Great Lakes Zwei Ziegen Doppelbock (8.5%)

Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery is one of the few Ontario survivors from my first edition Great Canadian Beer Guide in 1994. (For the record, the other production breweries still around are Brick, now Waterloo Brewing and owned by Carlsberg, the now Molson Coors-owned Creemore Springs Brewery, Sleeman Brewing & Malting, now owned by Japan’s Sapporo, and the only other surviving independent, the Wellington Brewery.) The formerly Brampton-based brewery has lasted this long by being both canny and versatile, moving with the times and evolving accordingly.

Still, thanks to a seemingly endless stream of variously-styled IPAs that began in the early aughts and shows no sign of slowing to date, Great Lakes can be regarded as principally a producer of hoppy ales, beginning with the flagship Canuck Pale Ale and proceeding through the single hop ‘Karma’ line to any number regular, hazy, black, and double IPAs. Still, it is a mistake to characterize the brewery as a one trick pony, as evidenced by the recently reviewed Vienna Lager and this new release, a very convincing doppelbock.

A brilliant reddish-amber in colour, the aroma is malty with a capital M, chocolate and caramel combining in an extraordinarily rich fashion, backed by notes of black cherry, baking spice, and a whiff of orange oil. The body is similarly unapologetic in its maltiness, with dark caramel up front leading to rich toffee, Black Forest cake, cinnamon, and a touch of clove. The finish is as satisfying as are the aroma and body, although perhaps leaning a bit too heavily on the hops to dry it out, leaving a lingering bitterness that seems slightly at odds with the sweet character of the beer.

Along with the Vienna and Old Düsseldorf Altbier, this doppelbock provides emphatic proof that Great Lakes is much more than simply a hoppy ale specialist brewery. Certainly one of the finer doppelbocks brewed on Canadian shores!

86 ($18/ 4 x 473 ml can from the brewery)