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: Cream ale
Alcohol content: 5.4 percent
IBUs: 20
Available: Year-round in 16-ounce cans
IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other lighter Ohio craft beers to try:
• Sibling Revelry Lavender Wit
• Millersburg Lot 21 Blonde
• Rhinegeist Cougar
• FigLeaf Basmati Cream Ale
• Royal Docks 67 Alaska
ERMAL “ERNIE” FRAZE is one of the most important figures in the history of beer. Don’t know him? Well, he invented the pull-top can in 1959: an invention that meant beer drinkers, and soda drinkers for that matter, didn’t have to carry around a can opener to enjoy a brew.
Fraze, who founded the Dayton Reliable Tool Company, was at a picnic one day and, alas, had forgotten his can opener. He ended up using a car bumper to open his beer and decided that day that he was going to create a better can. The Ohio Historical Society estimates that more than 75 percent of American breweries were using his invention by 1965.
Warped Wing Ermal’s Belgian Style Cream Ale pays tribute to Fraze, not only with the name, but, in a sense, also with the beer itself, which is a style invented by brewmaster John Haggerty.
Cofounders Joe Waizmann, Nick Bowman, and Haggerty knew they wanted to offer an approachable beer in their initial lineup for Warped Wing, which opened in a former industrial building in downtown Dayton in early 2014. Waizmann and Bowman suggested a cream ale, a style with a deep history in southwest Ohio, thanks to Little Kings Cream Ale and a slew of former Dayton breweries that made it.
But, at first, the bearded Haggerty put the kibosh on that idea. He had nothing against cream ales, but the style just didn’t speak to him. So he set about to create his own variant. Ermal’s Belgian Style Cream Ale is a mash-up of a wit and a cream ale made with corn sugar, coriander, grains of paradise, orange and lemon peel, white pepper, camomile, and flaked oatmeal.
“It all kind of works together flavorwise,” Haggerty said.
Ermal’s has gone on to become the brewery’s best-selling brand. Today, the name Ermal is making a comeback in the Dayton community, and Fraze’s story—featured on Ermal’s 16-ounce can—is reaching a whole new generation.
“What’s impressive and cool for us is that the word ‘Ermal’ wasn’t in our daily lexicon,” Waizmann said. “A word like Ermal didn’t exist, and now people are relating to the word and associating it with the brewery.”
The Evangelist
Staas Brewing Co. | www.staasbrewing.com
Staas Brewing Co.
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