TORONTO, ON – Ontario beer news blog What’s Brewin’ reports that Great Lakes Brewery has quietly discontinued a brand that many consider to be a classic in Ontario’s modern craft brewing scene.
Devil’s Pale Ale was debuted at the 2006 edition of Toronto’s Festival of Beer at a time when Great Lakes was best known for its more mainstream lager brands. As brewery representative Troy Burtch tells the site, it was “so popular and frankly, different from what all other Ontario breweries were producing at the time” that it was decided to make it a full time brand sold in 473 ml cans at the LCBO.
This remained the case until earlier this year when Great Lakes retired the brand, as Burtch explains:
There was talk of changing up the recipe and re-branding it to have the look, feel and attitude of our other brands like Canuck Pale Ale and the Tank Ten beers. When we launched Pompous Ass English Ale in the LCBO in December 2014 in 473ml cans, it allowed us to take a closer look at the Devil’s Pale Ale and where it fit in with our portfolio. Eventually we decided that we’d run through our inventory and can the remaining liquid before phasing it out quietly. It did take a bit of discussion as it was, in our opinion, a very underrated beer and a beer that the staff at GLB were very fond of. After weighing our options we felt the best move would be to replace it in the future with a new brand.
Burtch declined revealing details of the new beer at this time, saying that it will be announced in the future. In the meantime, a few cans from the final production run of Devil’s Pale Ale in July may still be available at select bars and restaurants.