Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster Double IPA

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

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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Thanks to Brentfeesh for sending this hand bottled sample to me! The pour is a dark orange with a slight haze under an average sized head. Malty pine aroma comes easily. Lightly sweet with a good hoppy bitterness to balance things out nicely, all delivered with a full, smooth mouth feel. Very nice IIPA indeed. Thanks Brent!

This Imperial IPA, is the emperor of IPAs if you ask me. The color is a cloudy golden yellow, with a long lasting head. The body is thick and covers the palate very well. The aroma and flavor is very very strong and very full of hops, fruit, and some citrus. And the alcohol really hits you, but you can’t tell from the amazing flavor. WOW!

UPDATED: FEB 18, 2006 Picked this up in growler form on a trip to Ohio (2/06). Pours cloudy orange from my growler with a light head. Very floral aroma, bouquet of nuts, pine, and citrus peal. Citrus flavor with a bitter-dry pine/citrus finish. Malt body is significant (light caramel) and provides a great pallet for the hops to be showcased. Light carbonation (likely due to growler time). Lightly sweet. Creamy medium body. Not a bad 2IPA. I’ll likely polish off my second growler this weekend.



Tried this again from my second growler and I’ve bumped my score up one more point. More of a citrus aroma in this one and a better taste. No reason for this except for my taste buds (perhps). 3.9

Had on tap at the GLB brew pub. Pours a cloudy orange/amber color with a thin white head. Slight citrus aroma with hops. Taste is the same. A very bitter aftertaste that wasn’t evident after the beer first hits your tastebuds. The bitterness was quite delicious. I’d love to see this brew being sold elsewhere besides the brewpub because I live too far away to get it.

Tasted a MRAF in Columbus. Cloudy dark amber with a medium white head. Full hoppy and sweet aroma. Flavor was complex but pleasing with a medium to full body with a medium finish that was oily and medium bitter. Intense all-round and did not have a alcohol bite finish. Great brew to taste.

Cask version at Barley’s 3rd Annual Mini RAF (04/16/05): Pours a murky orange color with a thin off-white head. Thin lacing too. Nice hoppy and citrusy aroma. Medium-bodied and very smooth with a subtle but persistent hops flavor. This reminded me very much of the DFH 90 Minute on tap, which is definitely a good thing. There are also some citrus and pine flavors. The finish is slick and rather bitter. All in all this was a great way to kick off the event, an Imperial IPA as good as I knew GLBC could do it.

MRAF ’05. Pours a hazy golden/orange with a tiny white head. Faint citrus/grapefruit aroma. I think the firkin took away some of the big time hop flavor in this beer. There was a good hop presence in the beer, just not what I was expecting. Citrus hop flavor and faint in the aftertaste. A good beer.

UPDATED: MAY 17, 2007 Cloudy orange pour, white head. Citrus aroma. Flavor is citrus, orange, grapefruit, and resiny hops. Caramel malts fill the backbone of this adding a nice sweetness to the finish. Very drinkable and the bitterness isn’t harsh and this beer just taste good.

On tap at the brewpub. Has a perfume-like hop aroma, with some kind of unidentifiable scent that was not all that pleasant. Strong bitterness, particularly in the finish, grainy at times. While still good, the better offerings from this brewey overshadow this.

UPDATED: SEP 3, 2006 Re-rate: draft @ brewery 8/06 - Rather cloudy dark yellow/orange color with small creamy white head. Aroma has notes of honey, grapefruit, white pepper, fair amount of slightly citrusy, slightly herbal hops. I think there’s at least some simcoe in here. Flavor is relatively malty, slightly nutty, with touches of caramel, and fair amount of slightly sharp herbal, earthy hops. Finish is balanced, a bit on the sweet side. Seems a little under-attenuated compared to other dIPA’s. Very nice. Glad to see that Drew found out a name for this one. I asked the bartender, he said they hadn’t named it yet. This was a nice brew. Dark copper brown color with smallish white head. Aroma was hops hops hops, more floral and pine than citrusy, with a bit of malt in the background. Flavor was strong, very hoppy and bitter throughout, alcohol presence is notable but not overpowering. There is some malt in there, but I wouldn’t call it "balanced." Nicely thick palate. Truly a beast of a brew, just an all out hop assalt. I really enjoyed it.