Great Lakes 15th Anniversary Ale
Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC) will celebrate its 15th anniversary on September 6, 2003. In recognition of this anniversary, GLBC will release a specialty brew called Anniversary Ale that will be available throughout September in a new 4-pack package at local grocers and on tap at taverns, including GLBC’s brewpub. Anniversary Ale is a Belgian Trippel ale that is pale golden in color with mild fruity and spicy characteristics and a slightly sweet flavor that lends itself to a strong, crisp finish. The specialty craft brew is the strongest beer to be bottled and packaged by GLBC with an alcohol by volume of 9.5%.
3.6
152 reviews
Cleveland, United States
Community reviews
Pours a deep golden with an ample white head. Aroma with notes of citrus, banana, alcohol, honey, and cloves; a well balanced array of flavors. The fruity yeasty aromas are delightful. Drink this fresh or not at all.
Orange/yellow, litle to no head, which was surprising, semi-cloudy. Aromas were of bread, yeast, something similar to wheat but mustier, slight alcohol and dark fruits typically found in tripels, though only very lightly. Flavor was that of well balanced malt and hops, lasting spicy finish smoother over by malt. Flavor was lacking at this American attempt at a Tripel. Good effort, but doesn’t compare to the real thing.
Cloudy orange with a white head. ALcohol nose. Tastes spicy but with hints of candy.
Bottle. Hazy medium amber with large rocky off-white head that lasted longer than it took me to drink it. Aroma was very complex of malt, hop and fruit. Flavor was as complex with the same character as aroma with a long spicy finish. Medium to full body with moderate acohol finish. Good brew.
Good beer. The bottle I had was a little over a year old and while I have not tasted it previously, I assume that it has aged well, despite Great Lakes propensity for "short dating" their beers.
The head was weak and lacing minimal, but the overall flavor and aroma were good. The aroma is blatantly sweet and fruity, a little citrus, perhaps mixed with melon or banana. The taste is even sweeter. Fruit abounds and while I can easily detect the 9% abv (approx.), it isn’t annoying or overwhelming. Flavors I taste are banana, some citrus and maybe some melon.
Good beer and interesting that the aroma and the taste correlate very closely.
Hazy orange color with a nice white smooth head. Wheaty citrusy aroma and flavor. Actually pretty dissapointing for Great Lakes. Bummer.
Golden body with a dissapating head. decent lace. Light spicey sweet aroma with same on a malty moderate palate. Finishes clean.
2/7/05. Poured out of 12 oz. bottle, obtained in a trade with TAR on RateBeer 9/7/04. Pours a crystalline deep gold color with a fluffy, slightly rocky, disappointingly diminishing eggshell head. Decent lacing, but I’ve seen trippels do much more with their appearance, and this one barely eeks along to a low 4 (mostly from the deep color). Nose is gently sweet and yeasty, inviting with light pepper, clove, and a touch of rum-infused apple fruitiness. Taste shuns most of that for a crisp and clunky alcohol and coriander assault, pushing the pepper character from the background into the only ground. Some strange sweet eggy flavors and no subtlety at all. Reminds me of some of the worse experiences with interesting beers that are struggling mightily to display any balance (The Beast, Horny Devil, a few bottles of Hop 15 I’ve had). This one has fewer (and less) redeeming facets than most of those others. It’s not a horrible beer, but it doesn’t make me want more of it either. Mouthfeel has medium-full body and a slightly viscous overall texture. Finish drops out into the peppery spice display with lightly drying, strangely bitter spent yeast. Too much alcohol present in the beer all over the place. It actually tastes much better at the end of the bottle when I’ve poured the yeast into my last ounce or two of beer. Much smoother and more delicate, although it’s still hardly very good. Maybe it’d have been good to try this one a year or so ago. . . .
OK I like Tripels, but... Almost no head. Initial aroma of salty sourness and thereafter more melon. Flat heavy flavour falls short of the mark. Sour salty and thick. Flavours appear to be at war with no balance or music.
Hometown brew! Great lakes kicks ass! This one is real sweet and birthday cake like as the label shows. Cloves, jamaican suger(demerara), creamy honey and it hides the alchy well. Some hops pop out, but it is an brew that should be enjoyed maybe one or two throughout the night(or day as long as it’s noon somewhere)!!!!
Golden color with hardly any head.
Winey, mildly sour aroma with a bit of coriander and citrus. Sweet malty flavor
with some orange, coriander and yeast.
Gorgeous orange/red, lots of yeast; lacks head. Full, Belgian-yeast aroma: Cloves, bananas, yeast, the usual. Big, round flavor: Super sweet, with yeast and clove flavors; very nice alcohol warmth; nice touch on the hops in the finish. Very thick though slightly sticky. Excellent.
Hazy orange golden color, off white head. Sweeter aroma, some honey, orange, and spice. Sweet flavor, orange again, coriander, honey and some booze. Mouthfeel is pretty creamy, sticky, fairly thick, with some warming on the way down. Nice beer, pretty tasty. Thanks rudolf for the bottle.
