Great Lakes Brewery Tidbits

I ran into John Bowden from Great Lakes last weekend at the Gourmet Wine and Food Show and he provided me with some insight into new developments the brewery was undertaking. Today Great Lakes released a newsletter that highligthed those developments. Here are some tidbits.

• Hops for Hunger - Great Lakes is proud to partner with the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank to help those in need. From December 1-22, only at our retail store, we'll donate a portion of the weight of your beer purchase in food. For example, buy a bottle of Winter Ale and we'll donate 1.5 lbs of food. The heavier your purchase, the more food we donate. It's as easy as that. Help us reach our goal of 2000 pounds!

This is a great initiative that will hopefully reach their intended goal. Get out to the brewery and scoop up some beer. Speaking of Great Lakes beer;

• As mentioned here earlier in the week, Great Lakes has released their annual winter seasonal 'Winter Ale' to the LCBO retail system and it is now appearing at local pubs and restaurants in draught format. The large bottle retails for $6.95

• Vintage Winter Ale Available - A limited supply of last year's batch of Winter Ale is available only from our retail store. We tucked away a few cases to see how it would age and we're very pleased - grab a bottle and compare it to this year's edition!

I had a bottle of the 2007 Winter Ale at the Canadian Brewing Awards and it has aged very nicely. The flavours of the spices have all settled out and the result is a nice smooth easy drinking spiced ale.

• Retail Store Open Sundays - For the month of December (except the 28th), our retail store will be open from 12-5 on Sundays. The brewery is located just off the Gardiner Expressway at Islington.

• Great Lakes Annual Christmas Party - Join us at the brewery on Friday, December 5 from 7:00pm on to celebrate the season! Live music, refreshments and lots of great beer will be available all night long. Please RSVP to mailto:info@greatlakesbeer.com

And last but not least;

• Custom Christmas Gift Baskets Available - Looking for the perfect gift for the beer lover on your list? Drop by our brewery and we can customize a gift basket according to every taste and budget - just ask!

The packages can be as diverse as you want it. Add a t-shirt, glassware, singles of different styles, coasters and more.

www.greatlakesbeer.com