Great Lakes Brewing Devils Pale Ale

Canette de 473 ml, acheté au LCBO d’Ottawa (Rideau et King Edward). Ambrée bourgogne, petit collet. Arome d’houblon légèrement sucré de cassonade, avec un peu de malte torrifié. Goût d’houblon légé, des notes de malté caramelisé, rien de riche ou amère. Passable mais ça devrait être plus houbonné que ça!

473mL bottle: Nasal assault of sweet malts. Bubbly tan head on clear dark body. Flavor is very malty and sweet, almost like watered down molasses, bitter finish. Mouthfeel is rich and pleasant well balanced carbonation. Overall, it’s a nice guilty pleasure that I would recommend to beer enthusiasts only, but WTF??? Pale ale?? Guess it was the devil’s idea to get Great Lakes brewery to fool me into thinking this was a pale ale.

Can: Poured a deep dark brown color ale with a big foamy head with good retention and some nice lacing. Aroma of dry malt with some medium notes of caramel malt. Taste is also dominated by some medium caramel malt with a slightly bitter ending. Hops presence was more subdued then what I had expected with some medium carbonation. Interesting but not necessarily something I would go back to very often.

473 ml can from LCBO, served cold in a tulip glass.

App.: Deep copper, clear, smallish light mocha head. Aroma: Rye bread crust, sweet treacle, a little molasses, some brown sugar, some generic fruitiness and spiciness. All malt. Where the HELL (pun totally intended) is the HOPS??? Palate: Medium body, smooth due to subdued carbonation. Flav.: Follows the nose: rye bread and dark bread crust, a little caramel and treacle, burnt sugar; very subtle sweetness and BASICALLY NO BITTERNESS.

This is one of the biggest letdowns I’ve had. Maybe my expectations were too high. This is a quality beer and it tastes good. But it is NOT, under ANY circumstances, an APA. It’s a Brown Ale, or an Old Ale, or a Schwarzbier. I’m gonna bring some to the Halloween party this weekend, but only because of the packaging and branding. You broke my heart, Great Lakes. Maybe 66.6 kg of hops next time??

LCBO can tasting- Pretty deep dark cola brown capped with a fluffy beige lid.Malt forward aroma, some caramel, dark bread, with a decent slathering of floral hops. The flavour profile is not as assertive as I would have expected. There’s some nice English sweet malts and brown sugar here. Good molasses with some bitter American style hopping. Certainly not as floral forward as I would like. The finish is aiming towards the malts in this beer rather than the hops. A good effort from the brewery though.

500mL can purchased from LCBO in Toronto. (The can is 6.0% alcohol - a bit different from the initial 6.6% alc draft release.) Pours a dark brown - quite unlike a normal pale ale. Aroma isn’t too strong, but somewhat malty. Flavour is mainly malt. Some hops - but not a lot - are there for some balance. I wouldn’t call this a pale ale by any stretch. It’s a decent beer, but closer to a brown ale in style. This isn’t what I was trying to buy, so I’m disappointed.

473mL can. Pours a murky brown. Hoppy, fruity aroma. The flavour carries some prunes. Lots of malt. Some hops. Medium body. Not nearly as bad as the label would have you believe.

473 mL can. (Listed at simply 6% on the can.) First impressed by this at Toronto Beerfest. Dark mahogany brown; as dark a pale ale as I’ve ever seen. Small head quickly fades to a ring. Aroma is malt, brown sugar, candied fruit, and a touch of soapy hops.. More like an English Ale. Taste is quite interesting, and fairly complex, for the style. Burnt toffee, sweet apple cider, chocolate, hazel nuts, and sweet malt. Finishes quickly. Could use a little more hop bitterness to balance the sweetness, actually. Mouthfeel is full. Nicely carbonated. Well done.