#Halloween Beer Post: Great Lakes Nosferatu Imperial Red Ale

Greetings, Citizens!  It is that time of year again when the veil that separates our world from the great beyond is at its most thin, and spectres and ghouls walk the earth, and craft beer is enjoyed with Asian cuisine.  What?  Well, at least the last part is true.  I first saw  Great Lakes Nosferatu Imperial Red Ale at a Wegman's weeks ago, and I knew I wanted to try it, so the weekend before Halloween seemed to be the perfect time.

I have to admit that for some time I have not been all too pleased with red ales.  I think it may have something to do with the bad taste of Killian's Irish Red, but needless to say I was pleasantly surprised by this ale, but in retrospect, I suppose I shouldn't have been.  If you have read any of our other Great Lakes reviews on The Ferment Nation, you know that they get rave reviews here.  This imperial red ale has a nice floral hoppy nose, and it has some kick to it at 8.0% abv.  It was crisp and tasty, and I would like to see it in a six pack.  I wanted to try this beer so bad, that I don't even remember how much the four pack cost me, but I liked it a lot. 

And this imperial red ale goes nicely with food, too.  It was a dark and stormy Saturday, but good beer and food brightens up any day.  Citizen Elizabeth* and I enjoyed some Szechuan style Terrifying Tofu and Hellfire Hot and Sour soup, and Nosferatu, the beer with bite, held up to the spicy and tasty food quite nicely with a solid hoppy flavor with some body to it.  Citizen Elizabeth liked its "nice warmth, and its not overly but tasty hoppiness, and that great red color.  What a great beer to review on Halloween!" I think what I like best is that for a lesser brewing company, producing a "Nosferatu" red ale would be a gimmick to drum up sales, but this, like every other Great Lakes beer I have had, is a really solid, tasty beer.

If you have had this beer, tell us what you think -- leave a comment or e-mail me directly at vp@fermentnation.com.  In the meantime, check out our other Great Lakes reviews.

Have fun, be safe, and I will leave you with a gem of modern animated non sequitur humor from Spongebob Squarepants. Enjoy.


Happy Halloween!

*Be on the look-out for a full brewpub review by Citizen Elizabeth to be posted soon.

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter (Citizen Review)

What: Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

Where: Pour House (Westmont, NJ)

When: July 17, 2010

What-have-you: "It reminded me of Iron Hill Brewery's Pig Iron Porter.  Really good smokey taste."

Representation: 1.0

Accessibility: .50

Style: .50

Personal Preference: 1.0

Total: 3.0 Flags

Reviewed by Greg J.

You can also read a full review of this great beer right here.

Check it out.

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter (Citizen Review)

What: Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
Where: Pour House (Westmont, NJ)
When: July 17, 2010
What-have-you: "I've been drinking this in West Virginia for years.  It is the only porter I've had yet that satisfies in body, sweetness, and depth.  Reminds me of: Best of Breed."


Representation: 1.0
Accessibility: .75
Style: ..75
Personal Preference: 1.0


Total: 3.5 Flags

Reviewed by Jack W.


You can also read a full review of this great beer right here.

Check it out.

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter:

The first time I had this beer it was during Philly Beer Week and me and El Presidente were taking in some Great Lakes brews at Treno pizza and wine bar. I enjoyed it then, and I enjoy it now. The first couple of sniffs out of the bottle, do I sense a coffee smell?  There is some roastedness and toastedness here. This is interesting, too, because I just reviewed Fuller's London Porter, and I drank another Troegs Java Head Stout, so I have some good comparisons here. Not nearly as tasty as the London Porter, but I think it has more going for it that Java Head, keeping in mind that Java Head is a coffee beer and this is not. It's also Shark Week, and I am watching an interesting shark attack show. Hopefully, I am not too distracted to accurately describe my tasting. Pouring the beer into a glass, there is a little too much head. Why so bubbly? Sometimes I think porters and stouts are too flat coming out of a bottle, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

The head has a pleasant smell, and this porter is smooth and easy drinking, so accessibility scores will be high. I've stopped to eat two chicken wings (yours truly grilled them) and the beer still has a head with some nice lacing on the glass. So there is definitely something to this brew. Typically, I don't talk about beers in the same terms of food in terms of presentation, but being able to see a creamy tan head in the glass and lacing on the sides of the glass improve my opinion of this beer. Presentation does count as far as I am concerned. No real strong flavors to report on, but there is some definite lingering roastedness on my palate. I think it is smoother drinking than Java Head, which makes sense because Java Head is 7.5% abv and Edmund Fitzgerald is 5.8% abv, which I think is a plus. This is already a better choice for a session beer.

I have also had Great Lakes Commander Perry IPA, and this leads me to believe that Great Lakes is a pretty darn good brewery. It could have something to do with it being Shark Week, or the fact that I am eating some good home cooking and drinking beer on a Saturday, but I really like this. No exceptional flavors, but smooth, drinkable, and nice. I am also singing the Edmund Fitzgerald song by Gordon Lightfoot, too, so maybe my perspective is biased.

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter:

Representation: .85
Accessibility: .90
Style: .75
Personal preference: .9

Total: 3.4 Flags

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter (Citizen Review)

What: Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
Where: Pour House (Westmont, NJ)
When: July 17, 2010
What-have-you: "Smooth, malt flavor.  Rather generic porter, like my description."


Representation: 1.0
Accessibility: 1.0
Style: .75
Personal Preference: .75


Total: 3.5 Flags

Reviewed by Citizen Carol

Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA (Citizen Review)

What: Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA
Where: Pour House (Westmont, NJ)
When: June 24, 2010
What-have-you: "All hands on deck for this IPA.  Hoppy with a bit of a bite.  Nice lacing in the pint glass.  Light golden brown color, very translucent.  Has an ever-so-slightly warming effect, a bit of the booze in this one, which is surprising but nice."

Beers at Treno Pizza Bar (Philly Beer Week 2010)

Stop Number Two on the Haddon Pub Fest was Treno Pizza Bar on Haddon Avenue.  Here are some of the beers we sampled there:

Great Lakes Brewing Company Burning River Pale Ale 6% abv:

Interesting note on the label: Burning River is named after the 1969 burning of the Cuyahoga River. Okay, now the beer: It's unbelievably smooth and drinkable. Not far behind Troegs or Stone, the hop profile is very accessible and smooth with no aftertaste. Perfect for walking around in 90 degree heat.

Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold Golden Lager 5.8% abv:

Crisp, dry lager with mild hoppy flavor. Not so much malty stuff going on here. Lager-ish lager with a touch of funk. It's even a little pilsnery if that's your style.

Great Lakes Eliot Ness Amber Lager:

Smooth and drinkable. A little bit sweeter and maltier than the Dortmunder style. Infinitely accessible to newbies but nice enough for beer geeks to appreciate. Eliot Ness has a little more substance than, say, Yuengling, but just as drinkable.

Another interesting note about Great Lakes Brewing Company: The beers had been originally brewed in accordance with the German Beer Purity Law of 1516. I believe all of these beers still are brewed that way, which is a cool old-school way of making beer!

Ithaca Apricot Wheat:
It seems very apricoty and fruity with the first whiff of the bottle and first taste.  Is it like Dogfish Head's Aprihop?  Not sure.  I would have to do a bottle-to-bottle comparison.  Plain looking bottle, but an okay flavored wheat beer. --The VP

Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55 5% abv:

Chilled-out ale with brown ale tendencies. Malty (kinda) with a mild hop profile. (The VP writes, "It's an ale.  Nothing special.  It's OK."