Great Lakes Nosferatu

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Pours a glowing deep clear garnet with a medium thick frothy beige head. Pineapple, maple syrup and bacon aroma. Very earthy hop flavor, way bitter, sugary sweet, not a whole lot of interesting flavor, slightly burnt caramel malt, quite biscuity. Medium/light bodied with larger carbonation.

Bottle . Pours a big amber body with an off white head. Floral hopes and pine. Sweet and malty with caramel, orange peel and big warming.

Poured a nice dark cherry color with a medium sized tan colored head. Left great lacing all the way down. Citrus aroma that seemed a blend of fruits that I could almost but not quite pick out, nice hops in the nose as well. Spicey malt flavor covering a subdued citrus flavor. Ended with a bitter piney finish that did not linger to long.

A fruit salad lurks inside this giant cherry pit of bitterness. Absolutely perfect mouthfeel and palate. The lacing is a work of art-a vampire bat cave. My favorite Great Lakes beer, I hope this is a keeper for the brewery.

On tap. Bartender suggested it as a red ale. It looks like a typical red ale but is much more. Was surprised to get a strong as in alcohol hoppy beer. Just enough caramel sweetness to make this a keeper.

(10.18.08) 12 oz. bottle: Blood red color. Smallish off-white head with little lacing. Lots of citrus hop aroma, malt in the background keeping it balanced. Starts out lightly sweet on the palate, turns pleasantly bitter and lingers for a while with some pine. Medium body, not quite as heavy as I would like. Delicious brew, though.

pours a beautiful clear red amber, with a thick cream head that sticks around forever. still waiting. great lacing, by the way. ok, now it’s subdued enough to smell. great citrus hops take the forefront, tons of pineapple and grapefruit and maybe a bit of apricot. really citrusy. the malt plays a solid role as well, contributing solid amber, bready/nutty/caramelly notes. in the taste, the citrus hops slow down a tad, giving way to some fruity, piney, and floral notes. but the malt comes out much more, and really that nutty/bready crystal taste. very solid. palate is lightly bitter, but lingering, with a sort of earthy aftertaste. solid creamy yet slick mouthfeel, and plenty of carbonation. medium-to-heavy body. absolutely delightful! the first time i had this beer, it was on tap, and it was ice cold. i thought it was quite bland. now that i can taste it warmer, it’s tremendous. glad i bought a case of it!

12oz. bottle: this one pours a clear mahogany color. It had a small tan head on it that left no lacing. The aroma is a touch sweet, and perhaps a bit light. There are notes of caramel and an ambiguous fruitiness, as well as a whiff of pine. Perhaps some spices in there also. Definitely a hop bite to the taste. It is somewhat piney. A pretty good malt backbone in there to balance out the hops. This is well balanced beer.