Great Lakes Brewing Company has been a standard-bearer for Midwestern craft beer for more than three decades, and Edmund Fitzgerald Porter is arguably its most emblematic offering, a dark, roasty homage to the region’s industrial waterways and working-class heritage.
The beer’s name and imagery anchor it firmly in Great Lakes lore, while its classic robust porter profile has made it a cold‑weather staple far beyond Ohio.
Brewery origins
Great Lakes Brewing Company traces its roots to the mid‑1980s, when brothers Pat and Dan Conway set out to bring fuller‑flavored European‑inspired beer to a Cleveland market dominated by light lagers. They founded the company in 1986 and opened the brewery in 1988 in the Ohio City neighborhood, at a time when the city had been without a production brewery since the early 1980s.
From the outset, the Conways leaned on an experienced brewmaster and traditional techniques, positioning Great Lakes as Ohio’s first modern microbrewery and helping to seed what would become a vibrant regional craft beer scene.
Early flagships like Dortmunder Gold and Eliot Ness Lager established a house identity built on classic styles, clean execution, and a sense of place rooted in Cleveland’s history.
Growth and regional identity
By the early 2010s, Great Lakes had grown into one of the country’s larger craft producers, ranked among the top 20 craft breweries by volume and distributing across more than a dozen states.
That growth rode on a portfolio that balanced crisp lagers, hop‑forward ales, and malt‑driven dark beers, all tied together by branding that foregrounds Great Lakes landmarks and stories.
The brewery’s physical home in Ohio City, just across the Cuyahoga River from downtown Cleveland, reinforces that regional storytelling, with its brewpub and production facility drawing on the neighborhood’s historic architecture and industrial backdrop.
Over time, Great Lakes has come to function as both a local institution and a Midwestern ambassador, exporting a distinctly Lake Erie sensibility alongside its beer.
Edmund Fitzgerald Porter background
Edmund Fitzgerald Porter joined the lineup in the early years of the brewery, alongside Burning River Pale Ale, as a darker counterpoint to the lagers that first built Great Lakes’ reputation.
The beer is named after the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, the 729‑foot ore freighter that sank on Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with all hands lost, a tragedy that still resonates deeply around the Great Lakes.
The choice of a porter style for this tribute is deliberate. Porters emerged in 18th‑century Britain as the everyday drink of dock workers and laborers, a working‑class beer suited to an industrial waterfront like Cleveland’s.
Now, to the review!
Malty and medium-bodied. Crisp for a brown ale with pleasant notes of brown bread, toasted hazelnut, bittersweet chocolate, and fresh orange.
This hits on all of the classic notes of a good porter and feels complex, yet accessible.
Overall, this truly is nicely balanced and well-executed.
There was an interesting lack of head when poured, but it didn't feel flat in taste.
This may be a result of bottling, but also shows that a fresh pour could raise the profile.
I would recommend this as a quality nut brown ale.
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