At one point in time, I was enamored with Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold. Haven’t had it in 5-6 years, maybe more and I was excited to see it as a ‘brewery direct’ limited offering at Total Wine, along with a lot of their other flagships.
man this was not the beer I remember. Its amber in color - darker than a lot of marzens I’ve had of late (and made) and is border line an American amber ale in color. has a nice toasty malt quality, but to me sort of reminds me of a mixture of Brooklyn Lager and Samuel Adams Boston Lager. A tasty beer, but wasn’t the golden lager I’d expected, and thought I’d remembered.
At least Edmund Fitzgerald was as good as I recall.
Anyone else feel like the beer is different than in the past or am I way off on this one?
Yes, a bit different. The brewery is only 2.5 hrs from me and I can get fairly fresh bottles of it. With that being said, fresher examples still seem a bit heavy for the style (at least for me) when compared to traditional Dortmunders (Helles Exportbiers).
And yes, their Edmund Fitzgerald is one of their best brews they make. A fresh Nosferatu is also pretty damn good too!
Two of my favorite beers were Great Lake’s Octoberfest and the Conway’s Irish Ale, both seasonals. In 2014, I got the Octoberfest and as soon as I poured it into the glass, I knew something was off. The color was different, aroma not as intense, and the taste wasn’t the same. I went so far as to email them and as I’m less than an hour away, I took a bottle up to them. Had lunch as their brewpub and even before the waiter got to my table with the draft Octoberfest, I could see the difference.
They told me the recipe hadn’t changed. Something, however, did. Neither beer has been what I remember since then. They’re not bad, just not as good.
I’ve noticed that Great Lakes beers have changed over the years. I remember about 3-5 years ago they began brewing on a much bigger system and the beers had a distinct difference in color and taste. I had a Dortmunder Gold about a year ago and was not impressed with the malt flavor.
All of GLB’ s beers did take on a different character a few years ago when they went to 175bbl (I think) fermentors; yeast just behaves differently in a different environment (geometry, hydrostatic pressure etc.) Can’t help it. (That’s what happened to Pilsner Urquell after the late 1980s.) But I clearly recall that Dort used to be made from base malt and Munich and hopped with Hallertau and Tettnang. Now their website says it’s base malt and Caramel 60 with Cascade and Mt. Hood. But you know, despite changes and having never in 30 years been very true to style on anything (they always have made things bigger, heavier, darker than you’d expect, and the lightening resulting from the new system hasn’t totally erased that) GLB still consistently makes some of the highest quality and tastiest brews of anybody out there. BTW if you are in their distribution area grab some Ohio City Oatmeal Stout while it lasts. Delicious. And surprisingly in style!