Great Lakes Burning River Pale Ale

12z bottle. Orange-amber hue. Clear with minimal head. Slight citrus and pine in the nose. Along with a little floral aspect and a touch of breadiness. Great malt roast for the style. A little more balanced than other examples. The hop finish is still present, but it is equally met by the front initial sweet malt. Lively in the mouth and long lasting finish. Oily hop taste. And a slight candy sweet malt flavor. Wonderfully balanced and tamer on the hop profile. Great example.

Nothing terribly distinct about this pale. The nose is pine and citrus hops with a weak bread scent in finish. The hops are relatively mild in the flavor and while it tastes decent enough there are no remarkable qualities. This is very drinkable, but it is by no means one of the better craft pales.

Pours to a clear copper body with lots of active carbonation. The beer has a thick and dense creamy/rocky/active white head. Beautiful lacing. The aroma is hoppy with pine needles and oranges. Subtle aroma of white bread. The flavor is a hop oil covered orange marmalade and white bread. Sweet brown sugar. The palate is creamy and medium bodied during the first swallow but finishes thin and weak. A decent brew, but the bottle is 2 months out-dated, so it’s possible that the flavor has degraded a little.

Bottle from OhioDad. Pours clean copper with some medium-size bubbles lazily hanging out and sports a medium frothy tan head that is mostly diminishing. Some spotty lacing. Sweet caramel medium roasted malt and huge fragrant floral hop aroma with notes of brown sugar and cookie dough. Bitter, heavily, moderately acidic floral hop flavor with caramel malt body. Spicy and medium bodied thin and watery palate.

Pours a golden orange with a very thin off white head. Has aroma of mostly hops, with some fruit and citrus as well. The flavor has notes of hops, malts, citrus and pine.

copper pour with a white head. lemon fruit pie aroma with some apple. the sweetness is well balanced, but the flavor does not deliver. i kept waiting for this to kick in, but it all had a bit of a rubber biscuit quality. i don’t know if this was starting to go off or not. it wasn’t bad, but it was muted sawdust tasting with metallic caramel. i’ll try another from another store and see if anything changes, but the store i grabbed this from was brand new so i’m not sure what to expect.

Pour is a nice tan with a large white fluffy head. Aroma is slightly hoppy. Flavor is a bit on the thin side. There some piney hops in there but nothing really stands out. I know this is a APA and not a IPA but this could use more in the hops and malts dept. The beer is ok i guess. Clean and refreshing.

God, I like Great Lakes’ beers. Another winner of a session beer. Very clean, fresh, hopping with Cascades that surprisingly avoids the thick disgusting pulpy grapefruit flavors. A nice head and balanced with biscuit and toffee accented malt.