Been aging this for a year. Let’s see how it does (12/04)...Pours a hazy honey gold color with a nice overall appearance. Aroma is sweet malt with cardamom and clove hints. Taste is dominated by the esters of the yeast, giving this brew a clove-banana, sweet candy flavor with a malt background. Syrupy mouth feel but not overpowering. This is aging well.
Golden-apricot color brew.Nose is a complex blend of funky eastern spices and and what seems to be an unknown fruit,almost pears.Taste darn good.The spices are strong as the fruits and yeast come thru’ in a less pronounced way.
Hazy orange/golden coloured body with a super-thin white head. Aroma of yeast, coriander seed, alcohol and a nice spiceyness. Medium-bodied; Sweet character with a good nutmeg and coriander seed freshness. Yeasty flavour that lasts a while in the palate. Aftertaste shows a prolonged sweetness & yeastiness mouthful. Overall, a nice tripel, definitely worth trying! Thanks to my mom for picking this up for me on a trip back to Detroit. I’ve had this one saved for a few years, so i’m not sure when it was made. I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased at Merchant’s in Dearborn, Michigan on 06-December-2004.
I was surprised by the whole experience, reminded me of my first wine drinkning experience, kind of a warm stomach after drinking. Served in a small wine type glass, I thought they were giving me the glass due to the price. Different in a good way.
Small head, cloudy orange. Spicy, leafy aroma. Taste is spicy and alcoholic. Medium body.
Bottle. Fairly nice triple. Fruity aroma, a little sugary smelling also. Hazy light orange color with a decent white head. Flavor is spicey and estery. Alcohol is there but subdued. Smooth, a little less carbonated than some Belgian Triples. A litlle thick, sweet and syrupy.
Head is initially small, frothy, white, mostly diminishing. Body is hazy medium yellow, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly malty (cookie), lightly yeasty (cobwebs, mold), with strong notes of banana and clove. Flavor is heavily sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, velvety texture, lively carbonation, lightly alcoholic. Typical American rendition that’s heavy on banana and clove and too sweet, but it’s not bad.
Bottle, best by date of 11-17-04. Poured a nice cloudy golden color with next to no head. Aromas included sugar, bananas, and apples. The flavor was much of the same. Pretty standard stuff for a belgian-style tripel, but I do greatly enjoy said style.
This is a real good beer, high alcohol content, and this beer has some flavor to it,too strong for some days other days just right. Bottle and draft both good.
musty orangey earthy aroma--’authentic’ aroma. superb full body, lots of residual sweetness that offsets a lot of tang in the middle. i think the sweetness detracts a bit, but still another good offering from great lakes.
Very spicy nose, some mandarin orange earthiness. Flavor is very orange! Bitter corriander, spicy, sour. A bit too syrupy for my tastes
Holy heck, this was the beer that put me a little over the edge last night. Was feeling fine then i drank it, discovering in the process that it was close to 10% abv. Beware of that before trying, cause i ended up staying at a friends house as a result. Beer pours a cloudy brownish yellow with almost no head. Spicy citrus aroma. The flavor is pretty smooth even with the high alcohol. Very sweet but with some added spices that I cant really pin down. Decent beer, but BEWARE.
I really like this beer. So very smooth and enjoyable. Lots of enjoyable flavor with fruits and spice. I really hope they brew this beer for a long time because I will keep drinking it.
Gorgeous golden hue, cloudy, with a lush and lovely snow white head atop that stays and remains in charge.
Nose is soft, sweet, spicy. Further visit to the olfactories give up light spices, lemon, and big carbonation...very zesty!
Taste? Yum! Large, pulpy, palpable feel ,flush with orange, lemon, peach, and maybe more. Big, tasty mouthfeel, still flooded with spices and a great citric zing. A very satisfactory tripel, but not so amazing as I’d like.
a tasty tipple, if not an awesome tripel.
Golden.
Complex, estery and phenolic nose with notes, slight dms (didn’t affect the beer though), lemon, smoke, spices and orange.
Slightly smokey, sweet malt flavor throughout with notes of burnt cream corn, heavy cinnamin (I don’t know if it was spiced with cinnamon or what but it sure tasted like it), phenols, light fruits, zest, tang and orange. Just a heavenly tasting brew.
slight haze, tiny, transluscent fuzzies throughout the golden body with no head. Pale malts, sweet dry crackery nose with noticeable alcoholo and fain phenols. notes of candi sugar. floral and sweet, astringent exit, great warming in chest.
Pours a two-fingered white head that goes slowly and leaves a good lace. Cloudy light amber color. Medium carbonation. Malty/hoppy nose. Medium-heavy bodied. Starts malty with hints of yeast but there are hops in the background, finishes smooth with some alcohol overtones. $2.29 for a 12oz bottle from Liquor Barn Lexington, KY.