CAYAHOGA CHARMER: GREAT LAKES “BURNING RIVER PALE ALE”

One of the great low points of any American city’s history was Cleveland, Ohio in the late 60s to mid 1970s. With a 31-year-old, nearly-Communist mayor (Dennis Kucinich) soon to take charge within a decade, the city’s main artery, the Cayahoga river, caught fire from all the garbage, oil & general filth floating in its waters. That Cleveland today is quite a vibrant, dynamic city speaks highly to its regenerative powers from that June 22nd, 1969 incident and from the reign of Mayor Kucinich, who drove the city into default a few years later. Rising from the ashes along with its city is GREAT LAKES BREWING, whose excellent BLACKOUT STOUT we reviewed here. I purchased a bottle of their BURNING RIVER PALE ALE through the post, and here’s what I have to say about it.

GREAT LAKES BURNING RIVER PALE ALE is a lovely orange/copper color, and has a great dose of hops both in the nose and all over the tongue. This is one of those moderne American pale ales, the ones that are assertively hopped but not intensely so, like IPAs were maybe 5 or 6 years ago. Crisp and sharp with a pretty dry finish. Malts are big and thick, but it’s that blast of hops that’s what you’re going to notice. Another fetching “pale ale” from the Midwest, a place certainly not lacking for great beer. 7.5/10.