Great Lakes Christmas Ale

There are a few things that remain constant in the city of Cleveland.

1) in general, it's depressing
2) all of their sport teams fail year after year, the local phrase is "there's always next year)
3) the whole city goes nuts around November 1st every year because Great Lakes Christmas Ale becomes available. Seriously, I can't log into failbook without seeing a dozen status updates saying "ITS HERE!!!!!!!!!!"

So anyways, onto the review

Brewery: Great Lakes Brewing Company
Beer: Christmas Ale
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable Ale
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 40
Price: $10.99 / 6pk of 12oz bottles

This beer pours a nice shade of copper/red with a nice off white head. Aroma is heavy on caramel malt, some ginger, a tad of cinnamon, and a smidget of alcohol. Maybe a hint of honey too. Body is medium. Flavor is big on cinnamon, caramel, and malt. Very smooth and balanced. The aftertaste kinda fades quickly, so I ended up drinking this one faster than I would have liked. I swear, this specific beer always gets me into trouble. It's literally impossible to just have one, or four. I really need to look into cloning this beer and making it myself in barrel quantities.

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 17/20

Final Score: 41/50

I'd recommend picking this one up while you can. Each year they sell out sooner and sooner. Last year for example, it was nearly impossible to find bottles of it mid-December.