Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster Double IPA

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

Pours a hazy, golden body with a lacing, foamy beige head. Aromas of alcohol and tropical fruit. Flavor is sweet and fruity, mango. Finish is dry, sticky, and bitter. Big, full, chewy body.

12 ounce bottle served into a Belgian Tulip glass. Medium amber color thats a little hazy. Pours with a thick head initially that subsides quickly. Lemony, citrus aroma with heavy woodsy, earthy qualities. Orange peel, a little citrusy with bitter overtones. Starts out a little mild, but finishes big with a bitter hop finish balanced with caramel malts and a pronounced flavor of alcohol that lingers long after the beer is gone. Very thick and syrupy mouthfeel that is full bodied. Hoppiness is well balanced with malt and alcohol flavors making this a complex beer suitable for sipping. Yet the hoppiness makes it a nice complement to a fish or salmon dinner.

On tap at Cole’s. The aroma is all about apricots. Big apricots. The flavour adds some other, mostly over-ripe fruit into the mix, and a stron, hoppy bitterness hits near the end. Alcohol is well hidden. Nice, drinkable IIPA.

Learned a lot about Lake erie Monster DIPA from local GL brewery rep. He said the keg was one of the last in the area, but freshly tapped this beer is outstanding. Golden, fill bodied 2XIPA, fruity aroma announced a moderate hopping of the beer. Overall I thought it was well blended, not an over-the-top West Coast style IPA, but a more subtle, pronounced 2XIPA.

(Bottle) I’ve had this one on two separate occasions now. This beer is intense, but oddly light. It strikes me as more like a stronger Belgian ale than a typical double IPA. The hops are intensely citrusy, and.the malt tastes rather similar to that of a beer with a substantial wheat component. Sweet but without being too heavy. Upon drinking the whole cup, more of the IPA character comes out, especially in the accumulation of the bitter hoppy character on the tastebuds...but overall this one still is the lightest and most non-IPA-like Imperial IPA I’ve had. Alcohol content is well-masked, but I really noticed it after drinking it! Yet another great Great Lakes brew. But, honestly? I still prefer a lot of their more well-known ones...I’d take Burning River, Edmund Fitzgerald, or Holy Moses over this one any day.

Draft, in Pint Glass. The bar tender should have served it in a tulip glass, but the aromas of citruis and grassy hops will was present. Nice deep golden yellow color in a pint glass and slightly hazy. minimal head. Great balance of medium sweetness with heavy bitterness and alcohol. The body was medium, with an oily texture. Medium carbonation with a bitter finish that did not last too long.

12 oz bottle, best by 8/10/10. Pours a very hazy golden orange with a big creamy white head that retains and laces the glass.

The aroma is rather subdued - some bready malts and sugary melon with peppery hops and some sharp alcohol.

The flavor is sweet sugary caramel malts and some fruit followed by a big dank earthy hop bitterness that lingers in the aftertaste. The alcohol is noticeable and warming. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with creamy carbonation.

Overall, it’s an OK DIPA. It’s just not too balanced with the sugary sweetness clashing with a big dank bitterness.

Draft. Pours hazed golden orange. Very fruity nose like fruit punch. Very fruity flavors...some melon, fruit punch, orange...just fruit hop flavors everywhere...the bitterness is east coast tame...the sweetness is certainly there and bringing out the fruit flavors, the alcohol is evident but not hot or tasted much, just brings body and existence to the beer. Oddly strong in its fruitiness though...I’m not used to these non-west coast ipas/iipas, they’re like a whole other style as far as I’m concerned. Decent enough though.