I don’t know how I feel about a brewery named Chicago Beer Company – especially since it’s located in Elgin, IL. This brewery has only been open since 2010 and I came across a row of their offerings on the bottom shelf in Trader Joe’s. I don’t know if this was intentional, but this definitely sent a message indicating the lack of confidence in sales if a store is placing it on the bottom. They did try to compensate this by placing a sticker that said “New!” near the price tag, hoping to draw the eye. “Well why not,” I told myself, and here I sit with Lake Shore Lager.
The pour receive an extremely thin, pale yellow colored lager. I noticed immediately the near transparency reminding me of champagne more than beer. There was an immediate rush of carbonation forming a thick head, but this broke up quickly. After the initial pour, there was very little carbonation rising from the bottom of the glass. I found myself getting hypnotized by the slow moving bubbles – some moving slower than others. The nose was fairly clean hop aromas. My first taste was relatively unimpressive and my second was more of the same. This is a very thin beer with virtually no complexity or craft. I would compare this beer to a slightly thinner Rolling Rock. I’m pretty sure I could make this exact lager in my basement using a home kit. That said, I did still appreciate this as a lighter beer with more flavor than typically light beers commonly consumed.
I didn’t hate it, I certainly didn’t like it (and I lived on Rolling Rock for a year in college). I just rather nothing Lake Shore Lager – I “meh” it. And at $9 a six pack, I could never see myself investing any more money in this brewery to try their other offerings and couldn’t see myself purchasing Lake Shore Lager again. It was a fine experiment and I will certainly be open in the future to retry their brews after they’ve developed their recipes a bit.
Adventures in Food 