I am here to mourn the passing of Alley Kat Full Moon Pale Ale. A few weeks ago Edmonton’s oldest craft brewery announced a series of line-up changes which included a decision to remove the iconic beer that played a major role in building the brewery’s reputation in a growing craft beer industry. The line-up juggle is part of a larger refresh coming from the brewery.

To the change-up in a moment, but first I want to offer some thoughts on Full Moon Pale Ale and its significance to Albertan and Canadian craft beer. For two decades it has been a hallmark of what a small Canadian craft brewery could accomplish. Balanced and brightly hoppy, it truly was a world-class example of an old-school American Pale Ale, rivaling the epitome of the style, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. That is not just me talking. It has won medals in international competitions and has received the rave reviews of many respected beer journalists. In the last competition they entered it in (2021 Alberta Beer Awards), it won gold and almost placed in Best of Show. It may be the closest I have ever come to a “go-to” beer. I have lost count of how many pints of Full Moon I have enjoyed.

Its demise has been foretold for a long time. Sales have been flagging for years. About nine years ago, Alley Kat founder Neil Herbst tried turning it into an IPA to encourage better sales (you can read my take on that here and here). It didn’t work and he reverted back not long after. They have been making less and less of it as each year passes. It is an unfortunate victim of changing consumer palates.

Alley Kat tells me that they are not killing Full Moon, just removing it from the core line-up. They hope to produce it as a one-off occasionally to sate the desires of people like me. That strategy makes sense. Release it once in a while to ensure that if you make a batch it gets gobbled up quickly by the nostalgic and hop-interested – guys like me.

The removal of Full Moon is just one piece of a fairly significant shift at Alley Kat. Two other beer were dropped from the core line-up – Buena Vista Brown Ale and Fishbone New England IPA. The three beer are being replaced by Bee League Honey Brown, New Moon Hazy Pale Ale and Fruit-hopia Tropical IPA. They are retaining Scona Gold and the four fruit beer. They are also doing a complete rebranding of all their product, retiring the 355-ml cans in favour of tall boys and completely reworking the label art.

I also suspect that we will not see another vintage of Old Deuteronomy, their renowned barley wine. The brewery sold its bottling line and French says he is reluctant to put a barley wine in cans. This is a shame. However, my collection of Old Deuts (I have at least one bottle from every release) may go up in value.

The elimination of Buena Vista is not a surprise. That beer has struggled since its original inception as Amber Ale. Brown ales don’t sell well generally, unfairly underappreciated by consumers. Buena Vista is no exception. I was a bit more surprised about Fishbone, which seems to fit the new hazy trend. But new owner Cam French (see story of the ownership change here and here) tells me it never took off, citing the name as being more problematic than they thought – restaurants didn’t really want a fishbone on their menu. Fair enough.

Their choice of replacements initially surprised me. On the surface it seems like they weren’t moving far from what they dropped. But upon further inspection there are some key differences. New Moon, which obviously is riffing on it being a replacement for Full Moon, is kind of a merging of Full Moon and Fishbone. It is a toned down hazy pale ale (hitting only 4.2%) with a lighter body and a rounded tropical fruit flavour accented by papaya, passionfruit and orange. Their goal, I think, is to make an easier-to-drink version of Fishbone. The beer is very quaffable.

Fruit-Hopia is a curious beer. It is not an old-school IPA, but nor is it a full-on New England IPA. It has a very unique profile. They do add fruit – pineapple, raspberry and pomegranate – so, yes, it is another fruit beer from Alley Kat (something they are becoming famous for). As a result it is very fruit forward, but not in a New England kind of way. As usual, they do the fruit perfectly, all three flavours come out and interact in a way that creates a new fourth flavour that is very endearing. Bitterness is moderate and the malt is clean and quite dry. Not an IPA, but not a fruit beer either. Very interesting. I think this one will require another go round before I can reach a conclusion.

Bee League is the most confusing for me. It has a lighter body than Buena Vista with a touch of honey character, but they are basically in the same family. French says that they hope the refreshed flavour and the addition of honey might attract new drinkers. Plus, he notes, they feel they need something darker in the line-up just to round out their coverage.

As for the rebranding, they are moving from the professional, clean but boring bands of colour look to a more artistic and colourful. Each artist-created drawing features an iconic location in Alberta. The labels pop out on the shelf more, although I think they sacrifice cross brand identification to get that extra splash. The old design was rather boring, but you knew an Alley Kat beer instantly. Maybe it just takes a bit of time, but the new look seems less in sync.