Great Lakes 15th Anniversary Ale

Formerly brewed at Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Tripel
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Good beer. The bottle I had was a little over a year old and while I have not tasted it previously, I assume that it has aged well, despite Great Lakes propensity for "short dating" their beers. The head was weak and lacing minimal, but the overall flavor and aroma were good. The aroma is blatantly sweet and fruity, a little citrus, perhaps mixed with melon or banana. The taste is even sweeter. Fruit abounds and while I can easily detect the 9% abv (approx.), it isn’t annoying or overwhelming. Flavors I taste are banana, some citrus and maybe some melon. Good beer and interesting that the aroma and the taste correlate very closely.

Hazy orange color with a nice white smooth head. Wheaty citrusy aroma and flavor. Actually pretty dissapointing for Great Lakes. Bummer.

Golden body with a dissapating head. decent lace. Light spicey sweet aroma with same on a malty moderate palate. Finishes clean.

2/7/05. Poured out of 12 oz. bottle, obtained in a trade with TAR on RateBeer 9/7/04. Pours a crystalline deep gold color with a fluffy, slightly rocky, disappointingly diminishing eggshell head. Decent lacing, but I’ve seen trippels do much more with their appearance, and this one barely eeks along to a low 4 (mostly from the deep color). Nose is gently sweet and yeasty, inviting with light pepper, clove, and a touch of rum-infused apple fruitiness. Taste shuns most of that for a crisp and clunky alcohol and coriander assault, pushing the pepper character from the background into the only ground. Some strange sweet eggy flavors and no subtlety at all. Reminds me of some of the worse experiences with interesting beers that are struggling mightily to display any balance (The Beast, Horny Devil, a few bottles of Hop 15 I’ve had). This one has fewer (and less) redeeming facets than most of those others. It’s not a horrible beer, but it doesn’t make me want more of it either. Mouthfeel has medium-full body and a slightly viscous overall texture. Finish drops out into the peppery spice display with lightly drying, strangely bitter spent yeast. Too much alcohol present in the beer all over the place. It actually tastes much better at the end of the bottle when I’ve poured the yeast into my last ounce or two of beer. Much smoother and more delicate, although it’s still hardly very good. Maybe it’d have been good to try this one a year or so ago. . . .

OK I like Tripels, but... Almost no head. Initial aroma of salty sourness and thereafter more melon. Flat heavy flavour falls short of the mark. Sour salty and thick. Flavours appear to be at war with no balance or music.

Hometown brew! Great lakes kicks ass! This one is real sweet and birthday cake like as the label shows. Cloves, jamaican suger(demerara), creamy honey and it hides the alchy well. Some hops pop out, but it is an brew that should be enjoyed maybe one or two throughout the night(or day as long as it’s noon somewhere)!!!!

Golden color with hardly any head. Winey, mildly sour aroma with a bit of coriander and citrus. Sweet malty flavor with some orange, coriander and yeast.

Gorgeous orange/red, lots of yeast; lacks head. Full, Belgian-yeast aroma: Cloves, bananas, yeast, the usual. Big, round flavor: Super sweet, with yeast and clove flavors; very nice alcohol warmth; nice touch on the hops in the finish. Very thick though slightly sticky. Excellent.