Great Lakes Brewery Orange Peel Ale

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Pours an average size off-white foamy head that dissipates slightly to a thin layer and leaves a ring around inside. Nice dirty lacing. Has a pale golden appearance. Aromas of wheats, malts, barley with herbal and weak citrus hops. Flavours are of oranges most definitely, along with notes of honey, barley. A bit yeasty, some grainy malts, resin and citrus hops. Has that sort of citrus tang, but fairly mild. Light bodied with a nice puckering mouthfeel, light creaminess and slightly sweet. Weak carbonation. Pretty good, easy to drink.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Pours a light copper colour with a big off white head and some active carbonation. Leaves some nice lace rings behind. Good retention. The aroma has some hops with just a slight citrus hint. I was expecting a stronger citrus smell after reading "brewed with heaps of orange peels" on the bottle. Flavour is average, malts with a nice hoppy bitterness but no real orange flavour. Medium carbonation, goes down easy. Light with a clean finish. Good beer but not great.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6

Poured out a thin looking beer, bright orange and super clear, decent foamy white head that foams up nicely but fades away to a bit more than just rim. The aroma is very very nice , mainly cause I like orange. But here’s the thing: from a distance or a quick sample its very very appealing with it’s vitamin C supplement smell ( what the hell was that stuff called? It was like big pills that were orange, smelled of fake orange and dissolved in water.... is that still sold? anyone?.. ack... gotta ask my parents tomorrow - they are old - they will know:D) but once you really take a good huff that fake almost sour orange aroma buts mixed in with a bunch of faceless malts and hops that don’t compliment each other. This is not saying that the aroma is bad, just off. The taste, for a second is very fresh with the orange stuff but then a drying dullness with bunch of mild strength hops take over. Further tasting widens the orange realm but I don’t like how the bitterness finishes it off. The malts and hops, however, do balance each other out nicely. Damn. I really like the orange here but the hop blend does not match as much as I would like. With that said, I still am enjoying this beer due to the orange edges. The aftertaste has the flavour of licking blood off of your hand and that bothers me. It’s only on the very back end of the finish though - the rest is pretty good - ample soft carbonation, tang form the oranges hits mid taste on every sip, light bodied... I’m just conflicted on the hops here, even in their mild state. I think I really like this beer and if I wasn’t analyzing I’d like it more. Still, it is very light. I’ll just flip a coin... and the winner is... ack! It landed on edge.....

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

If there is really orange in this......I did not notice. The bottle is huge. The beer itself is a nice clear golden brown with a white head. The aroma is sweet malt, with some spicy fruity hints, citrusy in nature, but no orange as I am expecting. The flavour is slightly sweet, with some citrusy bitterness, but again, not all that orange flavoured.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Bottle: Poured a light copper color ale with a good size foamy head with medium retention and no lacing. Aroma of light caramel malt with not as much spices as was advertised on the label. Taste is also dominated by caramel malt with light bitter hops. I still can’t believe five varieties of hops were used and that the taste is not more pronounced. Would have enjoyed this one a lot more of it had more character.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

650ml bottle
5.3% ABV
I tried this beer on May 9, 2008 at "Smokeless Joe's" in Toronto. The beer poured a translucent orangy-brown with a thin white head. The aroma was some sweet malt, some citrus, although not really all that orangy, and some hops, although I was expecting a more hoppy assault from a beer with 5 kinds of hops in it. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, with medium carbonation, and leaves a dry feeling. The flavour had a little malt in it, and some bitter hop tones as well to round it off. A very enjoyable beer.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

650 ml bottle from pootz in our last trade. Gold foil cap and a silk screened label (as pictured). Pours a clear amber orange color with a thin head. Foam shrinks to a thin floating cap. Smell has some citrus and grass, but nothing overly orange. Clean malty flavor balanced with more grassy hops. There is a bit of orange and citrus, but I probably wouldn't pick it out if I didn't know better. The aftertaste might have a bit more of the extra orange flavor. I guess I was expecting more orange peel / citrus kick. Light body with medium carbonation make it refreshing and an easy drinker. Another unique beer that I would not have been able to try with out this trade.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 5 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Purchased a bottle of this 20th anniversary (brewery) limited edition beer while I was in Toronto. Pours a clean amber colour with an off-white fairly creamy head, that is not the biggest, but does retain its shape for a while. The carbonation is above average and lacing sticks all around the glass. The nose though is not very strong, with a bit of hop. This would be the weakest part of this brew. The texture is smooth and creamy. Its flavours are quite nice and not too punchy. Just a nice blend of grainy malts and hops. The bitterness is subtle all the way through, and slightly goes stronger in the aftertaste. The orange is not there to make this a fruity beer, but to built a bridge between the malts and hops. A very intresting limited product, worth seaking before it is gone.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

The body of this beer is a burnt orange colour, with some white cap. The retention is slightly lacking, but the gorgeous colour makes up for it. Aroma suggests slightly sweet, light hops and a malty backbone with hints of orange citrus. Mouthfeel is a slightly drying medium body with a tasty bitter finish that sticks to the tongue. Flavour profile starts as a light malt body, moving onto a hoppy middle profile combining spicey and earthy compliments to a burnt malt backbone. Finishes with a one-two dry-bitter punch. I didn't notice too much orange in the taste, but I'm sure it enhances the hops and malts. Great ale!

Personal note: I believe there are golding and saaz hops in here, as they are currently the only hops flavours I can discern and name. I've gotta look into changing that...

Aroma: 2 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

not bad. took awhile to grow on me, truth be told. it's kinda bready and lightly bittered, though try as i might, i cannot really taste the orange. me doth thinks that the orange just enhances what is there, rather than actually add some flavour, though there is a subtle hint of orange in the aftertaste. it does strike me as more of a pilsner than an ale, though i do like the idea of using traditonal lager hops with ale yeasts. i could see sessioning this. ok, off to find a draught version <-: