The province of Alberta is blessed with world-class malting barley and pure glacial water, so it should be no surprise that our local beer is the envy of the rest of Canada.
With the provincial government easing restrictions previously placed on beer production, we have seen an explosion of new craft breweries popping up in our fair province, and it can be hard to keep track of them.
Fortunately, your long-suffering liquor reporter makes it his mission to seek out all the new brews in our province, painstakingly holding down barstools in seedy watering holes, in order to bring the latest news to you, the faithful reader.
On the megabrewery side of the fence, Labatt still has a brewery in Edmonton, but Molson has long since consolidated their facilities, with the Calgary-based Molson brewery in Inglewood closing way back in 1994, and the Edmonton-based Molson brewery following suit in 2007.
The original trifecta of craft brewers in Alberta have each been going strong for decades, in the form of Big Rock, Wild Rose, and Alley Kat.
Adding to those grizzled old elder statesmen of craft beer is a seemingly never-ending wave of upstart young breweries, each more adventurous than the last.
Calgary is now home to over a dozen new breweries or brew pubs, including Banded Peak, Boiling Oar, Brewsters Brew Pubs, Cold Garden, Common Crown, Dandy Brewing, Goat Locker, Last Best Brewing & Distilling, Minhas Brewery, Tool Shed, Trolley 5, Village Brewing, and don’t be surprised if a few more pop up by the time you read this.
Edmonton has long been graced with Alley Kat Brewing, but the recent additions of Yellowhead Brewing and Polar Park Brewing make our capital city an even better place for a beer.
Even the mountain parks are now awash in craft beer, with Bear Hill Brewing having brew pubs in Jasper and Banff, and Grizzly Paw recently upgrading their brewery in Canmore. What better than a local pint after a hike in the mountains or a long day on the ski hill?
Just to the south of us, Okotoks now boasts the Six Corners Brew Works, while Turner Valley lays claim to the difficult-to-spell Brauerie Fahr, using old-world German recipes for their wares.
My favourite from Brauerie Fahr is their Altbier, also known as the official beer style of Dusseldorf, where your humble narrator spent many an afternoon sipping Altbier with the local frauleins while backpacking across Europe during a gap year.
Even Grande Prairie has not one, but two craft brewers, in the form of the similarly named GP Brewing and Grain Bin Brewing.
Lest you think that only the larger centres in Alberta are being blessed with local beer, even the small towns like Camrose, Edgerton, Edson, Lacombe, Fort Saskatchewan, and even pint-sized Plamondon are boasting their own craft breweries. Who would have known that small towns like this would get a brewery before they got a Wal-Mart?
Your intrepid liquor reporter is working hard to sample all these fine craft brews, but some of them are only available onsite at the brewing facility or on tap in nearby restaurants and pubs, making road trips necessary to taste them all.
Fortunately, with a nearly 20 craft breweries within an hour drive, it is easy to make a quick jaunt for lunch and a beer to a different location each weekend over the summer months.
Your humble narrator has been slowly working through all the new craft brewers in Calgary, with Goat Locker Brewing and Banded Peak Brewing tied for my new favourites.
Goat Locker makes a pale ale that is available in tallboy cans at well-stocked booze merchants. With a bready malt backbone supporting the aromatic hops and crisp finish, it makes for an entirely quaffable summer beer, and I plan to enjoy a lot of them out on the dock over the next few months.
Banded Peak Brewing only opened this month, so they are still a bit hard to find. Your humble narrator sampled their Chinook Saison last week, and couldn’t get enough of the spicy yeast notes. The Saison style is less common here in North America than its home in Belgium, but has long been a favourite of the local beer geek population.
Expand your horizons and support local industry by seeking out the local brews that make our province great!
