Great Lakes Grassroots Ale

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

courtesy of markwise. Highly underrated beer. pours nice clear golden, white head. Aroma of wheat, chamomile is very upfront, some earthly aspects, some sweet leaves, probably the basil with hints of citrus. Flavor, hints of spices; coriander, some hints of pepper?, wheat, malts, herbal with chamomile. Finish is smooth and sweet.

On tap. Elements of a classic are all here. Lots of spice and a earthy yeast characteristic. However this was a very sweet saison, at least for me, so I was no able to finish my glass.

(Bottle) I normally do not like this style, but I must say, this is an outstanding beer! Great lakes consistently surprises and impresses me with their unparalleled ability to spin virtually every style of beer into something I like. The aroma is unique, complex, and quite bold, and hard to describe...not at all lemony like the commercial description would suggest, rather, an almost olive-like quality, and some herbaceous tones. It actually smells a lot like gunpowder--but more pleasant. Very crisp and fresh tasting, only slightly bitter, very little sourness, and with a clean and pleasant aftertaste. Rich without being heavy. The carbonation is gentle but very present and seems to mesh well with the aroma. Another well-executed Great Lakes brew.

Bottle, I believe Cliff sent this. Pours clear honet with a solid head. Faint, weird aroma, something like mustard or horseradish, and some honey. Flavor has this kind of burnt mustard note to it which is not all that appealing. Some good refreshing qualities otherwise..this isn’t all that bad, but it’s weird.

Bottled, BB 11/16/09. Poured clear, rather bright orange with a short, kinda fizzy cap of off-white head.. plenty of rising carbonation. The aroma had some pale malts that were completely overshadowed by an array of odd spices and dark notes.. lemongrass, mint, and corinder spring to mind, but there was more to it.. if I enjoyed it more, I would’ve gone to the spice rack to get some hints.. some apparent warmth on the back of the nose. The flavor had basically the same stuff.. pale and some honey maltage at the core with a hodgepodge of spices around.. lemon zest, coriander, and sticky herbal character.. tacky pale and caramel maltage on the finish with a thick spice slurry. Medium-bodied with a heavier feel than it should’ve had on the palate.. flavors really didn’t come together well. Campfire smoke came out the longer I let this sit.. don’t know if it was intentional, but it was mildly intriguing.

12oz bottle. Very bubbly. Flavor and aroma makes me think of the spent grain and hops slurry left after brewing, in a good way. My first thought was ’grass’ but this might be because of the name. Quite a lot of body, which takes away somewhat from the drinkability that I was hoping for. This is more of a meal then a thirst slaker. Yay beer!

12oz bottle. Pours a rich nearly clear golden with a dense white bubbly froth 3.5. Aroma is pretty boring, sweet and sour cereal, smells a bit cloying, coriander, and maybe something a bit herbal. Flavor follows, strangely sweet, cereal, weird bitterness playing off the too strong coriander, really chalky tasting, sweet without flavor. Med/light body with a much fuller mouth-feeling, medium corse abundant fizzy round carbonation, a bit chalky in the palate as well. Eh... what the hell is the point of all these trendy American macro saisons if they are so relatively sugary that you can’t taste the yeast, spice or hops...

12 oz bottle. Pours a very light golden but not much carbonation so the head is slight. Aroma is diminished- even though it is spiced- doughy pale and pils malts, with an herbal hay and farmhousey grassyness, dulled out saison yeastiness- phenolic, and a slight spicy grassy chamomile, flowery thing going on Not much going on with the lemon balm or lemon basil. Whoa- flavor takes a pretty big turn though- tons of spice herbs, wood, grass, weeds, a spicy chamomile and almost a peppery phenolic yeastiness- so much woody, hay, earth, dirt (kinda like beets actually), leather, and some slight astringency and bitterness from the herbs. Strange saison- not all that enjoyable actually- too earthy and dirt-like.