Great Lakes Eliot Ness

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

Malty bready aroma, perfectly clear dark amber color. Great mouthfeel for a lager and complex flavor. An above average dark lager with good hops balance, slightly sweet. my kind of beer!

Bottle. Pours a deep amber with a medium head. The aroma is sweet, with hints of malt. The flavor has a nice balance of hops and caramel malts. Very smooth, clean finish. Excellent beer. Wish they could get distributed in Indiana again!

Pours a deep brownish amber with a thick off-white head that fades down to swils of foam. Nose is sweet and malty. Flavor is a bit thick for a lager, but it’s still a lager. Rich and malty with some hop bitterness in the end. Nice and smooth. A beer junkies lager for sure.

"Poured a dark orange with just a little cloudy, samll head and didn’t lace at all. Aroma was malty. Flavor was a little thin, almost watered down with the malts and breadyness in there."

16-Feb-06 (12 oz bottle: Obtained 01-Nov-05 in trade with OhioDad, thanks Scott!) "Enjoy by 30-Nov-05" but it’s been in my fridge for the 3 months I’ve had the beer, so I should be fine. With the first sip, it’s caramely and mildly sweet, more flavorful than most other amber lagers, but not just being sweet and caramely. Better balance, too, provided by a mild bitterness. While the beer isn’t nearly as earthy and mushroomy like the last time I tried this beer, I have to admit, after several sips, mild earthy flavors start to build on the palate. Medium bodied from the start right through to the finish, so no thinning with this beer. Medium amber color, good clarity, a finger’s width worth of off-white head on the pour settles to a ring after several minutes. A very solid amber lager, possibly one of the best I’ve tried.

01-Oct-05 (12 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with bkelley68, thanks Brian!) Uh oh, I kind of lost track of this beer, and now it’s seen significant time in the bottle, so I guess we’ll see how well this has aged over the past year. Well, it has a fairly pungent and earthy aroma. And the flavor is earthy, malty, sweet and mushroomy. Medium bodied. Deep amber in color. The light tan head pours to an average size and settles to a small ring, leaving only a few spots of lace. So it’s aged fine by my tastes, but it’s clearly not the same beer, so I should rerate this at some point.

A beer that is much better drank cold. Started out with rich malts backup by strong german earthy hop pressence, very smooth, lots of caramel and cookie flavors... as it warmed it lost pretty much all hops and was overcome by almond and cookie flavors. Not bad warm at all but not as strong.

(02.06.06) 12 oz brown bottle purchased from DiCarlo’s, Mundelein, IL. ABV 6.2%. Bottle states to enjoy before 3/21/06. Clear amber ale having a small white head. No discernable carbonation. Caramel/sweet malt aromas. Medium bodied that starts with light malt sweetness and fruity/caramel flavors. Finishes dry with light hop bitterness. Well-balanced. A very enjoyable amber ale.

pours deep brownish amber with slight head. smells of caramel and starts off with hearty flavors like a stout, but finishes cleanly and crispy like a lager. a delicious mix of flavors