mean the mouthfeel on this is medium-light to medium-full with huge palate depth, but this drinks like a lighter Lager. You do feel the impact of the 6.2% a little bit in the grainy-boozy back, but this is super easy to drink. This has a lot of complexity for the style with complex hop notes balancing out the big malts. You get smooth soft carbonation on the front, along with toffee and burgeoning hops; this rolls into a middle of complex hops and toffee malts; the back is bread, lingering hops, grain, alcohol, dryness, and a slightly dry finish. This has that soft Oktoberfest type carbonation. This is slightly sticky and sweet, but the hops really keep those characters in check.

Rating: Divine Brew 

Score: 95%

 

Move over Sam Adams. This is clearly a superior beer in every way except availability, and maybe in terms of subtle flavor nuances. The Boston Lager is a touch more hoppy with some hints of orange notes from the hops. This beer is all about the huge toffee malts, with some really nice earthy and herbal hop balance. I love this beer. This is also insanely drinkable, which means you could make a few of these disappear pretty easily. But the flavors in this are really nice: I would totally eat this with some spicy hotdogs or bratwurst, or with some barbeque. Props to this beer, this was a nice introduction to Great Lakes Brewing. I'm looking forward to drinking more of their beer.