Beer Guy: New beers resolutions

Good beer can make a bad year better. So, let us resolve to fill this new year with good beer.

by Peter Bailey

1. Drink local. As the Sea Change Brewing folks put it, we have great beer from right here. World-class beer is made here at home—down the block, down the road, or just across town. Local beer is brewed by local people, men and women with a dream to bring people together in community around well-made ales and lagers. These are hard-working entrepreneurs putting it all on the line, giving back to their communities by buying local ingredients like first-class Alberta barley and employing local people. Chances are good that the friendly person behind the bar at the taproom had a hand in making the beer you’re enjoying—how cool is that?

2. Drink Alberta. One small silver lining in the dark cloud of Covid-19 has been rediscovering our own backyard. I dearly miss travelling far and wide, checking out other local beer scenes. I look at a photo of me on the sun-drenched patio of La Quinta Brewing in Palm Springs from February 2020 and think, ‘You have no idea what is coming, buddy.’ But our Alberta craft breweries have patios too. They’re a bit chilly this time of year, but kudos to Alberta beer people rising to the challenge. Resolve to visit one of the 130 or so breweries in this scenic province of ours. I’m thinking the three Medicine Hat breweries for me this summer.

3. Drink less. Wait, what? Isn’t this a beer column? Sure, but everything in moderation. Into each beer drinker’s life some dry days must fall. Or should fall. We’ve seen the rise of Dry January and then Sober October, as well as the Sober Curious trend. To me, this is all intentional or mindful drinking—thinking before drinking. A tip—even just one dry day a week adds up to 52 dry days a year. Another tip—the new non-alcoholic beers from Alberta brewers like Partake, Fahr, Village and SYC can be quite good, allowing you to enjoy the fun without the alcohol.

4. Drink better. Fear no beer. Drink something awesome instead of something ordinary. Drink outside your safe zone. Try a style you haven’t tried before. My non-beer drinking wife tried a sour and found she liked it. This has made beer travels much better for both of us!

5. Drink green. No, not that terrible St. Patrick’s day green beer, I mean drink sustainably. And drinking local craft beer is the environmentally-friendly choice. Alberta brewers source supplies close to home and when you’re drinking a beer in a taproom inside a brewery, you can assume the beer didn’t have to be shipped very far.

6. Drink an old friend. We all like the fun new thing, the latest beer innovation, the milkshake IPA or the fruity gose, but a spare a thought for the pioneering beers that paved the way for the craft beer revolution. Toronto beer writer Stephen Beaumont created Flagship February as a time to remember those old school flagship beers and pay homage.

In summary, in 2022 let’s resolve to drink good beer, as life’s too short not too.

New Year’s beer six pack
In 2020 let’s resolve to really support our Alberta craft breweries with a visit in person.

Click images to zoom

Arcadia Go Back to the West Coast IPA, Edmonton Drink local. Lucky me, I have four craft breweries within walking distance of my house, including Irrational Brewing just 800 metres away. Arcadia is a favourite, with its patio beside a fountain catching the evening sun. This IPA is a delicious, citrusy-piney, hoppy throwback to the pioneering Pacific west coast IPAs of yesteryear.

Dandy Dead Moon Night Imperial Stout, Calgary Drink Alberta. Big cities or small towns, Alberta craft breweries are always worth a visit. In Calgary I love the spectacular Central Library, the National Music Centre, then walking on into Inglewood to Cold Garden, Ol’ Beautiful and Dandy Brewing. Dandy’s Imperial Stout is big beer with notes of chocolate, coffee and roasted malt.

SYC Phantom Buzz Non-Alcoholic Pale Ale, Edmonton Drink less. More and more non-alcoholic beer options is a good thing. SYC’s Phantom Buzz is a crisp pale ale with a nice balance of malt and hops. It has a light grain taste with a mild citrus zest. Very quaffable!

Cabin Simple Pleasures English Dark Mild, Calgary Drink better. Trying a new style doesn’t have to involve the big, supercharged monsters, it can be reacquainting yourself with the shy, unassuming beer with subtler charms. This English mild ale is a throwback to a simpler time, a light beer at 3.8 per cent ABV but with good flavor and aroma, with notes of chocolate, caramel, and raisin.

Blindman Super Coffee Stout, Lacombe Drink green. Blindman Brewing leads in sustainable brewing, going beyond solar arrays and water conservation into AI-enhanced techniques to recover carbon dioxide from fermentation and re-use the CO2 to carbonate beer. This stout is dark, dry and delicious, with pronounced coffee flavour from Red Deer’s Birdy Coffee Co. beans.

Alley Kat Full Moon Pale Ale, Edmonton Drink an old friend. Full Moon is a stone-cold classic, the OG of Alley Kat, their first beer produced when the brewery opened in 1995. An American Pale Ale hopped with Cascade and Centennial hops, Full Moon was shockingly hoppy back in the day but now tastes perfectly balanced between crisp bitterness and mellow maltiness.