My 3 favourite Alberta Beers of October (and more!)
I never imagined how much time it would take to write about Alberta beer. The beautiful and terrible thing about it is that there is just so much. It's an ocean capable of drowning time itself, and time doesn't mind going out that way.
I'm still at it, but other projects are no longer willing to be ignored. Beer, they seem to say, has had its day. I don’t exactly agree, but I’m willing to compromise. So, for the rest of my year, I'll focus on monthly favourites.
This is the plan: I’ll offer my top 3 beers that you should be able to find locally, an outstanding seasonal or one-off, then 3 others well worth a try. Not everything I try is going to make my list (some omissions were really tough, others not), making this a bit like beer curation.
With the rules in place, let the game begin. October was a busy month, with 13 beers sampled from Alley Kat, Brewsters, Coulee, Blindman, Dandy, Dog Island, Half Hitch, Grain Bin, King of Springs, Norsemen Brewing, Troubled Monk and Wood Buffalo. Here's how it played out.
House of Pilsner
Coulee Brew Co.
5.2%
There's something gutsy and fun about referencing history the way House of Pilsner does. A pilsner was first brewed in Lethbridge in 1926 by Fritz Sick's brewery, House of Lethbridge (bought in the '50s by Molson). We've all had it. It's a macro I can return to with little complaint, and enjoy one with dad.
But Coulee’s gloriously golden beer is literally not your father's pilsner. Right from the scent, you know you're in for a serious break with history, the connection to the past being in name only, given the big blast of peppered grapefruit.
The grapefruit carries through with gusto, bringing along a little lemon to help drive home the point that this is a traditional pilsner made modern. Underlying the pleasant bitterness (and yet it’s only 38 IBU) is a bed of toasted hops that offer the sweetness of a lightly sugared bowl of Sunny Boy cereal.
Skeptical? My first can worried me. But a day later I had an oddly specific craving for a House of Pilsner. By the end of my next, I concluded that tradition is great but there’s always room for improvement. This beer is proof of that.
Fire n’ Fury Red Ale
Half Hitch Brewing
5%
Since it’s weird to start a glowing review with criticism, I’ll leave that bit to the end and start by saying I think Fire n’ Fury is pretty hot stuff. It’s a pretty, deep ruby colour, has a head that stays put long enough for a couple of photos, and smells of bread, caramel and cedar after spring rain.
It’s also malt-forward like you’d expect of a good red, but with surprises. Along with the toast and caramel is a mineral flavour and a fullness that borrows from red wine, both complementary rather than complicating. It all works together even better as the glass warms, the flavours mellowing and melding.
The mineral notes in particular carry through to the end, when the toast becomes slightly more pronounced – never getting roasty – and combine with a mild hops bite. The finish is dry and clean, leaving you with the overall impression of a simple but solid beer indicative of a promising brewery. I look forward to seeing more from Half Hitch soon.
On tap, at least. This is the critical bit: I’m not sure I would have picked this beer off the shelf because the artwork on the can creeps me out. Sure it’s a cartoon, but combining sex and the threat of violence makes me uncomfortable. Why bother? This is a beer that doesn’t need to lean on a gimmick.
Dandy in the Underworld Oyster Stout
The Dandy Brewing Co.
5%
You must be thinking: Come on! You just put Dandy on your last favourites list! Worse still, this beer has been around for ages – the first they made along with Golden Brown Dandy!
Enough with your exclamations! For whatever reason – ignorance, idiocy – I’d yet to try Dandy’s stout. Clearly, good things come to those who wait. Thank goodness they still plan to bottle it as a core beer. GBD, I was recently told, isn’t going to be bottled anymore.
Anyway, drink this Dandy in a dark place and you’re liable to lose it. No light passes through it. There’s chocolate, cinnamon, honey and wood smoke on the nose, creating the illusion that you’re in for a big, thick beer.
What you get instead is light and fizzy, marked by chocolate and caramel, the edge on the sweetness beveled by the roasted malt. Rather than going out bitter, it offers mineral, almost like wet slate, and strong mint tea.
Very pleased that Dandy will keep this stout circulating year round, as it’s just as good for gulping in summer as for sipping in winter. It’s also actually made for oysters, the chocolate notes pairing perfectly, apparently, with the brine of the shellfish. In any case, it’s clearly deserving of its long-time best-seller status. Glad to finally join the crowd.
Peculiar Fellows Old Ale
Blindman Brewing Co. and Trouble Monk Brewery
5.7%
What’s an appropriate analogy for a collaborative beer? Not the offspring of some brief coupling because, well, brewers probably wouldn't like that and the results don't last, which is a sad thought. So maybe it's more like an ephemeral reaction. Like those science fair volcanoes made of baking soda and vinegar. The combination leads to something spectacular, then it's gone.
Ah, whatever. The point is, Blindman and Troubled Monk got together and created something awesome this summer in their Peculiar Fellows Old English Ale. Root-beer brown, it smelled of wood smoke and peat, well-worn leather, dark chocolate and black licorice.
For all that, it is incredibly light, as if to defy some laws of beer physics. Warmed a little for fuller flavour, any edginess of the roasted malt was replaced by medium-dark chocolate and buttered rye toast. Rather than finishing conventionally bitter, it took on a faint aspect of fennel.
I hope you had the chance to try it. Rather than lament its loss, I’ll look forward to future partnerships between these two central Alberta breweries and to pinching the little cheeks of whatever lovely thing they co-produce. Sorry, couldn’t help it. Congrats to both on a job well done.
Oktoberfest Lager
Brewsters Brewing Co.
5.5%
It’s a seasonal but I know it’s still on a few store shelves (Sherbrooke and Sobey’s, for example, at least in YEG), and worth looking for. This is a festive, malt-forward beer that smells delightfully of copper, tea rose and rising bread dough. The body is toast and a little brown sugar, briskly fizzy, and transitions by way of mint and pepper to a dry, zesty exit reminiscent of orange rind.
1965 Old Town Porter
Dog Island Brewing
7%
This went over well at Old Dude Jam Nite, when a couple friends and I write songs one week and throw them out the next. What stood out about OT porter (named for the year Slave Lake, where it’s made, became a town) is the balance between richness and drinkability. It’s light but memorable for tones of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, honey and a little smokiness. Finishes with mineral bitters and no detectable booziness despite the higher ABV. Rock on.
Hoodoo Hops IPA
Coulee Brewing Co.
6.3%
I sometimes wonder: Does Alberta really need another IPA? It’s like Coulee raised its hand and shouted, Yes and here’s why! Hoodoo Hops is a uniquely juicy IPA. Breathe in lilac, pineapple, papaya, Mandarin orange and mango before tasting it in the body with buttery caramel and biscuity malt. The end wraps up with grapefruit, mint and young orange. It’s almost too much – but you’ll probably finding yourself thinking you need another to make sure.
