Great Lakes Eliot Ness

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

12 ounce bottle from Chicken Chucks. Pours a clear amber with a medium white head. A smooth rich malty nose, caramel and toffee. The flavor is similar; smooth caramel, toffee, slight oxidation, rich fruity malts. Nice.

12 oz. bottle from Baba Budan’s, their December 2009 beer of the month ($2.25!). Pours a clear amber color with a small off-white head. Aroma of toast, caramel, hops, dried fruits, and earthy notes. The flavor is also nice and toasty, with minimal hop bitterness to go along with the caramel malt sweetness and light roastiness. Light-medium bodied, with active carbonation and a crisp, almost sugary-sticky mouthfeel. Easy to drink, and a good year-round go-to beer from Great Lakes. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t rated this yet.

Refrigerated botte. Pours a deep amber red color. The taste is dominated by heavy earthy hops with some malt sweetness. Not a big fan of the style. This brew is certainly not a session beer.

72oz growler from brewpub. nose is good roasty, biscuity malt with hint of aromatic savory spice. malt forward without being too sweet, subtle hopping does the trick. translucent dark amber with good carb and bitter lacing. some fruitiness shines through in finish.

This is a fantastic lager that can be purchased many places throughout Chicago in bottle form. Aroma is mostly malty, lightly roasted and a hint of caramel. Very easy to drink with a fantastic light malt aftertaste, but crisp at the same time.

Amber color with good head. Tastes of caramel, malt, and licorice. Very good example of the style.

Location: 12 oz bottle from jcos, 11/22/09

Aroma: The nose has lots of caramel, toffee, and sweet fruits, with notes of cereal/bread and earthy hops
Appearance: Pours a clear amber color with a disappearing off-white head and light lace
Flavor: Flavor is medium-high sweetness, with a bit of earthy bitterness for balance
Palate: The body is light-medium, with some lively carbonation, and a somewhat sticky mouthfeel
Overall Impression: Overall, this is turns out to be a well-structured and tasty beer, maybe a drop too sweet for my palate, but very good none-the-less. One that works well as both a highly drinkable brew, and a nice example of its style. Truly a nice beer that, that you might say even borders on being "Untouchable" (sorry, I couldn’t resist, it was just too easy...) No, it’s not quite that good, but it is really solid, and I can’t pass up an easy joke.

Nice amber almost red color. Good head and aroma is full of caramel and other sweet smells. Very smooth tasting with caramel and nice malt flavors, would definitely recommend.