Great Lakes Grandes Lagos Lager

I know a lot of you like beer, Great Lakes brewery has a new, limited edition beer that has a very interesting label. It celebrates the "Great Lakes amusement park and boardwalk" destinations south of the border (of Canada). The label has a roller coaster with a train very similar to Magnum's and a post card keepsake behind a sailboat with the text "I am going to Cedar Point" plus the old CP sun logo. I found it to be pretty cool, you can check it out here: https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/grandes-lagos and click on "View Label Details" under the beer bottle.

Hmm..March Availability, and it seems to be a hoppy style Lager (given the Hybiscus w/ Malt). It'll be neat to see that coincide with Chillwave IPA. Last years was a bit disappointing, but I'll always give it a shot. Two-three years ago, Chillwave was my legit favorite IPA ever.

Great Lakes makes some good beer. Lake Erie Monster is probably in my top 10 beers ever, at least among those which are distrubuted en-mass. Looking forward to trying this new one.

I'll take hoppy over malty, but thanks.
IPA is my drink and I'd like to try Chillwave. I checked and there's a distributor here in Columbus but I don't know how much Great Lakes we see around here. My current fave ever is Deschutes' Fresh Squeezed. Bitter and yummy.

When it comes to Great Lakes,2 words:

Christmas Ale

I live in New Jersey and just got the 2 cases I ordered back in September.

^^Not anymore, the last two years actually sucked, and I had it at the brewhouse.

Thirsty Dog's 12 Dogs of Christmas is way better. It's even made by one of the brewers that left Great Lakes. My problem lately with Christmas Ale is it just doesn't have the honey/spice punch it used to, it now has an almost brine kinda taste, which is disappointing, because before it was Christmas in a pint.

Can't disagree that the last 2 years weren't as good as usual.

Last year especially.

That may be because last year they made it available early for the Burning River Fest.

My wife and I were in Athens,Oh a couple of weeks ago.

A couple of places had it on on tap.

This year seems to be up to par.

Also,one of the places "rimmed" the glass with cinnamon sugar.

That was interesting.

Would love to try Thirsty Dog.

Hopefully they come to Northern N.J. someday.

I tried Christmas Ale last year and all I could say was "yuck!"

thedevariouseffect said:

Hmm..March Availability, and it seems to be a hoppy style Lager (given the Hybiscus w/ Malt).

At 20 IBU, it will be the opposite of Chillwave. It won't even be as hoppy as Dortmunder,. In fact, it shares IBU ratings with Oktoberfest and Holy Moses White Ale.

It will probably be an easy drinker, but don't expect an IPA or even an American Pale out of that.

Sorry for the double post, but 12 dogs > Great Lakes Christmas Ale - Hoppin' Frog "Frosted Frog" is king of them all, though.

Ah I didn't even look at the IBU listing really, their mobile website is actually quite atrocious tbh. Interesting that it lists floral notes as a front then. I'll give it a shot when it's out, I'll gladly try some new brews though.

Hoppin' Frog is delicious, that one is spice everywhere which is sweet. I haven't found it down here in Southern Ohio, not sure if it's distributed here in stores, but it's something I'm looking for next month when I'm up north.

Right now I'm still enjoying the Pumpking I stocked up on, that stuff is liquid crack

Hoppin Frog is great! I went to their brewery in Akron once.

Will definitely be looking for this. A bottle or two would make a nice addition to the beer collection as well.