Sunday, September 13, 2009

Review: Green Lakes Organic Ale

(Originally published in the Club DOZE newletter, The Monthly Mash, October 2008.)


This month's beer review is of Green Lakes Organic Ale by the Deschutes Brewery of Bend, Oregon.

Green Lakes Organic Ales is a (5% ABV) dark amber beer with an orange tint and an attractive appearance. Upon pouring it presents a low head, with mixed bubble sizes. However, head retention is somewhat low, as 3-4 minutes into the glass (1/3 of the way down) the head was gone.

It does not have a prominent hop aroma, but it does offer a nice, unagressive bitterness and hop flavor. It's not malty in flavor at the outset, but a bit of roasted malt character seems to peek out from behind the hops. The overwhelming impression is one of smoothness. Malt flavor and aromas do emerge later into the glass, once the head has subsided and the beer has started to warm.

The blurb from the brewery on the label of this beer indicates that this beer is made with five types of one-hundred percent organic malt “balanced with Crystal and Salmon-Safe Sterling hops” making it as “easy to drink” as it is “easy on Mother Earth.” While a USDA certification of “Organic” is not one of the first things I look for in a beer, it certainly doesn’t seem to hurt any. Green Lakes Organic Ale is easy to drink. It is a good, solid, tasty amber ale, though in my opinion, other than that USDA certification and the particulars of its ingredients, it doesn’t particularly stand apart nor above other amber or pale ales on the market; but, in the same vein, you’d not go wrong by choosing it for your home bar.

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