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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Another high quality beer from greal lakes. Slightly more hops and ABV than the orginal dortmunder. Very drinkable, good finish. Surprised at the other tepid reviews.

Originally reviewed: 11/20/08. Pours a deep gold, with a frothy white head that retains fairly well. Some spotty lacing. Smells of some adjunct corn, malt, some alcohol. Can taste the alcohol right off. Very prominent. Also getting some of usual lager flavors of corn and malt. This does have a pleasant bitter bite at the end. Mouthfeel is a little weak. Very few bubbles rising through. A little flat. Drinkability is a little low due to the alcohol smack. Good brew though.

Copper-gold color with a nice 1/2" white head on the pour. Up front comes the sweet caramel malts. The middle of this brew has some interesting hop notes, a little grassy. The finish is somewhat boozy.

a: golden body with some light white lace, 1/2" head s: malt and grain t: smooth with sweet malt, hop spice, and hint of achohol m: medium with little carbonation

Sampled 12/12/08 best before 10/08/08 Received in trade from Prototypic, thanks for the opportunity! Pours a nearly clear golden amber color with a fluffy white head that dissipates quickly. Smells of berries, grassy hops, a hint of diacetyl. Pleasant malt forward smell. Taste is a bit sweet with lots of fruit on the tongue. Lots of malt, a little bit of alcohol and some grass in there as well. Body is medium to thick, mouthfeel is creamy and maybe a little sticky, carbonation is crisp. This is a great malt forward brew, I wish I could have tried it a bit fresher as I wonder if the hops were more pronounced.

Reviews Sort by: Latest High Low Top Reviewers « first ‹ prev 1-10 11-20 21-30 next › last » Reviews by Thorpe429: Thorpe429 ( Alexandria, Virginia ) A / 4.5 look: 5 smell: 4 taste: 4.5 feel: 4.5 drink: 4.5 rDev: +13.6% G: Poured into my new Mikasa pilsner glass--damn that glassware was hard to find. I recommend the set to everyone, though: pilsner, weizen, tulip, and chalice, and all very well-crafted. A: A very light copper with a great rush of carbonation bubbles that persist throughout the drink. Massive white head with an absolutely amazing amount of lacing as it goes down. S: Some earthy type grains to go along with a nice, faint hop presence and an ever-so-slight sweetness. T: Definitely an imperial dortmunder. Their standard dort. is a thing of beauty, and this is quite good as well. Some grassy sweetness goes along with faint noble hops. M: Nicely crisp and smooth with good carbonation. Excellent. D: Exceedingly drinkable. This is some fantastic stuff. They’ve made their already-outstanding dortmunder offering even better. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 04-29-2009

Bottle:   Amberish, slight sediment gives off a haze, moderate frothy off-white head, spotty lacing.   Heavy sweet breadiness up front, grassy, and rather malty.   If this was brewed and bottled two years ago, and the best by day is Oct 6 2008, this stuff held up really well!   Overall just seems to this heavy sweet grassiness.   Clean, no off flavors.   I can see this being an Imperial Dortmunder.   Moderate to full body and mouthfeel.   Clean finish, very grassy, fairly sweet.   Its like a big Pilsner.   Surprised that the age of this beer didnt seem to diminish its flavor and aroma.   Well crafted.   Thanks to jsquire for the bottle!

Dusky n color, slimmwhite head, a torrent of carbonation rush ever to the top. Perfect pilsner appearance. Aroma starts big and hoppy, sharp and strong, grain and vegetal aromatics meets fusel alcohol. Taste: buttery sweet meets the stinging heat of the high alcohol. I’m just not an Imperial Pilsner nut, see it as oxymoronical anomaly. like "Imperial Mild." Let’s taste again and see if my opinion changes. Yep, it’s still there, oddly sweet, then hit the heat. Doesn’t hang well on the tongue., either. After bad first impressions, I’m liking it a little better, mouthfeel seems cleaner, booze never really sticks out too much, the harsh contrast doesn’t destroy it. And I can finish it okay, goes down pretty well. But I’m still not crazy about it.

A- body is a crystal clear golden yellow color that pours with a fizzy white head that immediately dissipates. No lacing is left behind in the glass. S-Sweet pale malts are most dominant followed by an alcohol astringency. The most hidden are the hops in the nose. T-Sweet pale malts upfront with a hint of hop flavor. A bit more (piny) piny hops come out for the finish...but this is nothing like dortmunder gold. A malty sweetness and a hint of hop bitterness linger along with a twinge of astringency. P-Medium carbonation and light, drinkable body. O- It was great to try this one...but I had much higher expectations for it. I love dortmunder gold and this just isn’t as good. It’s much sweeter and not as hoppy. This has the same flavor profile as most Munich Helles that I have had. Doesn’t seem very unique to me. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 09-14-2008 01:56:24

bottle-sampled fresh in late 08. bright orange witha small sudsy white head. alcoholic grassy/grainy nose with some light pale malt sweetness. flavors are dominated by grainy alcohol-really bad! Has traits that just dont work well together-needs more hops and a better yeast strain to dry this one out. some veggie notes on the finish.

12 oz bottle. Pours a golden orange with a small white rocky head. Aroma is strong bready doughy. Small light fruity presence, some berries and caramel malts. Flavor has sweet malts and sugar in the start leads to a quick bitter hop finish. Light notes of fig and again really dough, light grain. Medium body and an moderate carbonation. Didn’t really get a whole lot of depth in this beer, but it was ok.