Great Lakes Brewing Orange Peel Ale

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing (Ontario)
Style: Fruit Beer
Etobicoke, Canada

650 ml bottle sampled 6/5/08. Golden amber colour with a mostly diminishing creamy and fizzy white head. Grainy, bready, floral, and citrus aroma. Bready and lightly orangey flavour with a fruity, lightly perfumed, and earthy bitterness. Faint underlying orange and pithy character throughout. Medium bodied, firm but juicy mouthfeel. Perfumed bitterness grows as it warms and is a bit unpleasant. An interesting experiment, but not to my taste.

Bomber. Poured medium orangey-golden with a short-lived cap of white head. The aroma picked up sweet candied oranges and Circus Peanuts (more of those actually, now that I think of it).. quite a bit of honey too.. not a bad combination of stuff, but it didn’t work very well. The flavor opened with orange tanginess, with sweet honey and pale malts following.. light, grainy orange bitterness and light floral notes around.. finished with candied orange zest and honey. Light-bodied and dry on the palate.. too watery and tacky at times (different times), so the flow wasn’t that good.. I didn’t enjoy this.

650ml bottle poured into a pint glass. Poured a hazy gold and orange colour with a 1" head. The head slowly dissipated and the lacing was good. Aroma is sweetness, of oranges and of faint hops. The oranges are not overpowering giving this an overall pleasant aroma. Taste has some sweetness upfront, very mild citrus notes, then it’s the bitter orange peels followed by the hops. It’s well balanced but nowhere near as sour I was expecting. The flavours also improved as the beer warmed up. It’s a similar orange flavour compared to that a good orange liquor. Average carbonation. Average feel. I didn’t know what to expect when I cracked this one open but I quite enjoyed it.

650mL bottle. Tasty beer, but not mindblowing. Amber colour with white head. Orange rind nose, taste is malty with more orange flavour. Bit of hops in the finish, overall easy drinking.

Bottle from LCBO (Toronto, ON). Pours a clear golden with hints of amber and thin white head. Aroma is sweet and floral with notes of orange, funk, wheat, honey. Flavor is sweet and floral with notes of orange peel, light citrus, wheat, honey, light spice and hints of caramel. Generally light to medium body with a thin finish.

Light amber color. An unbalanced ale with some artifical organe flavoring thrown in. Pass.

Bouteille de 650 ml achetée à la LCBO (Peterborough, ONT). Arôme: Odeur de céréales avec une pointe d’oranges et d’houblons. Apparence: La couleur est orangée. Présence d’un moyen col mousseux et d’une fine dentelle sur le verre. Saveur: Goût d’oublons avec une pointe d’agrumes et de céréales. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est moyen avec une texture légèrement minérale. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. Légère présence de zestes d’oranges en arrière goût. (Rating #2599)

Bottle. Pours clear yellow with no head. Aroma of malt, wheat and maybe a small hint of orange. Taste is malt and wheat. Nothing really special there. Disapointing.