The name stuck. Great Lakes helped bring back the Dortmunder style, which is not dry and is more balanced than, as Conway puts it, “tasteless American lagers.”
For years, Dortmunder Gold Lager was the best-selling brand for Great Lakes. It has been surpassed only by Christmas Ale.
Great Lakes still pays tribute to the Heisman legacy. As a little joke, the brewery snuck the image of a football onto its label when the labels were redesigned in 2015.
Dreamsicle
MadTree Brewing Co. | www.madtreebrewing.com
MadTree Brewing Co.
3301 Madison Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45209
(513) 836–8733
First brewed: 2014
Style: Kolsch
Alcohol content: 4.7 percent
IBUs: 11
Available: Year-round on draft
IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other Ohio craft beers to try:
• Land-Grant Creamsikolsch
• Taft’s Nellie’s Key Lime Caribbean Ale
• Christian Moerlein Strawberry Pig
• Mt. Carmel Hibiscus Blueberry Blonde
• Numbers Apple Ale
MADTREE COFOUNDER Brady Duncan is the first to admit that Dreamsicle started off as a silly beer.
How else would you describe a brew that mirrors the flavor of a Creamsicle? Remember the orange Popsicle wrapped around ice cream that overwhelms your palate with orange-and-vanilla goodness? Well, that’s Dreamsicle.
MadTree created the beer as part of a competition among beer bloggers in 2014. To produce it, MadTree took its kolsch Lift and aged it with orange peel and vanilla beans.
The beer proved so popular that the brewery opted to keep making it. It’s now regularly one of the top three drafts sold in the taproom.
“Maybe it started off a bit silly but it’s a really good beer,” Duncan says. “Those two flavors really play well together.”
Dreamsicle has gained a cult following in the Cincinnati area. Because it’s available only on draft and has limited distribution outside the brewery taproom, MadTree fans are always clamoring to have the brewery release it in cans.
MadTree played a joke—some may say a cruel joke—on Dreamsicle lovers on April Fool’s Day in 2016 saying it would soon package the beer. (Here’s a lesson: Don’t believe any posts by MadTree on April Fool’s, because the brewery has a history of having fun on that day.) As part of the gag, MadTree released an orange Dreamsicle featuring an octopus eating an ice cream cone. Not everyone got the joke.
Later that year, super fan Adam Marcum of Fort Wright, Kentucky, even launched an online petition—all in fun, of course—to urge the brewery to can the beer. Hundreds of people signed it. Duncan says MadTree appreciates the passion.
And while there were no immediate plans to package Dreamsicle, Duncan notes, “There’s always a possibility.”
Edmund Fitzgerald
Great Lakes Brewing Co. | www.greatlakesbrewing.com
Great Lakes Brewing Co.
2516 Market Ave.
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
(216) 771–4404
First brewed: 1991
Style: American porter
Alcohol content: 5.8 percent
IBUs: 37
Awards: Gold medals in 1991, 1993, and 2002; silver in 2007; and bronze in 2004 at the Great American Beer Festival. Silver medal in 1998 and bronze in 1996 at the World Beer Cup.
Available: Year-round on draft and in bottles
IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other Ohio craft beers to try:
• Thirsty Dog Old Leghumper
• Fat Head’s Battle Axe Baltic Porter
• Willoughby Gutterpup Porter
• MadTree Identity Crisis
• Fifty West Paycheck’s Porter
WHEN IT comes to award-winning beers produced in Ohio, nothing matches Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter—or just Eddie Fitz, if you have a good enough relationship with the brew.
The beer has won seven medals at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup over the years. No other Ohio-made beer can match that.
It is considered one of the quintessential robust porters in the United States. Need proof? The Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines, which provide a rundown of the ideal aroma, appearance, flavor, and mouthfeel for each style, list Edmund Fitzgerald first among the perfect commercial examples of its style.
Cofounders and brothers Pat and Dan Conway consider that high praise, especially for a beer that’s not among Great Lakes’ best sellers.
Edmund Fitzgerald came about because the brewpub used to serve Guinness when it first opened. The Conways quickly wondered why they were serving someone else’s brand when they could produce their own dark beer, a roasted, chocolaty brew they dubbed Edmund Fitzgerald.
The name pays tribute to a friend’s father, 62-year-old John McCarthy, who died aboard the SS Edmund Fitzgerald when the freighter sank in Lake Superior in November 1975 during a major storm. All 29 men aboard lost their lives.
McCarthy was the first mate; the voyage was supposed to be his last before he retired. The Conways reached out to the McCarthy family to make sure it was all right to use the Edmund Fitzgerald name.
The beer label features an image of the ship careening through the choppy Lake Superior waters and shares the story of John McCarthy.
Edmund Fitzgerald turned out to be matriarch Margaret Conway’s favorite Great Lakes beer.
“She wasn’t a beer drinker,” Pat Conway recalls. “She liked martinis, but she liked our porter.”
Ermal’s Belgian Style Cream Ale
Warped Wing Brewing Co. | www.warpedwing.com
Warped Wing Brewing Co.
26 Wyandot St.
Dayton, Ohio 45402
(937) 222–7003
First brewed: 2014
Style: