Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

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

My favorite beer! Rich foamy head complemented with chocolate & coffee while well hopped.

Perfection. A truly excellent Porter. There was only one place in Cincinnati that had this stuff on draft. Every once in a while you would see it in bottles. Now, my fav watering hole has it so make that 2 places. Life is good

What a stellar beer! Pours an opaque deep dark mahogany. Beige head is frothy and rocky, with sticky lacing all the way down. Aromas of fresh roast coffee, and chocolate. The taste is mesmerizing with its flavor. Freshly ground coffee, chocolate, roasted malt, a slight smokiness quality. An aftertaste that ties together the aroma and taste with its wonderful hop kick. Some porters are bland in the hop department, but this one gives a pleasant bite. For such a meaty porter, this beer is extremely smooth and very very very drinkable. Possibly the best porter out there, and the benchmark for brewers to strive to. Wow.

29 years to the day, the Fitz went down. An excellent porter. Coffee and chocolate. It’s boldness reminds me of the stormy seas the day she went down.

After drinking many more beers I have returned to change my rating to a 5. This is simply my favorite beer and I cannot rate it any other way. This beer is unlike any other. Aroma is very strong, and complex: initially a dark bitter vanilla, then a rich roasted malt. Extremely bitter. Very hoppy, very roasted. It has been one of my favourite beers since I first tried it, definitely my favourite porter, and has my favourite aroma of any beer. But it’s not for everyone: this is an extreme beer; it packs a punch and can come across as a bit coarse, unrefined, or too powerful. However, I want to emphasize that it is precisely this coarse and unrefined quality that I love about this beer. It tastes raw, uncontrollable, bizarre, overpowering...and yet somehow oddly comforting, wholesome, and heartwarming all at the same time. This is one beer that tastes twice as good on tap. In the bottle, the roasted quality overpowers the rest of the beer; on tap, much more complex and balanced, I would recommend for everyone to try this beer...it certainly is not going to be liked by everyone, but those who like it really seem to love it.

What an excellent beer. Great mix of complex tastes, of hops, malt, roast, sweet, and bitterness. The color is gorgeously dark, and has a nice head. Porter is the style of beer I drink least, but this one is the best.

One of my very favorite brewpubs is the Great Lakes Brewing Company, of Cleveland, OH. This is one brewpub I have made return trips to ever since that first trip back in 1994. At that time, Great Lakes didn’t have a brewery, all their beers were brewed at the brewpub, and they were a very local beer. GLBC has enjoyed some growth, and their market has grown from its small Northern Ohio roots to a few Midwestern states. I love all of Great Lakes products, but one beer has a special place in my beer loving heart, and that is Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. This is a delicious, rich, robust porter just packed with flavors. Some robust porters border on being stouts, they are very roasty, coffeeish, and the flavors quite intense. Edmund Fitzgerald is an outstanding example of robust porter. This beer pours to a deep brown/black, opaque color with a big, tan, creamy head, and a soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is fantastic. Very malty aromas of dark chocolate malts, roasted barley, and coffee marry with a back drop of citric, piney, hop aromatics. The palate is wonderful. More big chocolate malt flavors, coffee, a touch of vanilla, and more roast. Edmund Fitzgerald has a very muscular malt back bone, this beer isn’t hefty, but has a big body for a porter. This beer finishes with more good dark malt up front, then finishes with a long, dry, citric hop bite that lingers. A robust, flavorful, and vibrant beer. Match this with a nice porterhouse steak and baked potato. This is a great desert beer as well, it would go well with a chocolate brownie sundae with vanilla ice cream.

Presentation: It was poured from a 12oz bottle into a pint glass. It appears dark and opaque. It has a dark black color with deep crimson highlights when held up to light. The head is tan, thick and foamy with good retention. Some light tan lace slowly sides down the glass, chasing the head, as I drink. The aroma is full and rich. It has notes of caramel with a strong dark roasted malt presence that has a deep roasted espresso character. Its flavor has deep chocolate roasted malts with flavor notes of coffee and cream with bittersweet chocolate. The hops play well off the malt and further develop the bittersweet chocolaty flavors before slowly fading out into the finish. The palate is smooth, creamy and slightly slick with mild carbonation and a medium to full body. Outstanding. This porter is one of my personal favorites, with a wonderful balance of flavors and drirkability. I would highly recommend this as a stand alone drink or even pairing it with your favorite chocolate.