Choosing a favourite beer is like choosing your favourite child. It’s impossible.
by Peter Bailey
That’s my stock response to someone asking me for my favourite beer. Or I’ll make like Rob Fleming in the novel (and film) High Fidelity and propose a list or two: Desert Island Top Five Beers or Six Beers to Drink at My Wake. As difficult as I find it to choose, I too like knowing people’s favourite beers, which is one reason I love the Alberta Beer Awards. Founded and organized since 2017 by Edmonton beer experts Jason Foster and Owen Kirkaldy, the annual awards are done right, with certified beer judges doing blind tastings. The 2023 award winners include perennial medalists like Blind Enthusiasm, Blindman, Cabin, Campio and Establishment Brewing, as well as some new faces, including the New Brewery of the Year, Calgary’s Stonyslope Brewing. Most surprising for me was Sherwood Park’s Manual Labour Brewing, which only opened in May of 2023, but picked up a gold for their brown ale and a silver for their dark lager.
Manual Labour Brewing is the passion project of Richard McLeod and Nicole Perkes, partners in beer and in life—co-founders, co-owners and husband and wife. Both are medical doctors: Richard, an orthopedic surgeon and Nicole, a family doctor. Perhaps beer really is good for all that ails you? Richard retired from medicine to run the brewery and overall operations. Nicole manages the taproom and communications but continues to work full-time as a family physician at clinics in Fort Saskatchewan, Sherwood Park and Edmonton. To make the brewery a full-fledged family affair, they’ve brought on Richard’s 76-year-old father, Archie and their son Ethan full-time! As Nicole describes it, their vision for the brewery is “making high-quality, highly-drinkable beer in a variety of styles, so that every person who walks through the doors can find a brew they enjoy.”
Richard was a homebrewer for years before making the leap to commercial brewing. “This is the most complex thing I’ve ever done, even more than orthopedic surgery,” he recently told the Sherwood Park News. Clearly, with two Alberta Beer Awards so soon after opening, he knows what he is doing. Nicole tells me they submitted their beers to the awards and then forgot about it, so it was a big and pleasant surprise when the winners were announced. Of course, awards are great but their focus is on making the taproom a go-to local watering hole. The brewery and taproom are located in an industrial area just south of the Yellowhead Highway and just north of Millennium Place. There’s seating for 45 upstairs, with free pinball machines and pizza delivered to your table by local fave, Nitza’s Pizza. The support they’ve had from the Sherwood Park community already means they’re well on their way.
And even though these are tough times for craft brewers and everyone in the food and beverage industry, Edmonton’s beer community has stepped up too. Richard singles out Brandon Boutin of Town Square Brewing as particularly helpful, and Nicole points to the support of the many women in the Edmonton brewing community, including those she met through the Pink Boots Society. Indeed, I’m no scientist or physician but I’d suggest this correlation: great beer is made by great people.
YEG faves six pack
Great Edmonton (and area) beers, all Alberta Beer Awards winners.
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Manual Labour: Born Ready Brown Ale, Sherwood Park
Brewer and owner Richard McLeod tweaked this recipe over and over as a homebrewer until it was just right. Richard describes his Brown Ale as a ‘classic, traditional, quintessential British ale’. Made with chocolate and Maris Otter malts and Fuggle hops for a smooth, creamy and earthy taste.
Alberta Beer Awards: Gold – Brown Ale.
Blind Enthusiasm: Lager O’Darkness, Edmonton
Blind Enthusiasm’s homage to the classic light-bodied dark beer, walking the line between easy drinkability and rich maltiness. Black in colour, clear, with low bitterness and notes of dark chocolate and toasty malt.
Alberta Beer Awards: Gold – Amber & Dark Lager.
Longroof: 2nd Perspective Porter, Edmonton
A quaffable and quality porter tasting of chocolate, coffee, molasses, and a touch of dark fruit. Enjoy it inside the taprooom of these Happy Beer Street stalwarts while we await spring and the opening of their fabulous patio.
Alberta Beer Awards: Gold – Porter.
Growlery: Big Oak Stout, Edmonton
A big stout aged on toasted oak spirals, which impart complexity and richness to the brew. A smooth, full-bodied beer tasting of chocolate, vanilla and a bit of woody oakiness. If you see it on nitro on the menu at the Growlery taproom do not hesitate to buy a pint.
Alberta Beer Awards: Gold – Stout.
Apex: White Raven IPA, Edson
Back in the day this west coast American-style IPA was one of the beers to lead Alberta out of the IPA desert. It remains a personal favourite so it is great to see it and Apex flourishing in 2024. This IPA has big hop aromatics of fruit and pine, balanced with a solid malt backbone.
Alberta Beer Awards: Bronze – IPA.
Sea Change: The Wolf, Edmonton
With its ubiquity on taps and in hands around town, The Wolf might be Edmonton’s favourite craft beer. This likeable, easy-drinking hazy pale ale is made from Alberta-grown barley, wheat and oats, with Vic Secret and Citra hops for a tropical fruit character of pineapple, passionfruit, orange, guava and mango.
Alberta Beer Awards (2020): Gold – Hoppy Sessionable Beer.