I haven't seen any beers by Great Lakes Brewery for a while now as they no longer have their products in Manitoba unfortunately, but I was lucky enough to get a few of their beers out of the Tank Ten series last year - a series of beers brewed from their tank #10, special one-off (or seasonals) that beer geeks get to try out! Today's sampling is Hissyfit Grisette which is a Session Blonde Ale that tops out at a low 3.8% ABV and 15 IBU.
Appearance: Very carbonated, fizzy, reminiscent to a macro lager like Bud Light or Canadian, a light pale golden straw appearance, incredibly thick & soapy foam on top, very nice lacing!
Aroma: A surprisingly aromatic ale at 3.8%, rich notes of malted barley to give it a bit of a prairie grain scent to it, bit of notes of lemon, fresh cut grass and light Europeanesque hops to give it a light pale ale profile.
Taste: Really not a bad session ale - it has a great grassy yet floral flavour coming from the hops, lightly bitter so it's not going to "leave you hanging", light enough on the palate so you can share this with friends yet not so light that beer geeks will scoff at this. Has a nice lemon citrus zest, a bit of a grainy barley flavour that's come to be expected in pale micro ales. A bit of a long aftertaste of lemon & grass. This is certainly a spring or summertime treat.
Overall Thoughts: As you know, I'm not someone who likes lighter ales or lagers, but this is a nice well balanced grisette ale, a bit reminiscent to prairie pilsners, but much better as there's a great bite of barley in there, a zest of citrus and nice presence of floral hops to give it a nice collaboration of flavours & aromas. Also, what I later discovered is that the grisette style is related to the saison (farmhouse) style. I found the grisette to have lots of similarities to a saison (ie citrus zest), but was more of a prairie pale ale, but a combination of a pale ale meets a filtered saison? That sounds more about right to me.
www.greatlakesbeer.com/
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