Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Cleveland, Ohio USA

12 oz bottle at brewpub. My tour guide made this sound like Great Lakes’ pride and joy, telling us that it had won more awards than any of their other beers, that it had been rated as the best porter, and that it had won more overall awards than any other beer. It goes without saying that most of this seems like total bullshit. Anyway, it had a near black pour with a minimal khaki brown head. Aroma was all coffee and roasted malt. The flavor was good but not too complex, mostly just coffee, burn malt, and smoke. It was pretty drinkable, but not nearly as smooth as other porters I have had with higher abv.s. It was medium bodied on the palate with trace carbonation. Overall: this was a good beer, but not nearly what I expected after its intro by my tour guide (even knowing that most of what he was saying must be incorrect).

12 oz bottle. Pours nearly opaque dark brown with a nice light tan head. Aroma is strong, roasty, sweet, dark chocolate. Flavor is delicious, roasted coffee, bitter dark chocolate, a bit of sweetness. Lightly bitter and roasty finish. If anything, the bitter chocolate flavor might last a bit long, but for me that just lets me enjoy it longer. Yep, this is great stuff.

Poured from a 12 oz. bottle. Greyish chocolate look. Molasses, cola syrup, milk chocolate, vanilla aroma; all toasted malt and brown sugar and cookie dough, with a lick of basic sugary sweetness throughout. Foundational, with no nuances, and firmly set. Dry, full, polished porter flavors; crisp leafy bitterness and a firm bittersweet nuttiness that dries out the wet, molasses-soaked maltiness quite nicely. Pear and apple skin mid palate offering the simplest of tart fruit flavor, wetting a bit with a juicy fig like sweetness in the mid palate; this in tandem with all that molasses and coke syrup sweetness tends to allow a cloying quality to peek through, but it’s tamed easily by meatiness, delicate brown spice, and calm bitterness. Milky, medium body is very soft, with just the right feathery touch for a traditional porter; plenty of pale malt doughiness in a warm, generous finish. Exemplary. Thanks Tyler!

(bottle, thanks Tytoanderso!) Pours dark brown with an off-white head. Aroma is pretty simple, but very pleasant with lightly roasted malt, chocolate, cocoa, and brownies. The taste is a little more complex than the aroma, with a nice light roast, coffee, chocolate, some soy-sauce, and a nice tart berry skin finish that rounds out to a lightly bitter end. Mouthfeel is pretty thin. This is a very traditional porter that lacks the harsh roast and thicker mouthfeel that others possess, and it would make an excellent session beer.

Presentation: It was poured from a 12oz bottle into a pint glass. It appears dark and opaque. It has a dark black color with deep crimson highlights when held up to light. The head is tan, thick and foamy with good retention. Some light tan lace slowly sides down the glass, chasing the head, as I drink. The aroma is full and rich. It has notes of caramel with a strong dark roasted malt presence that has a deep roasted espresso character. Its flavor has deep chocolate roasted malts with flavor notes of coffee and cream with bittersweet chocolate. The hops play well off the malt and further develop the bittersweet chocolaty flavors before slowly fading out into the finish. The palate is smooth, creamy and slightly slick with mild carbonation and a medium to full body. Outstanding. This porter is one of my personal favorites, with a wonderful balance of flavors and drirkability. I would highly recommend this as a stand alone drink or even pairing it with your favorite chocolate.

12 oz. bottle. Really tasty, this one has a lot of sweetness like brown sugar, but there’s a solid bitterness under the surface.

Had this bottle from Variety pack. I nice tart porter with a hint of hops good color and fair head. Some citrus which i liked in the style.

Bottle courtesy of either Gillard or poonpillager. Pours dark brown with a one finger tan head that leaves good lacing. Aroma of roasted malt, chocolate and coffee. Taste is the same as aroma. Medium thin mouthfeel with a mild amount of bitterness. Very good.