Great Lakes Conway's Irish Ale - Great Lakes Brewing Company

Telix

Michigan

2.73/5  rDev -28.5%
look: 4 | smell: 2 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3

Poured from the bottle into a Sam Adams sensory glass.

A: As is typical for Great Lakes, it's an attractive brew. It's clearly filtered and is a lovely orange-gold color, with good levels of carbonation. There wasn't much head on my pour, and there was no lacing evident as I drank.

S: Very mild, extremely so. I have absolutely NO idea how anyone reviewing this beer would give this high marks on smell. This was a very fresh bottle and it still had almost no aroma. There was some slight malt sweetness with no hop bitterness. I had to stick my nose into the glass and swirl many times just to get anything at all.

T: It's pretty boring, really... some mild maltiness with a bit of buttery biscuit/cracker going on, with a very mild honey sweetness of caramel malts. The bitterness is very "european" and refined, with very mild classic hop notes - nothing great to me. The finish is surprisingly long, with bitterness that lingers in a mildly distasteful manner. There is a mild lemon note on the palate, but it's decidedly NOT an American ale citrus flavor. It's an integrated beer that just isn't very flavorful, really.

M: Pretty standard ale thickness. Great Lakes usually nails mouthfeel pretty well. The flavor is pretty thin but the beer itself is fairly substantial. It's a bit "zippy" on the tongue, but it's ok.

D: It's not very tasty or intense, it's almost too mild to care about - it certainly won't wear you out but it's not offensive. I'd want something more flavorful to session, but if you dig extremely mild european ales you might want this. I'm not very impressed with this, really, it's a rare miss by my hometown brewery.

Serving type: bottle

01-08-2010 03:49:06 | More by Telix

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Ohio

3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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Ohio

3.5/5  rDev -8.4%

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Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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tectactoe

Michigan

3.66/5  rDev -4.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 3.75

Rusty, sunburst orange throughout with an otherwise nice clarity that's obscured by a gentle, yeasty haze. The head grows quickly and recedes not quite as fast; eggshell colored and fluffy as all hell, it leaves a few sheets of lacing on the glass, though they are pretty fast to run down back towards the top of the beer.

Hmm, wow, the nose is just a bit different than any other brew I've smelled before; perhaps (and most likely) because I haven't had too many Irish red ales. Malty sweet with rich caramel and buttery toffee aromas at capacity, followed up by a lighter, yet integral proportion of lightly fruity and somewhat grassy hops. Toasted malt is the key player here, and I would assume that the hops may be more aggressive when this beer is a bit fresher; I'll admit that it's just a little bit past its prime now.

Well, the nose wasn't lying; Conway's Irish Ale is a malty bomb that lays the pipe as soon as it hits your palate. Coming out a bit more robust than the aroma, the flavor smacks you with some faintly metallic caramel malts - sweet, rich, toffee-like, and toasty. Lighter bready flavors bring up the rear; somewhat buttery and toasty with a touch of burnt grains and graham cracker.

The hops are there, and even for being a touch over-the-hill, they still balance the malty sweetness nicely; a nice round of slightly floral and grassy hops roll through the flavor profile, hand-in-hand with an orange-like fruit juiciness that can't go unnoticed. Mildly bitter, enough to counteract the sweetness, but not enough to scrape any enamel away or anything like that. The finish lends a hand to some slightly nutty and woodsy, toasted malt flavors for a warm, dry finish. Thicker bodied than you'd expect with a mild stickiness that adheres to the sides of my mouth; a little cloying and teeth chattering in this respect.

One of my first of the style, I enjoyed it a bit, although I know I'd get tired of it after one bottle (much like I did this time around). The intense caramel and toffee malts are nice at first but can be a touch overwhelming after twelve ounces. Tasty brew, no doubt, but one is certainly enough for me.

Serving type: bottle

06-11-2013 01:10:12 | More by tectactoe

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3/5  rDev -21.5%

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3/5  rDev -21.5%

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3.5/5  rDev -8.4%

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3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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2.75/5  rDev -28%

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4/5  rDev +4.7%

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3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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3/5  rDev -21.5%

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4.25/5  rDev +11.3%

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3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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3.5/5  rDev -8.4%

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3.5/5  rDev -8.4%

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3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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North Carolina

3.75/5  rDev -1.8%

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4.5/5  rDev +17.8%

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Pennsylvania

3.5/5  rDev -8.4%

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Michigan

3.5/5  rDev -8.4%

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