Great Lakes Brewing Devils Pale Ale

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing (Ontario)
Style: American Pale Ale
Etobicoke, Canada

Whoever added this as an APA was painfully off target. It says right in the description: "Reminiscent of early English Pale Ales", and if you know anything about EPA’s you know that they’re dark, not pale. Anyways, on to the beer. Pours a dark burgundy/brown, with a huge beige head. The aroma is a mix of the 6 malt varieties blended into one, along with some earthiness and a touch of hops. It smells pretty nice actually, there’s definitely some pils malt in there that I’m detecting. The taste is again, huge cluster of malts, toffee, caramel, bread, coffee, pretty much all the basics. There is a small hop presence in there, and it does have sort of a pale alelish taste to it. The mouth-feel is fuller because of all the malts, and the earthiness is actually really refreshing tasting. It’s a neat gag, and I like barley malts, therefore this is a good beer, you just have to know and appreciate the differences in pale ale types. There’s really nothing wrong with this beer. And it was also my 166th beer rated, oooooooooooo creepy.....not really, but hey it’s a mildly cool point to make.

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.