Schell's Maifest

This beer pours a pretty honey-golden hue, with a fizzy (but healthy) head and the lacing to match.  Smells of sweet caramel & a touch of butterscotch.  Tastes of caramel, honey, butterscotch, cane sugar, balanced with a quality hops profile.  Slightly syrupy.



Schell's Maifest feels medium-sized with an effortless bite and tingle.  It goes down nicely and leaves the mouth feeling almost as if it just experienced a butterscotch sunday, but still shy of that cloying characteristic.  A lot of malty-goodness in this brew; can't forget to point that out.  I'm certain I could sit at a bar and savor 4-5 pints of this one.  Cheers!

Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald (Porter Ale)

This beer is as black as a stout, and smells of rich, rich coffee, brewed with dark cocoa.  On top sits a delicious looking, fluffy beige head.  I haven't even tasted it yet (not my first, but it's been a while).



The taste is dark & burnt, like pile driving your face into a fire pit flooded by last night's rain.  The lacing is clinging.

The feel of this brew is silky and creamy, but in the manner that melted dark chocolate is silky and creamy.

This delicious specimen of brew master passion & effort has besieged my brain with thoughts of a heavy breakfast, filled to the brim with eggs, potatoes, bacon & sausage, and followed by a delicious chocolate pastry for an after-breakfast dessert.

Great Lakes is certainly one of my most adored breweries, period.

Pete's Wicked Ale

Appearance is pseudo mahogany brown. Very little head, but I may have gotten an out-dated bottle.



Smell is malty & reveals a bit of caramel/brown sugar aromas. A touch of alcohol comes through towards the end.

Taste offers a hint of caramel and brown sugar and an agreeable bite from the hops.  A buttery presence may be due to the English tradition.

Mouthfeel is pleasant. A medium body comes to mind.

A worthy beer, but not exactly top notch - however, I'd imagine this would be far better on tap (as most beers tend to be). Regardless, it's a very drinkable brew. I can see myself sitting at a bar drinking 5-6 pints of this stuff with no problem. It's kind of like the Yuengling of brown ale's.

Steigmaier Pale Ale & IPA

Stegmaier Pale Ale:

This Pale Ale pours a golden, lager-looking body, albeit coupled with an extremely fluffy-white head. It smells of tangerine zest, with a floral element, and a hint of a soapy/chalky character.

The taste is, of course, hoppy, with the hops tasting pretty dry, and sort of to the point. The orange zest in the smell does come out a little in the taste, striking with a hint of citrusy flavors from the hops. The taste is ultimately mildly dry with a moderate astringency, so balanced for the purpose of imbibing several sessions.

If you are a fan of Pale Ale's that offer a somewhat dry, less pretentious or showy version of the style, this one might be for you.

Stegmaier India Pale Ale:

Stegmaier IPA pours a beautiful amber body with an egg white head.

It smells of hops, cascade being one variety I found distinguishable, and unsurprisingly so.

The brew carries a big bite, several steps up from the junior Pale Ale, appropriately. The hoppy-kick is paired with a nice malt level, just enough to balance the beer out.

I can't say much more or offer any more analysis than that. It's a solid IPA.

Personally, I like the Steigmaier IPA over the the Pale Ale, but that's just me. Feel free and try them both.

Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout

Picked up a 550 ml bottle of this stuff at Giant Eagle (just started selling beer). That's roughly 1.5 beers at the 12 oz portion, which cost me $3.99. A legendary brewery's offering from England found its way into a supermarket in Pennsylvania. Translation: I'm not complaining.


The beer is black, unsurprisingly. An outstanding beige head with beautiful, fluffy lacing hangs out in my nonic pint glass.

Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout smells of alcohol, tart fruit (indistinguishable, but I know it's present) with biscuity notes; even cookie dough.

The taste/mouthfeel is soft & delicate, but dark & toasty. One of the attributes that I find so incredible about stouts is their ability to carry a high number of IBU's (International Bittering Units) without the senses realizing it. I'm guessing there are 70-80 IBU's in this brew, but the dark quality of the style hides the quantity, rendering it at about half that estimate to ones sense of taste.

The beer is very buttery (diacetyl), but the more negative aspect of that byproduct doesn't seem to make it to the front. I have no qualms with its position in the beer. As far as I'm concerned, it knows where it stands, and doesn't get in the way like it tends to in certain English Pale Ales.

This one I certainly recommend. Sooner or later I'll get to the Nut Brown Ale...