Updates...and Great Lakes Brewing

Alright people,

If you've visited the blog before, you'll notice a few changes. First off, a complete redesign on the blog is taking place. The lady friend and I are going to give the blog a new look, using her camera and design experience (which is way more than mine....which is none). In addition, I'm giving the blog its own social media outlets. Check us out on Facebook here, and Twitter here (@BeerChronicler). In the future there ay or may not be an Instagram account too, just check back here for news on that. Hopefully in the future, all of these changes will make for a better reading and viewing experience for all of you guys and grow the audience some too.

For tonight, we'll be taking a look at my first experience with a fairly good sized regional brewery that I have been ignoring for a while; Great Lakes Brewing Company. Being out of Cleveland, it's always just been a short 20 minute drive to the Ohio state line to get into their distribution range, but I've never made it a point to grab any GLBC brews. Then, the a few weeks ago, I grabbed their sampler pack (I believe called a Taster's Pack), as well as a single of their imperial IPA, Lake Erie Monster. The beers in the Taster Pack were: Burning River Pale Ale, Dortmunder Gold (export lager), Eliot Ness (amber/Vienna lager), and Edmund Fitzgerald (porter).

Great Lakes Brewing Eliot Ness

Ranking these 5, according to the BA out of 5 scale, it goes Burning River (4.54), Edmund Fitzgerald (4.51), Dortmunder Gold (4.46), Lake Erie Monster (4.18), and Eliot Ness (4.05). All of these beers were at least good, in the case of the Monster and Eliot Ness, to pretty awesomein the case of the other three. I had heard great things about Edmund Fitzgerald, and it was good, just not quite as good as it was hyped up to be. And with the girlfriend's camera I tried to get a little creative.

Great Lakes Brewing Edmund Fitzgerald

On the other hand, Dortmunder Gold and Burning River really almost blew me away. The Burning River (which plays on my favorite Cleveland story of embarrassment) was only about 5 days inside it's "Best By" date, but the hops were very solid still. In the case of the Dortmunder, it is just a really good, easy drinking, everyday beer. It's got a classic light feel in a somewhat heavier tasting German lager. I could actually picture myself drinking this all day long in a German biergarten.

I guess what I'm saying about GLBC is that I should really stop ignoring this brewery. Dortmunder Gold and Burning River could be staples in my beer diet in a heartbeat. It's kind  of depressing that I didn't discover these beers sooner. Oh well, live and learn.

Alright, that's that. Coming up I'm hoping to get some more work done on the blog. I have no idea what the next post will be about, but I'll be sure to update you guys. Until next time, follow the blog's Twitter, like it on Facebook, and tell everyone you know to do the same. Cheers!
-Chris