Located approximately 100km south of Chestermere is quite possibly the nerdiest town in the province.
Yes, gentle reader, I am speaking of the Town of Vulcan, where the town councilors have been known to attend meetings dressed in Star Trek uniforms.
The Town of Vulcan will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of its incorporation this year, and could think of no better way to commemorate the occasion than with a signature beer.
With a little help from a trio of friends who neatly illustrated the intersection of beer geeks and sci-fi geeks, the concept of Vulcan Ale was born.
Luckily, one of the trio just happened to be the CEO of a local beer importer, so was able to leverage his industry contacts to quickly find a contract brewer to actually produce the beer.
Brewed in Montana by the Harvest Moon Brewing company, Vulcan Ale became widely available in Alberta and BC on May 17, just in time for the release of the latest Star Trek movie.
Distribution will eventually spread to the rest of Canada, but thanks to archaic prohibition-era laws still on the books, it is actually easier to ship beer to a foreign country than to ship between provinces of Canada. Perhaps we need some Star Trek transporters to move that beer further east!
Vulcan Ale is made in the style of an Irish Red, a particular brew that your humble narrator has been pining away for since the local Brewsters chain of brew pubs ran out of stock of their seasonal Lanigan’s Irish Red.
Luckily, the Vulcan Ale is a fine example of the Irish Red style, with the malt providing a toasty and grain-like mouth feel. The hops used provide a medium bitterness, but very little aromatics, as is typical for this beer style.
At 5.4% ABV, this beer is a bit stronger than your average brew, but the well-balanced malt and hop profiles make it easy drinking enough to quaff all the way through a game of tri-dimensional chess or even dom-jot.
This is not the first Vulcan Ale to appear in Alberta, as the Town of Vulcan commissioned a one-off custom bottling from Penticton-based Cannery Brewing for their annual Spock Days festival last year, and a similar one-off shipment from Saskatoon-based Paddock Wood Brewing.
However, the Vulcan Ale from Paddock Wood was colored a pale blue-green color, which as all Trekkers know, is more descriptive of a Romulan Ale than a Vulcan Ale.
As for the Vulcan Ale from Cannery Brewing, it was simply a re-labeled version of their existing Pale Ale.
The Vulcan Ale now gracing your store shelves is the first officially licensed Star Trek beer, meaning it has received the blessing from the CBS / Paramount mothership.
So, unlike the previous one-off iterations commissioned for the annual Spock Days festival, there is no need to worry about the movie studio lawyers descending like a plague of locusts on the Town of Vulcan.
Your intrepid liquor reporter had to go to three different booze merchants before finding Vulcan Ale on the shelves, as it seems to be selling out quickly. Luckily, most of the Sobey’s Liquor Stores still seem to have stock.
Flaunting the cinema rules in the same way a Klingon might scorn going for high tea with a Ferengi, your sly and cunning liquor reporter smuggled a few bottles of Vulcan Ale into the theatre on opening night of the new Star Trek movie, trusting that those 3-D glasses worn by everyone else would distract them from noticing how I was quaffing from a bottle in the back row.
For those whose local booze merchant is sold out, fear not, as more is being brewed as we speak, and will soon be on a shelf at a liquor store near you. Indulge your geeky side by taking a bottle home today. Pointy ears are optional while imbibing, but are highly recommended for maximum enjoyment.
If you like to drink your beer away from home, you will be guaranteed to find plenty of Vulcan Ale in the Town of Vulcan for their centennial celebration from August 2-5 this year. Take the drive south that weekend to enjoy the parade, certain to include at least one Starship Enterprise float, then pop into the beer garden for a bottle of their eponymous beverage.
