November Beer Club

Award Winners

First up, we’ve made some changes to the beer club.

In the past we’ve featured six beers for a price of $30-$35.  I’ve been getting some feedback that sometimes six is more than desired, and with that many beers there’s a higher chance of one or more brews in the club that may not be of interest.

The other reality is that almost all craft beer is coming in the form of four packs.  

So we’ve decided to strip the beer club down to four beers a month.  This will allow for a more focused approach to future clubs, and it will bring the price down to the $19-$25 range, which is much more in line with what most of us expect to spend when headed to the bottle shop.

So with that out of the way, what have I done to make this first four pack memorable?  Well, its award season baby!

Four Alberta beers, all gold winners between the Alberta Brewing Awards and Canada Beer Cup.  On top of that there’s really just one beer in here that stands out as unusual in some way, so this pack has been designed for maximum appeal.  

Read on to see who the winners are and how they earned their medals!

The beer club releases on the third Saturday every month.  There is no sign up for our beer club, just drop by the store any time were open and pick up a pack!

Chaise Longue

The Establishment Brewing Co.

Brewery of the Year - Alberta Beer Awards

Gold - Alberta Beverage Awards (Low Alcohol Beer)

We’ll kick things off with the big win, Brewery of the Year for the third time for The Establishment!  They continue to put out a non-stop supply of delicious beers in all styles.  It’s their in-house wild fermented and barreled beers are really the backbone of The Establishments critical acclaim.  This little beer is presented on their website as “The First” being that it is their first wild ferment release.  I think it also works as in “The First” wild ferment beer you should have if you are unfamiliar with the style.  

Easy on the alcohol but big on the carbonation, this beer immediately presents itself as a little outside the norm.  Tasting it shows that yeast is definitely the element pulling the most weight as far as flavour goes.  Tart lemon, floral hints, and a peppery presence are all thanks to the wild yeasts in here.  There is also a little yeast/malt interplay in the form of some hay like aromas.  This is the type of beer that seems a little strange at first but by the end of the can you’ll wish it wasn’t over.

$4.5

Blonde

Two Pillars Brewery

Gold - Alberta Beverage Awards (Belgian Ale)

Bronze - Alberta Beverage Awards (Best in Show)

Gold - Canada Beer Cup (Belgian Ale)

While The Establishment came out with Brewery of the Year, Two Pillars absolutely cleaned up at these events.  Along with the awards above they grabbed double silver for their Wit, silver and bronze for their dark strong, and silver for their pale.  Clearly they are the rising star of Alberta Breweries.  Two Pillars was built by Jacob and Boaz, who found common ground in a foreign country on brewing great beer.  They specialize in 100L small batch brewing, allowing frequent rotation and fine tuning during brewing.  The results of this extreme attention to detail is clearly showing.

Belgian style blonde’s tend to have a more pronounced spice and fruitiness than malt.  This is certainly the case with this beer, opening with notes of cloves, moving towards a light biscuity mid-palate, and finishing with a pear and apricot like fruitiness.  

$5

Wave Pool

Eighty Eight Brewing

Gold - Alberta Beverage Awards (IPA)

Weekends at the wave pool might be some of my favourite memories growing up in Calgary.  Having that come to mind always makes a pint of Wave Pool taste just a little better than it has any right to.  Apparently I’m not alone in feeling that way!  Finally Wave Pool gets to wear a gold medal around it’s glass after six years of production.  The aroma of this beer is clear as soon as you crack it, tropical!  If the aroma doesn’t make that clear enough, the colour also shows a hazy orange reminiscent of mango, pineapple, and apricot, much like the nose.  Those fruity flavours give a touch of sweetness and depth, making this IPA feel especially dense.  Better wait half an hour before you go swimming after this one.

$5

The Fohn

Wild Winds Brewery

Gold - Canada Beer Cup (Pale Malty European Lager)

If this looks familiar, it’s because we featured it back in September of last year.

Now this golden coloured beauty is back with a medal to match.

A quick recap on this one.  Wild Winds Founder and Head Brewer Jen became intrigued by the style while studying for her Certified Cicerone exam.  That was followed by a trip to Germany where the intrigue turned into infatuation.  

Upon returning home she set to creating her very own Munich Helles.

It begins with Malt from Alberta’s Red Shed and Minnesota’s Rahr Malting.  For hops this recipe got a slight tweak in the past year, now using 100% German Perle, clearly a positive change.  German yeast finishes it up and the result is a beer with sweet cereal like maltiness, earthy floral hops, and very low bitterness.  Pair it with a pretzel or a pizza, and raise your glass to all the Albertan award winners!

$5