Great Lakes Oktoberfest, 2010

Out of appreciation for Great Lakes' "For freshest taste, please enjoy by:" marking on the back end of the label, here you go: 9/24/10 - About 11 days before the freshness expiration.  I'm not drinking this late, though, seeing as how we are less than a month away from October.  On to the review...

A copper-amber appearance with a fluffy white head and good retention.

Smells of syrupy sweet malts & caramel, plus a little alcohol and apple cider in the nose.

Tastes of caramel & honey. Very malty. Sticky. Thinner than I expected. A decent amount of alcohol drys on the tongue. A good level of hops comes through as well.

I could drink a few, but still a little heavy on the alcohol taste.

Derailed Black Cherry Ale

Erie Brewing Co either impresses me or lets me down.  There are a few of their beers that I really like, and I few others I don't really care for, but I always give them a shot when I see a brew of theirs that I haven't had yet.  That being said, it's time to move on and review Erie Brewing Co's Derailed Black Cherry Ale.

The brew pours a hazy amber brown from what I can tell; let's just say I don't have the pleasure of natural light right now.  There also seems to be a faded grayish-red hue toward the corners of the glass (2-D perspective).  A silky, multi-layered rim collects itself after a few minutes.



The smell is delicious, albeit it is probably derived from some sort of cherry extract.  Canned cherries; that's all I can gather from the smell.

The taste is a little bit of husk up front, with a sweet cherry finish.  Muted malts and a pseudo oxidation taste at first, but the cherry sweetness soon washes that away.  Still, I'm left with a syrupy tongue more akin to a few maibocks I've run into in the past than a cream ale.

Not a bad brew, but not one I would drink a lot of.