Lakefront Beer Line Review

Name: Lakefront Beer Line
Style: Barleywine
ABV: 12.5%

It's been a long time it seems since I had a barleywine, after all spring seasonals tend not the be heavier in alcohol content. That's why I bring to you Beer Line, the latest barleywine offering from Lakefront Brewery. From what I gathered, this actually hasn't been brewed for quite a few years and Lakefront only recently brought it back.

It seems to me that Lakefront also has a thing for brewing organic barleywines as this is the second one I've had from this brewery; The first being Chad Barleywine, which was released under the "My Turn" series.

Beer Line pours a dark hazy red color with a thin filmy head. The visible carbonation is on the milder side and the lacing is somewhat sparse.

The nose has a strong caramel malt base with some strong citrus hops, vanilla, some mildly roasted malts and an encompassing yeast-doughy scent. It smells a bit like bourbon almost!

The flavor is also very malt forward with notes of caramel, yeasts and some citrus hops that make themselves more known as it warms up. As a whole it's very similar to the nose, though I can't help but feel that this should be barrel aged. There is also no booziness here and considering the ABV, that's quite an accomplishment!

The palate possess a very heavy body but with some mild carbonation. The overall texture is quite smooth, which makes this very easy to drink.

Beer Line is an excellent example of how to do an English-style Barleywine right. It's got a nice flavor profile and it's extremely easy to drink. My only gripe about this beer is that it had the beginnings of a nice bourbon barrel-aged flavor and I feel it really could've benefited from that. With that said, Beer Line is still definitely worth checking out, especially if you are into the barleywine style!

Lakefront Beer Line - 9/10

Lakefront Big Easy Imperial Maibock Review

Name: Lakefront Big Easy Imperial Maibock
Style: Maibock
ABV: 7.6%

After being in absentia for a few days, I feel it's time to get back to doing reviews. It's been a long time since I have reviewed anything from Lakefront Brewery. In fact, now that I mention it, the last time I reviewed anything from Lakefront was from back in July of 2013; Where does the time go?

Anyways, tonight I have Lakefront's Big Easy Imperial Maibock. While looking it up, I found out that it is sometimes referred to as "Big Easy Lager" and the ABV is listed from 6% all the way up to 7.1% (per RateBeer and BeerAdvocate respectively). However, Lakefront's website lists it at 7.6%, which is what I will be going with.

Big Easy pours a hazy orange color with a thin white head. The visible carbonation is very mild in appearance and I'm not getting any lacing along the sides of the glass. Doesn't look too lager-y from my point of view.

The nose starts out with a solid malty base with notes of caramel, sweet honey and light floral hops.

The flavor also isn't too different from the aroma, consisting mainly of caramel, sweet honey and light floral hops. All of which are backed up by a solid malty backbone.

The overall palate is moderately weighted and lightly carbonated, making this a pretty easy-to-drink and refreshing beer.

All and all, this is a solid Maibock-style beer. It doesn't do anything terribly different as far as Maibocks are concerned but I've certainly much worse than this. I'd say this one is worth checking out at the very least if you get the chance to do so.

Lakefront Big Easy Imperial Maibock - 8/10

Lakefront My Turn - Chad Barleywine

Lakefront Brewing has been doing a lineup of beers called the "My Turn" series. It's where the various brewers employed by Lakefront take turns releasing their own take on beer styles for release. The beers themselves have the namesake of the brewer on the bottle as well as their description of the beer itself. The series is supposed to have 3 releases a year, what I have here is #4 as shown on the label. So it's safe to assume this has been going on for a while and I'll have to keep my eyes open for the other My Turns out there.

What I have here today is Barleywine Style Ale (Or Chad Barleywine) made by Chad Sheridan, the lead cellerman employed by Lakefront. It's an organic barleywine and it has a fairly hefty ABV of 12.5%; Something which I don't see fairly often with the barleywines I usually drink.

