{"id":2290,"date":"2010-12-18T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2010-12-18T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=2290"},"modified":"2018-02-06T14:25:42","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T20:25:42","slug":"review-great-lakes-christmas-ale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/review-great-lakes-christmas-ale\/","title":{"rendered":"“12 Beers of Christmas” Review: Great Lakes Christmas Ale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great Lakes says:<\/p>\n

“A holiday ale brewed with honey and spiced with fresh ginger and cinnamon.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Great Lakes Christmas Ale
\nWinter Warmer, 7.5% ABV
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve been trying to figure it out for weeks; “what does this beer remind me of?” After ordering this beer on tap nearly a dozen times this winter it finally hit me. Great Lakes Christmas Ale is my mom’s Christmas cookies in a bottle. There’s no doubt about it. Now, I know what you may be thinking, “it’s made with ginger and cinnamon so it’s supposed to taste like Christmas cookies.” That may be true, but I taste the thin red and green sprinkles that she puts on her sugar cookies. Sometimes, I swear I even catch a burnt edge of a cookie that stayed on the sheet too long.<\/p>\n

My most recent Great Lakes Christmas Ale was poured from the taps at Dusty’s Tap Room in Okemos, MI.\u00a0 Arriving in a mug with a rich copper in color, the beer gives off aromas of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom seed, allspice and honey.\u00a0 Take a sip and an all-out-Christmas attack on your palate begins.\u00a0 The Little Drummer Boy leads cinnamon and ginger into battle followed by Toy Soldiers flanked by nutmeg, allspice and honey.\u00a0 The flavors are big and bold with this beer.\u00a0 There is absolutely nothing subtle about it.\u00a0 I think I like the finish best, though.\u00a0 You get a nice splash of graham cracker pie crust that very reminiscent of Southern Tier’s Pumking<\/a> or Short’s Key Lime Pie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mike, the guy who brewed this kick-ass pumpkin beer<\/a> told me Great Lakes Christmas Ale tastes like the brewers crumbling up gingerbread cookies and threw it in to the boil.\u00a0 You know what?\u00a0 I kind of have to agree with him there.<\/p>\n

This is a world-class winter warmer from Great Lakes.\u00a0 They truly trapped the essence and flavors of the holidays in a bottle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Great Lakes Christmas Ale is my mom’s Christmas cookies in a bottle.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[335,314],"yoast_head":"\nGreat Lakes Christmas Ale Review | Guys Drinking Beer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Great Lakes Christmas Ale is my mom's Christmas cookies in a bottle."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/review-great-lakes-christmas-ale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Great Lakes Christmas Ale Review | Guys Drinking Beer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Great Lakes Christmas Ale is my mom's 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