Great Lakes Grassroots Ale

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

bottled, purchased at Gorilla’s in Butler, PA. medium body, creamy, average carbonation, long finish. citrus, earthy, golden, hazy, a minimal head.

Great Lakes Grassroots Ale is a slightly hazy pale yellow ale with a huge, creamy, dense white head that has excellent retention and lacing. It sure smells like a farmhouse. It’s funky, with notes of old fruit, barnyard and bret. It’s medium bodied and super velvety smooth with a clean finish. It’s slightly tart at the beginning of the taste and then it turns smokey. The aftertaste is like bacon. This is a super funky ale. [Sampled at the 2009 Flower City Brewers’ Fest at Frontier Field, Rochester, NY]

(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 from Weiland’s Market in Columbus, OH. Pours clear gold with a white head. Nose is light malt, herbs, chamomile, yeast, and pepper. Flavor is light malt, herbs, grass, pepper, yeast, and honey/ spice/ sugar. Sweeter than your average Saison, but still very good. Good summer beer or starter beer. Medium-bodied and quite good.

On tap at the brewery. A little hazy, but mostly clear, pale and gold. Tiny bubbles separate a thin, white sheet of a head. Nice aroma with banana, cloves, lemongrass, nutmeg, cinnamon and some citric zing. Flavor pulls through with cinnamon and ginger, along with a vanilla crème and banana smoothie complexity. Enjoyable.

This was a different beer, but actually enjoyable. Poured to a lemon-gold color, with thin white head that lingered for most of the glass and left decent lacing. Aroma was a mild mixture of hops and waht smelled like ginger, with a hint of lemon. Taste was very heavily ginger, which carried over into the finish very nicely. I couldn’t have many of these, but for one, it was a good experience.

Courtesy of markwise. My first new Great Lakes brew in some time. crizay, where’s the hook up brotha? Sorry for off topic but crizay frikin’ ROCKS! Pours gold with off white head. The aroma is honey, some spices and chamomile. The taste first seems sweet and a bit honey like then layers of grain and earthiness hit about midway. Yum The chamomile is subtle and hanging out in the background. Yet another solid brew from Great Lakes.

Draft at Jerry’s. Clear gold with good, creamy white head / Nose of banana, malt, and herbs / Light to medium body, creamy, but a touch flabby with low carbonation, and with good, dry, herbal finish / Perfumed flavors of banana, grass, coriander, and the aforementioned lemon balm, chamomile, and lemon basil / Quirky, very herbaceous, but very good example of what it is. An herbal saison per the brewery.