Great Lakes Imperial Dortmunder - 20th Anniversary Beer

Formerly brewed at Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: Strong Pale Lager/Imperial Pils
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Serve in Lager glass

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12oz bottle. Dortmunder Gold is the beer I’ve been buying most recently, one of my favorite beers and one that has crept into my list of top ten desert island beers. So I’m excited to try this version. Pours a copper color with a nice foamy white head. The color seems to be about the same as the orignial or just a tad darker. The aroma is very similar to the original, you can definitely see the resemblance. Strong, rich maltiness, bread, biscuity. Nicely balanced just like the original. Taste is like the original with a higher alcohol kick and more tingles on the tongue. Full-bodied. Hoppier overall as well. This is nice and the flavors are good but it lacks the drinkability that makes the original so amazing. I am glad to have tried this and I think it’s a good beer but when all is said and done I’d rather have the original.

Bottle pours rich golden and crystal clear with a frothy and rocky head. The bubbles look awesome as the quickly rise to the top. The aroma is sharp and malty. The flavor is very bready with some bitterness creeping through at the finish. It tastes like Dortmunder but with a touch more alcohol. I prefer Dortmunder Gold to this.

12oz bottle. Aroma: Strong maltiness with notes of caramel and bread crust. Light herbal, grassy and floral hop notes. A bit of sulfur. Appearance: Dark golden/amber in color and clear. Off white head was small and frothy with fair retention. Not much lacing. Flavor: Lots of bready maltiness, caramel and honey. Spicy, grassy, and herbal hop notes. Fairly sweet throughout. Nice bitterness at the end, but doesn’t quite counteract all the sweetness. Palate: Medium-full bodied. Medium carbonation. Moderate alcohol warmth in back of mouth. Overall: Not bad, but not as good as the regular Dortmunder.

Pours an amber with an off-white head. Aroma is of sweet and toasted malts, and a hint of some floral hops. Flavor is sweet and toasted malts. Finishes with not very much hop flavor but some alcohol warming even at 7.5%. It’s ok but nothing great.

Bottle from Belmont Party Supply. I love Great Lakes Brewery. Although, I am 200 miles away, I consider them my home brewery. But, with that being said, I am not afraid to be critical of mediocracy. This beer is mediocre. The pour is light amber with a big, lingering head and the aroma is that of balance. It starts out malty sweet and finishes hot. The presence of alcohol is this beer’s most noticeable characteristic. I wish they had doubled up on Edmund Fitzgerald or even Burning River for their 20th Anniversary, because this beer is not worthy of such a notable event. A good beer, but not great, it should be in the category of Imperial Average beers. When you put the word Imperial or Double on a beer, you had better live up to high expectations.

This was a great beer; I drank a few on the day they released the 4-pack. Very good; it was well worth the money.

Growler: Pours a clear deep copper color with a white head. Aroma, bready notes, caramel, doughy yeasty notes, herbal and grassy hops. Flavor, sweet caramel notes, very bready, hops are herbal and grassy and again, far more noticeable than in the regular version. My first glass was more enjoyable than the second, the sweetness became a bit too much the second time around. I definitely prefer the regular Dortmunder Gold, though this was interesting to get to try.

Not much to say really, it’s Dortmunder but with more malts and hops. Really came across to me as an Oktoberfest with a big caramel sweetness upfront being a lot sweetwe than Dortmunder. Hops were a little more aggressive in the bitterness but really not that big of a difference. Nice but it’s really not that different and less drinkable in my opinion.

When I added this beer I would have selected Imperial Golden Lager as the style. On tap at the brewery. Pours a dark golden/amber color with a thin off white head. Has a strong aroma that combines alcohol, caramel sweetness, and grassy smells. Mouthfeel is medium with a nice amount of carbonation. My first few sips I kept saying this was a wierd tasting brew because I had a hard time pin pointing what the flavors were. There is a lot of alcohol with a lot of sweetness thrown in. It has a spicy twang on the finish that leaves my taste buds dry. Overall an interesting brew and one I was glad to try.