Cleveland Rocks! Up today....Edmund Fitzgerald

This evening I will review the first of several Cleveland's own Great Lakes Brewing Company beer, not the classic Gordon Lightfoot song. That will come later.

A friend brought me back a sampler 12-pack, and I've tried a couple of the beers so far, and overall I am fairly impressed. My original intention was to taste some Great Lakes beers head-to-head against Baltimore's own Heavy Seas. But the beers that I have don't exactly match up well stylistically with Heavy Seas, and besides that would trivialize both beers. (However, I did have a catchy idea for depicting which beer would "win," I was going to post a picture from the winning city's history to show who won and lost...for example, if one of the Great Lakes beers "lost" I would post a picture of the Cuyahoga River Fire, or if it won I would show a picture of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)

Have to give props to the artwork on the label as well...very nice.

Tonight's beer is the Edmund Fitzgerald, a porter. Both Beer Advocate and Rate Beer (and their audiences) love this beer: Beer Advocate gives it an "A" and Rate Beer gives it a 99. I've had a couple of them over the last week or so, and I can't disagree: I would rank Edmund Fitzgerald at the top of American porters, right up there with my favorite, Sierra Nevada's Porter.

It pours dark, and leaves a moderate slightly off-white head that even now remains nearly 30 minutes after I poured it.  There is a slight hoppy aroma accompanied by some roasty malt tones. It is nearly perfectly opaque: just what you would expect a porter.Malty, with just enough hops to lend a bitterness that complements the roasted grains, which are not overpowering. It stops well short of a stout.

A very good start to my Cleveland beer experience!