Chad Barleywine what looks like a dark Brown/Black color but it turns into a mildly hazy Crimson color when held up to a light, The head has a filmy slightly brown appearance that has average retention.

The nose mainly consists of toffee, caramelized malts, mild citrus hops, rye and some booziness. The aroma in particular lets you know that what you have is a stronger caliber barleywine and says to you that it isn't messing around.

That is, however, until you actually start drinking it. The flavor has some nice caramel, butterscotch, toffee, citrus hops and malts. The booziness that was present in the nose is nowhere near as strong here, I would even go as far as to say it's quite mild and almost blends in to the rest of the flavor.

The body is surprisingly smooth and creamy thanks it's moderate thick body and mild carbonation. It may be a strong barleywine but it goes down fairly easy.

It's a bit rough around the edges but at the same time it's surprisingly smooth and flavorful. Even more surprising was that it tasted nowhere near as boozy as I had expected, so points for that as well. If you hate barleywine, this isn't the beer for you. Anyone who loves the barleywine style, however, should check this out.

Lakefront Chad Barleywine - 8.25/10

Lakefront Bridge Burner Review

So I've been on a bit of a Surly Spree these past few days, so let's get back to something that isn't Surly, and that's Lakefront Brewing's Bridge Burner with an ABV of 8.5%. Now when I picked this up, the clerks told me it was a Barleywine, but when I got home, I found it was an American Strong Ale; Much to my minor disappointment.

Bridge Burner pours a fairly clear but dark crimson color with a off-white head that has a brownish tinge. The lacing it leaves behind is decent as well.

The nose has some fruity-plum notes followed by a spicy & licorice scent before ending with a citrus hop and caramel malt finish. The smell almost reminds me of Stone Arrogant Bastard but with a couple of differences; In fact if you were to blindfold me, I would probably mistake this for a Arrogant Bastard solely based on the smell.

The flavor has a fairly strong citra-hop kick up front, followed by licorice, caramelized malts, fruity notes and spices. Again it reminds me of Arrogant Bastard, but the big difference is that Arrogant Bastard uses Piney Hops, not Citrus Hops.

The body is moderately weighted and the same can be said about the carbonation. At the same time, it feels quite watery and thin feeling; It doesn't really feel right considering what kind of ale this is.

Even with it's imperfections, Bridge Burner is a solid Strong Ale with a great taste that is worth checking out. It's nice to see a change-up in how Lakefront has been doing business in terms of beers they offer. Hopefully their Chad Barleywine will be as good as I was told.....but that's another review.

Lakefront Bridge Burner - 8/10

Lakefront 25th Anniversary Imperial Stout

Lakefront Brewing just recently celebrated their 25th year of operations and to celebrate, they will be releasing 4 Limited Edition beers in commemoration. The first one, which I will be reviewing today, is an Imperial Stout. The other beers planned are a Bourbon Doppelbock, Saison, and Brandy Barrel-Aged Pumpkin Ale, according to BeerPulse.

It pours a pitch black color with a brown-red colored head. It doesn't really leave behind any lacing and it finishes rather clean.

The nose has a nice aroma of Vanilla, Rum Raisin, Chocolate and Cocoa. Reminds me a bit of Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, but with more Vanilla. Flavor wise, it's very vanilla and chocolate heavy upfront, followed by a rum raisin and cherry notes and has a boozy aftertaste.

The body and carbonation are both fairly light and doesn't really feel like something you'd expect from an Imperial Stout. How one interprets this is a matter of opinion.

So how do I feel about this beer? It's got good, unique and somewhat robust flavor, thanks to the vanilla and cherry flavors but the booziness does hurt the flavor. The body also is a bit watery for this style of beer and feels out of place but that does make it easy to drink. I have had much worse Imperial Stouts than this, but for this particular style of beer it's very in the middle of the road

Lakefront 25th Anniversary Imperial Stout - 7.5/10