Beer of the Weekend #290: Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
11/11/11. 11/11/11. 11/11/11. Regardless of how one writes the date — month-day-year, day-month-year, year-month-day — everyone wrote the same thing today.
I just thought I would say that. Now, on to the drinking.
The beer of the weekend represents the last of my Binny’s haul from September: Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, brewed by the Great Lakes Brewing Company of Cleveland, Ohio.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The “please enjoy by” date on the label is “01/09/12.”
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is non-opaque black; I was surprised to see a lot of light pass through when I held it to a lamp. Two fingers of creamy, buttery cappuccino-like foam dissipated to leave a spotted lacing and ring around the edge.
Smell: It smells delicious. Major notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, and coffee. It has a roasted bitterness, but it is tamed by caramel malts, molasses, and hints of dark fruit (cherry, plum, and fig).
Taste: It has a full, chewy mouthfeel like a proper porter. Roasted malts offer a nice bitterness, but it is not overwhelmingly bitter. Dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, maybe some cappuccino, and a hint of caramel. The dark fruits are way in the background, which I have no problem with.
Drinkability: It is a very tasty and solid porter. It is a fitting tribute to its namesake.
Fun facts about EFP:
-Style: Great Lakes calls it porter, and BA classifies it as American Porter. Here is BA’s description:
-Price: $9.49/sixer at the Binny’s Beverage Depot on Illinois State Highway 83 in Willowbrook, Illinois.
-Serving temperature: Great Beer Guide suggests 48ºF, but — better yet — the bottle says, “Best served at 55ºF.”
-Alcohol content: 5.8 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Great Lakes offers this suggestion: “Barbecued ribs, steaks, oysters, and chocolate.”
-IBU: 37.
-Gravity: 15ºPlato.
-Obviously, EFP was named in honor of the legendary Great Lakes cargo ship, Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. (I knew the anniversary was sometime soon but did not know it was yesterday; it makes this BotW a fitting tribute, if you can call it that.) How the Edmund Fitzgerald sank is a mystery, but it was basically lost during a major storm. The ship and sinking were memorialized in the Gordon Lightfoot song, “The Wreak of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
I have no clue why, but I love that song.
-Interestingly, Gordon Lightfoot changed a few lyrics of the song recently. Here is the article via the WaPo.
-There is lots of brewery nerdiness on the bottle labels. On the neck label:
Ha ha! Very funny. I had not read that before now. On the big label it reads:
It “sunk in Lake Superior”? Yikes.
-According to Great Lakes, EFP has a shelf life of 180 days.
The Quiet Man’s grade: A.
I just thought I would say that. Now, on to the drinking.
The beer of the weekend represents the last of my Binny’s haul from September: Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, brewed by the Great Lakes Brewing Company of Cleveland, Ohio.
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. The “please enjoy by” date on the label is “01/09/12.”
Appearance: Straight pour into a pint glass. The color is non-opaque black; I was surprised to see a lot of light pass through when I held it to a lamp. Two fingers of creamy, buttery cappuccino-like foam dissipated to leave a spotted lacing and ring around the edge.
Smell: It smells delicious. Major notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, and coffee. It has a roasted bitterness, but it is tamed by caramel malts, molasses, and hints of dark fruit (cherry, plum, and fig).
Taste: It has a full, chewy mouthfeel like a proper porter. Roasted malts offer a nice bitterness, but it is not overwhelmingly bitter. Dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, maybe some cappuccino, and a hint of caramel. The dark fruits are way in the background, which I have no problem with.
Drinkability: It is a very tasty and solid porter. It is a fitting tribute to its namesake.
Fun facts about EFP:
-Style: Great Lakes calls it porter, and BA classifies it as American Porter. Here is BA’s description:
Inspired from the now wavering English Porter, the American Porter is the ingenuous creation from that. Thankfully with lots of innovation and originality American brewers have taken this style to a new level. Whether it is highly hopping the brew, using smoked malts, or adding coffee or chocolate to complement the burnt flavor associated with this style. Some are even barrel aged in Bourbon or whiskey barrels. The hop bitterness range is quite wide but most are balanced. Many are just easy drinking session porters as well.
-Price: $9.49/sixer at the Binny’s Beverage Depot on Illinois State Highway 83 in Willowbrook, Illinois.
-Serving temperature: Great Beer Guide suggests 48ºF, but — better yet — the bottle says, “Best served at 55ºF.”
-Alcohol content: 5.8 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Great Lakes offers this suggestion: “Barbecued ribs, steaks, oysters, and chocolate.”
-IBU: 37.
-Gravity: 15ºPlato.
-Obviously, EFP was named in honor of the legendary Great Lakes cargo ship, Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. (I knew the anniversary was sometime soon but did not know it was yesterday; it makes this BotW a fitting tribute, if you can call it that.) How the Edmund Fitzgerald sank is a mystery, but it was basically lost during a major storm. The ship and sinking were memorialized in the Gordon Lightfoot song, “The Wreak of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
I have no clue why, but I love that song.
-Interestingly, Gordon Lightfoot changed a few lyrics of the song recently. Here is the article via the WaPo.
-There is lots of brewery nerdiness on the bottle labels. On the neck label:
Thanks to our craft brewing process, when you take a swig of our Edmund Fitzgerald, it will taste smoky, robust, dark and bittersweet. Thanks to our environmental efforts, if you take a swig of Lake Erie, it won’t taste smoky, robust, dark and bittersweet.
Ha ha! Very funny. I had not read that before now. On the big label it reads:
Named after the ship that frequently docked in Cleveland and sunk in Lake Superior in 1975, our porter combines a complex, roasty aroma with a bittersweet, chocolate-coffee taste.
In keeping with the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516, this beer is traditionally brewed from all natural ingredients: barley, hops, yeast and water. No chemicals or preservatives are used.
It “sunk in Lake Superior”? Yikes.
-According to Great Lakes, EFP has a shelf life of 180 days.
The Quiet Man’s grade: A.
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