Cleveland, OH Beer Log

A business trip recently took me to Cleveland, OH. A couple of nights out drinking produced the following list of notable beers:

  • Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Dortmunder Gold Lager: a marvelous session lager, with more body and bite than I expected. Balanced and light, but perfectly lovely for someone like myself who prefers an ale. A good start to the week’s activities, especially given that it’s a local.
  • Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale: I love this beer, and it’s better on tap than in the bottle. Sierra’s beers are always recognizably their own, and their take on a “holiday” beer is no different.
  • Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Edmund Fitzgerald Porter: this beer was a completely  perfect change of direction during the session. It matched the cold, snowy weather in Ohio. It was both darker  and crisper than a lot of porters I’ve  had recently.
  • Stone Brewing Company Cali-Belgique: this beer was not local and completely not expected. A drinking companion who didn’t entirely care for it had a sip and remarked “mmm… like someone gave a lemon a hops enema.” I’d actually agree with the assessment, but it’s like a lovely belgian beer was made with it.
  • Thirsty Dog’s 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale: again, I’ll defer to a drinking companion’s assessment, “This beer makes me warm inside. Like the holidays.” “Like you celebrate Christmas?” “Or like I drank warm, cute little kittens.” A big, malty, spiced holiday beer whose namesake is all dog, but whose spirit invokes kittens.

The standout, over-the-top beers for me were Stone’s Cali-Belgique and the Great Lake’s Brewing Company’s Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. Both made the trip entirely worthwhile.

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