Year in Beer: Beer Guy, November-December 2019

Year in Beer

by Peter Bailey

Of travel, I’ve had my share, man, I’ve been everywhere.
–Hank Snow

This year I travelled thousands of kilometres in search of good beer. Yes, like every year. In Toronto in January I overcame an epic snowstorm to make it to Bellwoods Brewery. Drinking a luscious Tangerine Jelly King sour, I hoped my sighs of pleasure didn’t alarm the couple beside me.

With friends in May, our flight from Houston to Austin was cancelled because of a massive storm. We hired an Uber to drive us the three hours to Austin. An hour outside Houston our phones blew up, first with flash flood and then with tornado warnings: “Take shelter immediately!” “What should we do,” we asked our driver. “No idea,” he answered, “I just moved here from Brooklyn”. We kept moving and made it to Austin for last call.

I visited Winnipeg in July for the first time in almost 20 years. Don’t tell Winnipeg, but I didn’t hate it. First stop was a One Great City brewpub, named after the Weakerthans’ song with the chorus, “I hate Winnipeg”. Next stop was the Forks, where I bought a local Barnhammer IPA at an open air craft beer kiosk, The Common, and enjoyed it in the sun, watching geese float by on the Assiniboine River. Delightful. Civilized. How about this idea for Edmonton, Mayor Iveson?

Escaping Edmonton’s dismal summer in August, my wife and I flew to San Francisco and drove south along the coast to L.A., hitting beaches and beer spots from Berkeley to Big Sur to Manhattan Beach. In Paso Robles wine country, we bypassed wineries and visited Firestone Walker Brewing and Tin City Cider. At Dodger Stadium in L.A. we walked in behind Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. On the downside, I paid $17 US ($22 CDN) for a Golden Road IPA and the Blue Jays blew a two run lead in the 9th.

Travelling gives us perspective on where we live. Coming back from my beer travels, I found that the best beer experiences can be found right outside my door. It wasn’t always so. I started writing this beer column for The Tomato back in 2009, when there wasn’t much happening locally beyond Alley Kat. Thank God for Alley Kat. By 2013 there were still only 12 breweries in Alberta. Then everything happened. Today there are 120 breweries in Alberta. That’s a ten-fold increase in six years. There are 16 breweries in Edmonton and area now. The beer world that I once dreamed about is now a reality.

That reality means a five minutes’ walk out my front door takes me to Arcadia, a bar on 124th Street serving only Alberta craft beer. Down 124th I can hit up Woodshed Burgers, Northern Chicken or Canteen, all places matching great food with great craft beer. Ten minutes by bike gets me to Sherbrooke Liquor, retailer of the year at the Alberta Beer Awards. Ten minutes also gets me to The Growlery, a new 2019 brewery in Blatchford. My favourite 2019 addition is Odd Company Brewing in the Oliver Exchange building. Odd Company is stylish but comfortable, with interesting beers that change frequently, plus good ciders and decent snacks. Tucked away inside I could be anywhere—Portland, Austin, Toronto—but I’m not. I’m in Edmonton. And that makes me very happy.

Year in Beer Six Pack

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Alley Kat Fish Bone New England IPA Edmonton Founded 1995. Can an old kat learn new tricks? You betcha. Alley Kat had a great 2019, winning brewery of the year at the Alberta Beer Awards and introducing a great new beer to their core beers: Fish Bone. Alley Kat’s NEIPA is unfiltered, slightly cloudy IPA, brewed with classic west coast hops and new-style tropical hops.

Blindman Batch 500 Traditional Kveik, Lacombe Founded 2015. Blindman has the knack of brewing excellent production beers but also making quirky one-offs for the beer nerds. Here Blindman makes use of Norwegian Kveik yeast, the hot trend of 2019, in a farmhouse ale brewed traditionally, using barley, oats, rye, a long rolling boil and filtered over fresh cut juniper.

Bent Stick Electric Boogaloo IPA, Edmonton Founded 2016. The Bent Stick boys dance to the beat of a different drum. Here they get funky with their Northeast IPA—brewed with wheat and oats, double dry-hopped with Citra, Mosaic and Ella hops. Love that it is available in tallboy cans, for sale at the 124 Grand Market and on tap at Woodshed Burgers on 124th St.

Origin The Darkness Porter, Strathmore Founded 2017. Climate change is already impacting barley production. One future forward idea is farm to glass—growing, malting, and brewing with barley from and in one place. That’s what Origin does. Their porter uses their own oats and malts to make a big, roasty beer with notes of chocolate and coffee. Silver medal, Alberta Beer Awards.

Establishment Fat Sherpa Robust Porter, Calgary Founded 2018. Establishment Brewing notes that this porter was designed to be enjoyed while standing around a fire with friends in the middle of a Calgary February! It’s a great combination of malty toasty and coffee chocolate flavours with just enough sweetness in the background to round it all out with a little American hops in the finish. Gold medal, Alberta Beer Awards.

SYC Kreature Autumn Ale, Edmonton Founded 2019. Located in an industrial park in the wild west end, just past the women’s prison, SYC (Show Your Colours) zigs where others zag. Kreature is made with sweet potatoes and dry roasted fenugreek, tasting sweetly of maple and caramel. Perfect for Halloween and the dark nights that follow.