Guest Video Review by Dave Coulter

Lately, I’ve been getting reacquainted with the fine beers from the Great Lakes Brewery of Cleveland, Ohio thanks to my good buddy Dave Coulter, the beer professor (who just happens to live a scant few miles from Great Lakes). Great Lakes is one of my favorite breweries of all, and I really wish they would sell their beers here in Georgia. I’ve been to their brewery in Cleveland, and never had a Great Lakes beer I didn’t like.

One of the beers that I had at the brewery in Cleveland was Emmett’s Imperial Stout. I wish that I had taken tasting notes for that one so that I could compare them to the bottle of Great Lakes Blackout Stout I’m sipping tonight. Sadly, I didn’t, but being Great Lakes, I’m sure it was splendid brew indeed. Just as the Blackout Stout is.

Great Lakes says this about the beer on the label:

Who needs the power grid when you’ve got the full moon, bright stars, good friends, and Blackout Stout, our Russian Imperial Stout with a hearty malt body and bold hop flavor.

Ingredients from the website:

Malts: Harrington 2-Row Base Malt, Crystal 77, Black Malt, Roasted Barley

Hops: Simcoe, Northern Brewer

Great Lakes Blackout Stout has an alcohol content of 9% by volume with 50 IBUs. It’s named for the famous Blackout of 2003 that pushed Cleveland and a good chunk of the Eastern part of the US into the dark. My bottle says this beer is best by May 8^th 2015; I drank mine on April 16^th. I think it could easily go well beyond that May 8^th date without a problem when properly stored.

Great Lakes Blackout Stout pours to a jet black color with a light creamy tan head and a dark roasted barley nose. Taking a sip, I get a thick full viscous mouthfeel followed by deep dark roasty flavors, quite astringent in their burnt notes even, with a hint of dark fruit of prune underneath and subtle dark chocolate. I don’t get licorice and I don’t get the advertised hops in the finish, but I do get massive roasty notes even more so at the last where the beer finishes dry form the intense roasted bitter flavors. I like licorice in my imperial stouts and don’t get that here, but I do enjoy the intense roast character and I expect that is what Great Lakes was going after.

I enjoyed this one very much and would certainly buy it if it was sold in Georgia.

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