Beer Knights: Beer Guy

“The beers up here are outstanding. The overall quality of Alberta beer is pretty f*#@ing good.”

by Peter Bailey

When Steve Dresler says Alberta beer is pretty f’ing good, you better believe it. He’s a brewing legend, the only North American to receive a knighthood in the International Order of the Hop. He worked for Sierra Nevada Brewing from 1983 until retiring as head brewer in 2017. Over those 34 years, Steve helped Sierra Nevada grow from 2,000 barrels to over a million barrels of beer a year. He oversaw the production of the ground-breaking Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the beer credited with kicking off the craft beer revolution, growing it into the best-selling craft beer in North America.

I met Steve Dresler at the Jasper Beer & Spirits Festival at Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge in February. This was Steve’s second visit to the Festival, making the trek from Chico, California, Sierra Nevada’s home base, about two hours north of Sacramento. Jasper’s is a boutique festival, with just 19 breweries set up in the lovely Beauvert Ballroom on Friday and Saturday evenings for tastings, complemented by legendary JPL food buffets throughout. The cozy setup creates a convivial atmosphere that encourages passionate, yet relaxed conversations between beer enthusiasts and beer makers.

Daytime at the festival was for brewers and serious beer geeks, with keynotes and workshops. This is how I ended up sitting at a breakfast table with Steve Dresler and Bob Sutton of Rahr Malting. We listened to Matt Phillips, founder of Phillips Brewing, tell the charming story of how he went from sleeping on the floor of his brewhouse to owning BC’s largest craft brewery. Earlier I had heard Steve Dresler’s story. Steve had gone to university in Chico to become a science teacher. Out of work in 1983, Steve wandered into the fledgling Sierra Nevada Brewery. With the brewery short of hands that day, he was put to work on the packaging line. A few months later, Steve began working in the brewhouse and he never looked back.

Steve attributes his and Sierra Nevada’s success to an obsession with quality. From the start, Sierra Nevada had a lab onsite. Every batch of beer was tested by staff sensory panels before release. “Bad beer can kill your business,” he says. “If you’ve been brewing awhile and you haven’t poured out a batch, you aren’t doing it right.” His main advice for new brewers is to “always focus on quality. It is the key to success for all beers.” Quality also means sourcing the best ingredients. In 1998, Rahr Malting in Alix, Alberta began supplying Sierra Nevada with quality Alberta malt. That’s when Bob Sutton met Steve Dresler, and they’ve been friends ever since.

On this trip north, Bob and Steve tried dozens of beers at Edmonton and Highway 16 breweries. Steve said many were outstanding, some were exceptional and that he “really didn’t have a bad beer at any of the breweries.” They hit Apex Predator, Folding Mountain, Sea Change, The Growlery, Brewsters, The Monolith and Blind Enthusiasm and Alley Kat. Like many brewers around the globe, Alley Kat founder Neil Herbst looked to Sierra Nevada for inspiration when he was starting out. In 1995, Alley Kat released their first beer, Full Moon Pale Ale, modelled on Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Twenty-five years later, this February Neil announced he and wife and co-owner Lavonne Herbst were retiring, selling Alley Kat to local buyers. We wish our local beer knight all the best.

Beer Knights Six Pack
Six favourites from the Jasper Beer & Spirits Festival.

Click images to zoom

Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA, Chico, California Steve Dresler was asked to design an IPA for Sierra Nevada’s year-round portfolio in 2008. “Of course, the request came after hop harvest and I had already made my purchases for the year. I had excess Crystal and Magnum so I did my formulation around them.” Torpedo Extra IPA became the number one selling IPA in America.

Phillips Citricity Grapefruit IPA, Victoria, British Columbia Summer in a can. Phillips amps up the grapefruit flavour one finds in IPAs from hops by adding actual grapefruit zest. The aroma is freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice, the taste fruity, hoppy yet dry, clean and bitter. Quite simply a delicious and dangerously quaffable beer.

SYC Pontificato Italian Pilsner, Edmonton, Alberta Show Your Colours (SYC) Brewing was the People’s Choice at the Jasper Festival, winning people over with their dizzying array of innovative beers. Here they jump on a hot beer style du jour, Italian Pilsner, brewing a Czech-style Pilsner and dry hopping it with European hops to create aromas of flowers and fruit, a rounded taste and soft mouthfeel.

The Growlery Vega West Coast IPA, Edmonton, Alberta Kevin Danard and Jeff Pollock opened The Growlery near Kingsway Avenue in 2019, with a goal to be the local for residents of the Blatchford development. For Jasper, they brought Vega, an old school west coast IPA, hopped with new school Citra and Mosaic, a nice change from the IPA haze craze.

Apex Predator Porter, Edson, Alberta Apex Predator was formerly Bench Creek and this Porter was formerly Black Spruce Porter. Got that? Whatever the name, this porter remains a beaut—full-bodied with notes of coffee and chocolate, a touch of fruity sweetness and an herbal, earthy nose.

Folding Mountain Alpine Cranberry Sour, Hinton, Alberta “I really enjoyed the beers at Folding Mountain,” Steve Dresler told me. “12-14 taps there, which included three dark beers. All delicious.” Folding Mountain adds wild Canadian cranberries to their kettle sour to make a tart, crisp beer that pours a distinctive bright red in the glass.