Labatt brings back fan favorite Blue Light Raspberry Lemon
Announces wildly unexpected and fun partnership with Golden Tee Golf arcade game
While this week is forecasted to be rainy and overcast, Buffalo-based Labatt Beer USA announced the re-release of a fan favorite and a super cool partnership to celebrate the arrival of summer.
Labatt, which is brewed at the Genesee Brewing facility near downtown Rochester and is owned by the same parent company as Genny, is bringing back its Blue Light Raspberry Lemon Pilsner. (Now it’s your turn to bring back Summer Brew or the Strawberry Lemon Cream Ale, Genny. I know you all expected me to shout out into the void about the needed return of the brewery’s Brew House Northern German Pilsner, but I contain multitudes.)
Along with the re-release of the Raspberry Lemon light lager, Labatt is teaming up with the iconic Golden Tee Golf arcade game for a wildly inventive series of promotions and events. Blue Light Raspberry Lemon already sounds like the perfect golf course beer and now it’ll be available at a select number of bars and restaurants with Golden Tee setups.
Golden Tee launched in 1989 and features over 1 million yearly players, according to a release. Needless to say, its a staple of dive bars and fine drinking establishments around the region and country.
Raspberry Lemon arrives just in time for the Memorial Day long weekend and will be available in 12 packs and 30 racks of 12-ounce cans across New York, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, according to the brewery. Expect to find it at all the normal spots you find Labatt beers.
For its partnership with Golden Tee, “select bars across the Great Lakes region will feature co-branded Golden Tee and Labatt promotions, Labatt branded Golden Tee Go giveaways, and sampling pop-ups set to bring out the playful side of beer drinkers and gamers alike,” the brewery said in a release.
Labatt dates back to 1847, some 31 years before the birth of Genesee as we now know it. It was, obviously, first brewed in Canada and recently shifted its production to Rochester.
(Stop reading here if you don’t wanna be subjected to a quick political rant. And let’s be frank, that happened at just the right moment as tensions have risen between the two countries in the face of all this 51st state nonsense and idiotic tariffs. Because sure, it makes a ton of sense to piss off our closest friend and trading partner with talk of whether we should basically take over the whole massive country. Good job, good effort. Let’s hope the future is less idiotic. Certainly, this delicious beer doesn’t hurt.)
A final note: It’s pretty wild to think I’ve been working on this independent publication for over two years now. In that time, I’ve published nearly 250 newsletters, highlighted some of my favorite people in the industry, curated two beers festivals (that featured 150 participants and 4,600 attendees), and continued to break all the biggest news in the region (closures, consolidations, openings, etc.).
The Cleveland Prost remains the preeminent source for regional beer news. If you own a brewery, bar, or beer-adjacent business, this is the best place to reach the nerds you wanna be in front of. So I remain open to sponsorships, advertisements, and sponsored content. Feel free to reach out to me at clevelandprost@gmail.com for more. And more than anything, thanks for all the support. None of this would be possible without the devoted (and thirsty) audience.