Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

The constant search for the new keeps me from re-visiting the old favorites, this is my curse. I've never purchased a bottle of Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter since this blog began, can this be true? Alas, it is. But, lo, and behold, I did purchase some kegs, and tapped the first today, and with this pint of porter, I revisit my old notes, from my first bottle, back in June of 2003, received via trade (about 7 or 8 years before it was available here).


Appearance: solid brown body, with a lush, flowing head of tannish foam atop, though in a hurry to settle down.

Aroma: mild at first, creamy, with hints of nuts, vanilla, caramel, with slowly the better earmarks of a good porter emerging, and we're getting the roasted coffee, getting roastier and bitterer as we go, and as it unfurls we can detect things weightier, headier, more thick and viscous: molasses, syrup, motor oil.

On first sip and gulp, I was magically lifted up and removed from the mundane and the everyday. Mouth-filling, rich, powerful, flavorful, and full.

Nothing loose or limpid here. Bitterness is just so, and soon turns to the sweet. I don't know what exactly to liken it to, but it seems to tread a middle ground: no too bitter, not to smooth, juuust right.

Finish is fine and long-lasting, settles in to occupy the mouth and endear itself to all the senses.

This is one that I'd put at the top of the list for American porters. Can't go wrong here.