Great Lakes Brewing Class of '88 Imperial Smoked Porter

Class of '88 Imperial Smoked Porter

 

Great Lakes Brewing in Cleveland, Ohio, United States 🇺🇸

Collab with: Deschutes Brewery
  Porter - Smoked Rotating Out of Production
Score
6.79
ABV: 9.0% IBU: 50 Ticks: 8
Deschutes is well-known for their award-winning Black Butte Porter, and because our Edmund Fitzgerald Porter is also a well-loved and decorated beer, it made perfect sense for us to combine our forces to create a kind of super-porter. And so, the Class of ’88 Imperial Smoked Porter was born.

We both opted to use our house yeast, and of course local water makes a huge difference in the flavor, but otherwise both beers utilized the same recipe, which includes a mix of several roasted and smoked malts and muscovado sugar.
 

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7
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9

Past its prime but stil holding on. Carbonation is a bit low but the smoke aroma and especially the smoke in the flavo remains and is quite nice. Most of the most smoke-intense porters out there, and a lot of smoke for a beer brewed outside of Bamberg. --- Beer merged from original tick of Class of ’88 Imperial Smoked Porter on 19 Apr 2020 at 15:26 - Score: 7

Tried on 19 Apr 2020 at 20:23


7.8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

22oz bomber pours with a dark body supporting a nice tan head. The aroma offers up sweet malts, some dark roasted malts, sweet prunes, blueberries and raisins with a smooth smoky bacon note in the background. The taste comes across as sweet with malts and some caramel and then it moves into malt sweetened dark roasted malts, prunes, ripe cherries and raisins. Behind those notes is a pleasing degree of smooth malt sweetened bacony smokiness. These flavors go pretty well together, nice stuff.

Tried on 01 Aug 2013 at 21:44


7.8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Very dark brown body with an ample tan head. Rich malty aroma. The flavor is smoked ever so lightly with lots of chocolate and toasty malts to balance. Very nice Porter.

Tried on 26 Jul 2013 at 20:32


7.1
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Draft at Churchkey, thanks to Travlr. Poured a pretty dark, nearly black color, tan head. Aroma was light soot, ash, chocolate notes. Flavor was smooth smoke, with a nice creamy chocolate note. A pretty good smoked beer, and this ain’t my favorite style.

Tried from Draft on 10 Jul 2013 at 08:36


7
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6

Draft at Churchkey. My 100th imprrial porter rating. Almost black, beige head, solid lacing. Aroma of day old campfire, burnt cocoa. Taste is burnt meat and smouldering embers. Light body. Decent.

Tried from Draft on 09 Jul 2013 at 15:43


7.1
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

From tap at City Tap House as Great Lakes/ Deschutes Class of ’88. Pours pitch black with a small creamy and tan head. Aroma is tarish and smoked. Smoked, sweet and dark malty flavoured. Creamy texture. Dark malty and lingering roasted finish.

Tried from Draft on 24 Jun 2013 at 19:19


5
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4

On tap at hose de 1000. what is the difference between this and the deuchettes beer? 2 listings? WTH. Big and black. no head slight smoked smell maybe some bacon. medium mild leathery feel and flavor to it. yes some smoke but that leather sticks out. some bitterness sets into the back of the throat. on the finish. Acceptable amount of co2.

Tried from Draft on 16 Jun 2013 at 12:57


5.8
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Sampled on draft at the House of 1000 beers this beer poured a black color with a large foamy brown head that lingered and left good lacing. The aroma was roasty, woody and smoky. The flavor was dryish, roasty, sooty, smoky and woody with a faint malty undertone. Long finish of soot, smoke and wood, Medium body. Meh.

Tried from Draft on 10 Jun 2013 at 18:13