Oskar Blues Brewery is bringing Deviant Dale’s Imperial IPA back this month — the hop-heavy cult favorite that last made a splash around 2017.
The 8% ABV imperial IPA is available nationally through November 1 in 12-ounce six-packs and on draft. It is already pouring at the brewery’s taprooms in Longmont, Colorado, and Brevard, North Carolina.
A loud, old-school West Coast imperial IPA
Deviant Dale’s is built for drinkers who still want pine, grapefruit rind, and resin instead of the softer, fruit-forward IPAs that dominate shelves today. The brewery describes it as full-bodied and assertive, with citrus and pine on the nose and a long, bitter finish.
Older tasting notes and brewery copy put it at about 85 IBUs, with a copper color and heavy Columbus dry-hopping. It is the kind of beer that once felt almost too much — and that is the point.
“Maybe we got a little too weird for 2017, but we’re not afraid of weird at Oskar Blues,” said Aaron Baker, brand director. “Deviant Dale’s is a great IPA with a ton of personality — it’s big, it’s loud, it’s really flavorful — and we’re excited to have it back.”
The beer also has hardware. Deviant Dale’s won a silver medal in the American IPA category at the 2011 Great American Beer Festival.
Where it fits in the Dale’s lineup
Deviant Dale’s joins the wider Dale’s family:
- Dale’s Pale Ale (the original craft beer in a can)
- Dale’s Light Lager
- Double Dale’s IPA
- Dale’s American IPA
- Dale’s Easy IPA
- Designated Dale’s NA Pils
Oskar Blues helped launch the craft-can era in 2002 when founder Dale Katechis started packing Dale’s Pale Ale into cans. The brewery now operates in Colorado and North Carolina and is part of Monster Brewing Company.
About Oskar Blues
Oskar Blues started in 1997 as a Southern-style grill and blues hall in Lyons, Colorado, opened by Alabama native Dale Katechis. Beer was an afterthought at first. Katechis began brewing in the restaurant basement in 1999, and Dale’s Pale Ale — a hop-forward American pale ale he had first made as a homebrewer at Auburn — quickly became the house beer. In 2002, after a fax from a Canadian equipment company offered a small can seamer, Oskar Blues did something almost no American craft brewery would consider: it packed Dale’s Pale Ale into aluminum cans. That move, mocked at the time, helped prove cans could protect hoppy beer, travel better than bottles, and belong in the outdoors. Dale’s became a national name, and Oskar Blues is widely credited with launching the craft-beer-in-a-can era.
Growth followed the can. Production shifted from Lyons to a larger Longmont, Colorado, brewery, and in 2012–2013 Oskar Blues opened a second major facility in Brevard, North Carolina, to reach East Coast drinkers with fresher beer. The company later joined the CANarchy craft collective and, in 2022, became part of Monster Brewing Company. Today Oskar Blues still brews in Colorado and North Carolina, with Dale’s Pale Ale at the center of a wider Dale’s family that includes imperial IPAs, lighter lagers, and non-alcoholic beer — a long way from a small Lyons restaurant that once just wanted its own house pint.
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