Morning Glory Earns 2nd Place at Volo Cask Days

Hooray! We just found out that our Morning Glory Breakfast Stout finished 2nd at this year's Volo Cask Days!


We're mighty proud, especially considering there were over 50 casks from the finest breweries in Ontario and Quebec. Not only are we the only Ontario brewery to crack the top 3, but we also took the honours for Toronto's best cask at the fest.

I'll no doubt be brewing another batch of this beauty for one of our next Project X meetings. Stay tuned!

Get Lucky at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair

The Royal is back for another year, and we're excited to be a beer sponsor. Running from November 6-15, you can find our beer at various venues throughout Exhibition Place.


New this year is a Country Concert Series on November 6, 7, 13 and 14. Why not take in a show and grab a cold pint of Golden Horseshoe Premium Lager?

Also check out the Bullpen Pub, where you can find all of Great Lakes' beers along with a selection of other Ontario Craft Beers.

Great Lakes at Cask Days

Our good friends at Bar Volo held their 5th Annual Cask Days, and we were proud to submit a couple of exciting beers.


GLB's Simon Rollason collaborated with Volo's Ralph Morana to brew Matt's Marathon Mild. This ale was brewed with fresh hops collected by Matt, a long time customer of Volo. Sadly, Matt passed away before he could use them, so Ralph and Simon brewed the beer in his honour.


Great Lakes also submitted a revamped edition of Morning Glory Breakfast Stout. Brewed with an increased amount of freshly ground fair-trade coffee from our local coffee house, Birds and Beans, we also added a big helping of dark chocolate and oatmeal. Just the beer to wake you up!

Both our beers were among the first casks to empty. Congratulations to everyone at Volo and all the other Ontario brewers for another fine event!

Pumpkin Ale in the Globe & Mail

The Globe's esteemed wine critic, Beppi Crosariol, wrote a big article this weekend about Pumpkin beers for the spook season. And ours was the feature!

Check out the whole article here or read the relevant section below.

"Great Lakes Brewery in Toronto has been making a limited-time Pumpkin Ale for three years now. It sold so well in Ontario during the past two years that this year it's being “exported” to Manitoba. It's brewed with pumpkin, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon and allspice – flavours found in a good pumpkin pie. But it's dry and refreshing. The notes are subtle and subordinate to the main ale taste, so if you weren't paying much attention, you might not notice. I like that.

The pumpkins for the beer were specially grown in summer (in time for fall brewing) by a farmer in Aylmer, Ont. And for Oct. 31 ambience, the oversized 650-millilitre brown bottle, sold individually, comes with a painted-on jack-o'-lantern label. The per-bottle price is $4.95 in Ontario (LCBO No. 67710) and $6.25 in Manitoba (MLCC No. 9656)."

Grab a few bottles this week, as it won't be available much longer!

October Project X

This week's Project X looks like it'll be another awesome night. If you've been to one in the past, we don't need to tell you what to expect, but if you haven't been yet, you don't know what you're missing!

Our good friends at the Local are preparing some delicious food to go with 2 feature casks. Eric Ecclestone of Biergotter (a Toronto home brew club) brewed up a unique cask at Great Lakes a couple weeks ago, while our very own Martin Galazka (aka resident bottling guru) will be tapping his latest creation.


Send us an email at info@greatlakesbeer.com to get on the guest list.

More Medals at Canadian Brewing Awards

The 7th Annual Canadian Brewing Awards was held last night in downtown Toronto, and we were honoured to earn another 3 medals.
Our Winter Ale took silver, while Devil's Pale Ale and Red Leaf Lager took bronze in their respective categories.

It was great to catch up with fellow Ontario brewers, along with those from further afield, including Garrison on the east coast and Salt Spring Island on the west coast. Big congratulations to Yukon Brewing and their Yukon Red Amber Ale for winning Beer of the Year.

A number of us continued to Smokeless Joe after the Awards to celebrate, in what has become the unofficial CBA after party.

Thanks to everyone at TAPS and the CBA for a great night and a job well done.

Great Lakes now in Manitoba

We're excited to announce that both our Devil's Pale Ale and Pumpkin Ale are now available for a limited time in Manitoba at most MLCC stores.

This is our second time shipping beer out of province, after doing so a year ago in Nova Scotia. We hope to continue to make our beer more available to those outside of Ontario and to introduce beer lovers to our unique seasonal ales.