Last week was full of ups and down in the Alberta beer industry, taking me on a roller coaster of emotions, from giddy highs to despondent lows, and everywhere in between.
Starting with the good news, it was the 3rd annual YYC Beer Week in Calgary, so I made many trips west into the big city for brewery tours, beer and food pairings, and even took in the movie theatre premiere of Aleberta, the history of beer in our fair province. Look for it on YouTube to learn the sordid history of ale in the province we call home.
The high point may have been the Pedal Pub, a 15-person bicycle-powered roving patio. I climbed aboard onto my barstool with attached pedals, and pumped with all my might to move the bizarre spectacle down the city streets from one craft brewery to the next, eliciting cheers from every pedestrian that we passed by. The delicious tall and frosty rewards waiting for us most certainly added vigor to our efforts, as we made record time rolling through the Barley Belt from brewery to brewery.
In more somber news, economic forces led to two different Alberta breweries announcing cutbacks last week.
Faithful readers will recall me recounting many tales of Big Rock Brewing, the brewery that helped shake off the megabrewer monopoly in Alberta and introduced craft beer to our province way back in 1985.
Fortuitously for Big Rock, both Molson and Labatt experienced union work stoppages in the summer of 1985, just as Big Rock was launched, making it the only beer available in the province during the prime patio and outdoor boozing months of the year.
At the time, Alberta boozers were still passionately loyal to the insipid and tasteless light macrobrew lagers, so the introduction of dark and flavourful ales were met with confusion and fear for those raised on a steady of diet of Labatt Blue.
It took a few years for consumers to warm up to Big Rock, an event greatly helped by the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, which brought European boozers with their more sophisticated palates, who universally proclaimed their amazement that such fine and flavourful beers were available in Alberta, which had a reputation as a beerless desert thanks to the government-controlled liquor stores of the day.
By the time the 1990s rolled around, Big Rock was an Alberta favourite, and has grown to many times its original size, now producing over 20 million litres of fizzy golden nectar every year. There have been a few acquisitions over the years as well, with Big Rock now operating breweries in Toronto and Vancouver as well as the original location in Calgary.
Sadly, Big Rock posted a loss in the first quarter of this year, something that had been nearly unimaginable after more than two decades of growth. Which of the 3 brewery site will be facing cutbacks is still unknown, but layoffs at Big Rock have never happened before, so sent a shock throughout the craft beer community not just here in Alberta, but nationwide.
Looking north to Fort McMurray, Wood Buffalo Brewing Company closed its doors last week. The brewery is part of the same organization that runs Jasper Brewing, Banff Brewing, and Calgary-based Last Best Brewing & Distilling, so the brews may live on at other breweries.
Wood Buffalo Brewing opened to great fanfare in 2013, but was hit hard by the global collapse in oil prices the following year, which hit the Fort McMurray economy particularly hard. The 2016 wildfire that destroyed much of Fort McMurray made things even worse, particularly because the rebuild of the town shifted much of the population to the other side of river, leaving the brewery with a much smaller local customer base.
I was only lucky enough to visit the brewery twice during its operation, as I made it a must-see every time I travelled to The Mac. In addition to brewing some of the finest beer in our fair province, they were one of the first craft distiller licensees in Alberta, putting out small-batch spirits that made a mean Caesar cocktail.
Those brewers and tap rooms will be missed, so be sure to do your part by supporting your local craft brewer! Township 24 Brewing in Chestermere and Origin Malting & Brewing in Strathmore both produce world-class brews from locally grown barley, right here in our back yards, so pay them a visit today!
