Great Lakes Imperial Dortmunder - 20th Anniversary Beer

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: European Strong Lager
Cleveland, Ohio USA

12 oz bottle, my first Euro Strong Lager and I didn’t like it. Poured a pale yellow straw looking watery lager. Some head. Taste is extreamly malty with alcohol presence. Horrible finish, gives a bad kick at the end. Did not enjoy this one.

bottle from fiver29: pours a very clean golden amber with a small white very nice looking. aroma is very nice sweet malts, flowers, honey, and slight hops. flavour is very good full of sweet malts that seem thick and chewy, some breadiness and slight hops. alcohol is well hidden and very easy to drink.

Mildly volatile olfactory. Half inch head fades rapidly. A little darker than pale yellow with visible streams of carbonation within. Strong up front taste bud rototillling. Coarse but yet does not trigger gag reflex. Bitterly interesting and oppressing. Good way to deliver a 7+ alky blast. Lacks manners; turpentine and strong alky in yer faceness, ammicably crude. Finish is like lasting nagging bitter medicine, this stuff is double imperial dortness. Very difficult toward the end.

bottle - Pours deep golden with a one finger white head. It smells of bready malt, some nice fruit easters, and a hint of hops. The flavor is sweet malt with a light fruit background, mild hops, and a little alcohol presence that mainly makes itself be known in the finish. I actually really enjoy this one, so I’m going to have to break with the pack a bit and agree with my fellow Hoosier and prior rater, BBB63. Very nice beer.

Bottle and served in my Great Lakes snifter: Clean golden hue with small frothy head and spotty lace. The aroma has notes of carmel and pale bready malt, grassy and herbal noble hops, a hint of pepper and pear esters, and an overall grainy nose. The taste is just what you expect, very much in the Euro Strong Lager tradition with a grain and yeast driven flavor profile and light handed hop in the background. Hardly the drinkable beer of the regular Dortmunder Gold but it is still a far cry better than many of the style we get here in the US of A. As mentioned by someone else, this could easily go under the Maibock style and I would not have an issues with that. (Actually it is indeed a bit like the Livery’s Maibock in flavor). The mouth feel is lush but not syrupy, nice twangy alcohol palate cleanizer. I like this, well played Great Lakes!

Everyone who rated this 3.0 or lower really needs to go buy a few other European Strong Lagers, taste them and then taste this side by side and tell me if you still think this sucks.

Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a dark golden color with a huge yellow-white head. The aroma was sweet, fruity and sour. The flavor was sweet, tangy, malty and had a moderately strong floral hop element. The finish was tangy. The body was fairly thick. Reminded me of a maibock.

12oz. Bottle: Aroma of dough, yeast, hops, grains, herbs, and grass. Poured deep gold/apple juice in color with a small, white head that disappeared. Clear. Slightly sparkling. Flavor is lightly sweet and lightly bitter. Tastes of honey, grains, hops, malts, bread, and honey. Medium body. Sticky texture. Average carbonation. Bittersweet, dry finish.

Pours a rich amber color with some nice foamy head. Aroma is cereal and maltiness with some metallic-ness and a watery character (I know you can’t smell water, but I swear there is an aroma for watery beer). Flavor is distinctly not watery. It is a bit cerealy without being unpleasantly grain-y - it is not like that German maibock that has been sitting on a store shelf since 1995 - it is decidedly malty (as you might expect from the name), but not unpleasantly cerealy. I got some whiskey too. It’s good - you should try it. I got this bottle at Discount Liquor in Milwaukee.