Great Lakes Brewery Relaunches Core Brand
Toronto’s oldest craft brewery rebrands popular Crazy Canuck Pale Ale and introduces Gordie Levesque
June 23, 2014 (Toronto, ON) – Some will say it’s long overdue. Some will question our decision, and some people just won’t care, but the time has come for Great Lakes Brewery, the 2013 & 2014 Canadian Brewery of the Year, to make some significant changes to our popular Crazy Canuck Pale Ale.
First introduced during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Crazy Canuck (inspired by the Canadian ski team of the 1980s) has gone on to showcase the west coast pale ale style of beer to Ontarians, winning Gold Medals at the Canadian Brewing Awards in both 2010 & 2011 and Silver Medals in 2012 & 2013. The fun spirited Canadiana design of the can, with the loon, toque and maple leaf, became a favourite can with those who admire “kitschy” artwork, but with the last pallet of cans already out of the brewery to LCBO retail stores across the province, Great Lakes is set to launch a rebranded can and new name.
The beer will now be known as Canuck Pale Ale with the “Crazy” connotation removed. The loon, who has graced the can since the beginning, will be flying south for retirement, taking the red and white toque and maple leaves with him for safekeeping. In their place will be our good friend and occasional bear fighter “Gordie Levesque,” a handsome lad clad in plaid with a thick beard and a moustache that even Lanny MacDonald would be proud of.
It’s been said that “Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity.”
This beer doesn’t help much with that crisis.
From the fiercely irresponsible stereotypical image on the front of the can to the distinctly American style of the beer inside it – we’ve really made a mess of things.
What have we done? Sorry.
“While the name and branding change, the wonderful liquid inside the can remains the same,” said Peter Bulut Jr., Owner of Great Lakes Brewery. “Our version of a west coast ale has been turning heads since we launched it in Ontario in 2010 and because it’s a serious beer, we wanted to give it a new look more in line with our increasingly popular Tank Ten series.”
The new can features Gordie Levesque, a fictional character born in our hearts. Gordie is a burly lumberjack that enjoys a good pint and the great outdoors. He is also planning on joining Twitter (@GordieLevesque) to share his outrageous life story; stories that include his epic battles with bears in the north, to drinking with Sasquatches and occasional moose wrangling.
The new cans will be rolling out to LCBOs across Ontario as of this week for our upcoming Canada Day end aisle promotion, so keep an eye out for them. The price remains at $2.50 a unit, making Canuck Pale Ale a great beer to welcome in the approaching Canada Day long weekend.
Garnett Gerry, Great Lakes’ talented artist who is also behind our illustrated Tank Ten beers like Harry Porter, RoboHop, Audrey Hopburn, and more, created the artwork. The graphic design is the work of Fabian Skidmore at Imagin.ca, who is responsible for the latest updates to the Great Lakes branding.
