I can no longer remember life before COVID-19. As my self-isolation stretches into its eighth week, cabin fever has normalized behaviour like wearing a collared shirt with pajama pants, and just making sure not to stand up during videoconferences.
Fortunately, relief from cabin fever arrived in the form of Cabin Brewing, with my weekly curbside delivery of groceries and craft beer.
Cabin Brewing opened their doors in December of 2018 in Calgary’s so-called Barley Belt, home to more than a dozen craft brewers, a few distilleries, and even a stealth winery.
While Cabin Brewing may not be as close or convenient as our own beloved Township 24 Brewing right here in Chestermere, I put them on the rotation for home delivery because they won Brewery of the Year at the 2020 Alberta Beer Awards earlier this month, making it the perfect time to reacquaint myself with this Alberta gem.
Cabin Brewing was started by three veterans of the Alberta craft beer scene, with the head brewer leaving behind a long and illustrious tenure at Calgary’s Wild Rose Brewing to start up Cabin Brewing. The other two founders share similarly impressive pedigrees, which shone through in the layout and decor of the brewery and attached tasting room.
My favourite was the Rainbow Nation South African Hazy NEIPA, a juicy IPA made in the New England style, with two unique hop varietals grown in South Africa, which introduce tropical notes of guava and mango to the mouthfeel, with a bright citrusy finish.
For those not familiar with the NEIPA style, it was the adventurous brewers of the New England states on the eastern seaboard came up with the idea of a hazy and cloudy IPA, with a more tropical bent than the over-bittered IPAs that are so popular with craft brewers.
The New England IPA style is less than a decade old, and was met with much controversy and derision from the snootier members of the beer cognoscenti at its introduction, but the style has quickly become very popular, with more craft brewers jumping on the opportunity to create an alternative to the plethora of near-identical traditional IPA brews on the market.
Pouring an unfiltered and hazy orange into my pint glass, the Rainbow Nation NEIPA has a sturdy hop bitterness that would be expected of an IPA, but the bitterness seems lessened by the juicy tropical notes from the unique hop varietals, making it burst with flavour and will keep me coming back for more.
Sadly, the Rainbow Nation NEIPA is a seasonal brew that only appears occasionally, due to the limited availability of the South African hops, so get this one while you can! Fortunately, Cabin Brewing has a year-round flagship brew called Super Saturation NEPA, also made in the New England style, but less bitter than the NEIPA.
Super Saturation NEPA has a particularly silky mouthfeel, thanks to the addition of locally grown raw wheat and oats to the brewing process, sourced from the fourth-generation family-owned Red Shed Malting in Penhold, just a little south of Red Deer. This is Cabin Brewing’s best-selling flagship brew, and one I have enjoyed many times before. I have always been a fan of hazy beers, believing that the filtration process used to make your beer crystal-clear removes some of the flavour, so this beer checked all my boxes.
Flipping from an east coast style to the opposite side of the continent, the Sunshine Rain IPA is a shining example of the Pacific Northwest style of IPA that has ruled the craft scene for many years. Bursting with tropical notes from the Oregon hop varietals, with a sharp pine resin bitterness balance by a sturdy malt backbone. Definitely hop-forward, and not for those raised on a steady diet of Coors Lite.
