The sun was out. The bride was beautiful, the groom handsome. The clouds cleared from the Three Sisters and Ha Ling Peak as the knot was tied. And then the beer flowed.
by Peter Bailey
After many years together, my son and his fiance were married this May in Canmore. Their romance began at UBC in Vancouver, blossoming over a shared passion for skiing, cycling and more skiing. And beer. Fabulous B.C. craft beer. Being my son, Will comes by his craft beer love honestly, as does Sierra, whose dad is a long-time home brewer. My wife and I first met the future in-laws over beers at the Brewhouse in Whistler. Skiing is important but so is après-ski.
So, when my wife and I took on the task of organizing the bar for the wedding, the pressure was on. While the choice of wine and other drink options came relatively easily, it will come as no surprise that I obsessed about the beer list, worrying that the wedding guests would be expecting something exceptional. I’ve written about over 500 beers for The Tomato and tried many hundreds more. My favourite beer shop, Sherbrooke Liquor, has over 2,500 beers in their glorious beer fridge. Asking a beer guy to choose six favourite beers invokes the paradox of choice: an abundance of options requires more effort to choose and leaves one unhappy with any choice.
I had to learn a few things along the way. If you face a similar dilemma, begin by narrowing the choices. For us that meant going as local as possible—and building on the history of the couple. First, only Alberta craft beer, then some B.C. beer. Second, small cans over tall boys. There were two reasons for this: less waste when someone leaves their beer on a table to hit the dance floor, and party rental shops (inexplicably) don’t rent suitable pint glasses.
With the decision to go with small cans, our choices were dramatically narrowed. Still, I needed to be reminded that this was a wedding, not a meeting of the beer club. You need to have something for everyone, but not everything for everyone. We decided to focus on popular beer styles: IPA (both west and east coast), lager (both light and Pilsner), pale ale and brown ale. A selection of six beers seemed reasonable. At first glance. Before the shopping was complete, we couldn’t resist including a fruited sour and two non-alcoholic beers. And, for the non-beer drinkers, ciders, coolers and canned cocktails.
What turned out to be most popular? Olé tequila canned cocktails, as predicted by my son, who knew the audience well! The pale ale from 33 Acres and the light lager from Sea Change were the most popular beers. A shout-out, as well, to Canmore Brewing where we hosted the rehearsal party on Friday. It was a delight to see family and friends trying out some of the great Canmore beers like the Railway Avenue Rye IPA in a favourite après-ski space.
In the end, we returned a lot of beer (yes, you can do this!) but we have no regrets about going a little overboard. It’s not often you can share a passion so unreservedly and bring so much joy to those you love on such a happy occasion. Here’s to the happy couple!
Wedding six pack
Six beers that kept thirsty wedding guests dancing on a warm Canmore evening.
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33 Acres of Ocean Pale Ale, Vancouver, B.C.
In the mid 2010s, Will and Sierra, Will’s sister Claire and a few other UBC undergrads lived in a little house in Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood. Visiting from Edmonton, I’d leave with some 33 Acres Pale Ale. Today a sip of this classic west coast pale ale brings me right back to those Vancouver days.
Last Best IPA, Calgary
A no-apologies, bitter, piney and fruity west coast American IPA from Last Best, the Calgary representative in the Bearhill Brewing group, along with Campio Brewing (Edmonton), Ban Ave Brewing (Ban ), and Jasper Brewing (Jasper). If you like classic hoppy IPAs like Red Racer or Fat Tug, you’ll enjoy this one.
Snake Lake Sidewinder IPA, Sylvan Lake
A soft, refreshing, hazy IPA that proved more and more popular as the night wore on as the music got louder and dance floor got crowded. Big juicy hops (Simcoe, Mosaic and Columbus) plus a medium malt backbone make for a very quaffable beer.
Sea Change Death Wave Light Lager, Edmonton
Sea Change calls this their lawn mowing beer, pre-game beer, post-workout beer, so why not their dancing-up-a-storm on the dance floor beer too? At 4 per cent ABV this very light, crisp, quaffable lager proved popular with the sweaty and thirsty dancers! Gold Winner for Light Lager at the 2020 Canadian Brewing Awards.
Fahr Pils, Turner Valley
Balancing off the Sea Change light lager was the heavier and maltier Fahr Pils, a southern German, Black Forest-style pilsner, balanced between crisp bitterness and smooth malt body, copper brown in the glass.
Hoyne Dark Matter, Victoria, B.C.
It was too warm for a stout or a porter at the wedding, but we needed something darker and meltier for after dinner, so Sierra’s suggestion of the classic American Brown Ale from Victoria’s Hoyne Brewing was a good one.