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Blackout Stout

Great Lakes Brewing Co. | www.greatlakesbrewing.com

Great Lakes Brewing Co.

2516 Market Ave.

Cleveland, Ohio 44113

(216) 771–4404

First brewed: 2003

Style: Imperial stout

Alcohol content: 9 percent

IBUs: 50

Awards: Gold medal in 2006 and bronze in 2008 at the World Beer Cup

Available: In November on draft and in bottles

IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other Ohio craft beers to try:

• Thirsty Dog Siberian Night

• Hoof Hearted Voltan

• Willoughby B.D.A.

• Fifty West Ghost of Imogene

• Jackie O’s Dark Apparition

GREAT LAKES BLACKOUT STOUT was born out of an actual blackout. Seriously.

It was August 14, 2003, when the largest power outage in US history rolled across the Midwest and Northeast, affecting an estimated 50 million people from Ohio to New York to Ontario, Canada.

In Cleveland, folks descended in droves on Great Lakes Brewing. Cofounder Pat Conway theorizes that they figured, without power, the brewery couldn’t keep its beer cold. Better get it before it warms up.

Those who showed up that day got a special treat. Without power, the cash registers didn’t work. So Conway remembers just giving away free beer.

He recalls sitting in the open beer garden next door—the space has since been enclosed—with hundreds of others as they looked up through the black of night and stared at the stars.

“That’s how the world had been for millions of years up until the early part of the twentieth century,” Conway says. “Everybody saw stars. Now, we saw it for a brief night. It was spectacular.”

Meanwhile, Conway’s brother and cofounder, Dan, was driving home on Lorain Avenue, with every traffic light going out just as he passed by. It was a comical moment.

“I thought, ‘Am I doing this?’” he says.

The memories were so unforgettable that Great Lakes designed Blackout Stout, a powerful, black-as-night Russian imperial stout that’s served in a snifter. The beer, available in four-packs and on draft, has become one of the brewery’s highest-rated beers by RateBeer and BeerAdvocate.

Blackout Stout, which also comes in a barrel-aged version, has a cult following, and the brewery holds a launch party for its release every year.

The 2014 party was held, appropriately, in the dark.