Great Lakes Christmas Ale

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Appearance: Pours a crystal clear, orange-amber body with a full, foamy white head. Smell: Lozenge-like aroma of spiced gingerbread, cinnamon, nutmeg, and honey with some faroff hints of caramel malt. Taste: Brief caramel malt flavor and sweetness before the full-on flavor of spices kick in with candied ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The honey emerges on the drying finish with the ginger tea taste carrying over into the aftertaste. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: An alright holiday beer, but I couldn’t help but get gingered pretty quickly.

Great tasting beer on draft.Very smooth tasting beer Nice spicey beer.Cannot taste alcohol at all.Surprised as this was a great beer.

Draft at Ashley’s in Ann Arbor. Pour an amber color. Mild, smooth, with Christmas spices, including a little ginger bread, and a mild grassy taste. Very good.

bottle: pours a caramel brown with a small white head. aroam is very spicey clove, cinnamon, ginger. very small amount of caramel malts,mostly spice. flavour is also spices clove, cinnamon, ginger very little else except a hint of malt.

Hope the person that sent me this doesn’t take it the wrong way - I really liked GETTING this and the ability to TRY it, but think my rating may be more than fair as it came mighty close to being a drain pour. Not that there was anything wrong by way of infection, but the spice was just TOO much for me. Like candy - a cinnamon stick or ginger snap. I tried it, went back, waited, let it warm, tried again. Just too much for me. I even mixed varying amounts in other beers in tiny amounts, but still found it rather overpowering. Oh well ......

Dec 2005 - I’m trying to be objective. I don’t like spiced beers, so I didn’t really enjoy this. But if you are into these kind of beers, this might do the trick for you. Poured crystal clear copper color with very llittle head, but decent lacing. Taste was spicey and sweet. Ginger and honey tastes prevalent...but nice hop flavor that made this drinkable for me. These sweet spicey beers usually make me ill.

light aroma of ginger, cinnamon, & clove, notes of this in flavor as well; orange-copper in color; medium sweetness. Higher alcohol content than average beer. If you love spiced beers, this is a fairly good one!

Bottle from Santa. Pours a clear amber with just a touch of whitish head. A general spiciness is apparent on the nose, with the ginger being the most detectable. The combonation of aromas from the spices doesn’t seem to mesh well. The taste is decent enough, with the spice combining well over a nice malt base. The 7.5% is well-hidden. A decent spiced ale, but not much more.