The historic Edmonton Brewing and Malting brewery (photo courtesy of Edmonton Journal)

Read an interesting article in the Edmonton Journal on Friday (found here). Edmonton architect Gene Dub wants to turn the building that housed Edmonton’s first brewery – Edmonton Brewing and Malting – into a boutique hotel. the old brewery, situated in the River Valley in the shadow of the McDonald Hotel, doesn’t jump out at you as a brewery. If you weren’t looking for it, you might entirely miss the brick building that stands alone beside Rossdale Road among a cluster of trees. I know I drove past it almost daily for years not knowing its historic (and beer) significance, until a local historian pointed it out to me at a beer education workshop a couple years back. Ever since, every time I drive by it I dream about returning it to its beer origins.

Now, a boutique hotel is not beer, but what the Journal article doesn’t say (and what I imagine many of you know), Gene Dub is also the owner of Edmonton’s newest microbrewery – Yellowhead Brewing. So, I may need to accept the one degree of separation for my beer aspirations. Plus, hopefully Mr. Dub will include a cozy little bar in the hotel that only stocks local beer. It would give me a place to stop during my afternoon commute (a beer geek can dream).

Plus, Dub has a solid reputation for respecting and restoring historical buildings, so I imagine the building’s brewing origins will be honoured.

For the record, I don’t think the building is the oldest brewery in Edmonton. An historical catalogue I have suggests Edmonton Brewing and Malting started business in 1894 a little farther west and moved to the existing structure in 1903 (following some ownership changes, bankruptcies and other messy things – brewing has NEVER been easy in Alberta). The original brewery no longer stands, so we can safely conclude this building is the oldest remaining brewing structure in Edmonton.