I have written a fair bit lately on how upbeat I am about the growth in craft beer availability on the Prairies. Most of my celebrations have been reserved for the big cities and the number of places who are trying to both offer good beer but also build events and education around them. But you know things are getting good when you can order a glass of Full Moon Pale Ale, Brew Brothers Tumblewheat, Paddock Wood Czech Mate and Howe Sound Nut Brown in Medicine Hat, and ALL in the same bar!

I have been spending a lot of time in Medicine Hat this summer, dealing with various family-related matters. And while there hasn’t been a lot of time for beer, I have had a chance to try out two recent entrants to the Hat beer scene. The Local Public Eatery, a small chain owned by a branch of the family that owns Earl’s, has a Medicine Hat location. It has a similar line-up to the Edmonton location. The thing about chains is that they are all alike – the atmosphere is the same, the menu is the same. The staff even look the same. However, in the case of Local, that might be a good thing, because their tap list is one of the better ones in Alberta. The bottle list is fairly anemic, but I love walking into a bar and seeing tap handles for my favourite Canadian craft brewers.

I have been coming to Medicine Hat for years, and until recently mostly drank homebrew or wine. A couple years ago I finally found Trackside Liquor (which I wrote about here), which gave me access to good beer for hanging out at the in-laws. But good luck finding a place for a quiet pint of something other than corpo-lager.

So you can imagine my delight to FINALLY be able to order a glass (they don’t do pints) of Full Moon in the Gas City (yes, that is the Hat’s nickname). But wait, there’s more!

Also now in the Hat is an Original Joe’s. That is not quite as big a deal, as OJs has been sliding in recent years. It seems the newer locations offer a more narrow range of taps, and they are growing their list of house beer significantly. The only one I go to is the original 124 Street location. The Medicine Hat location continues the slow slide of availability – they choose fairly safe beer (e.g. Alley Kat Aprikat rather than Full Moon), but it remains a better tap selection than elsewhere in town.

Medicine Hat is a very conservative town (politically and otherwise). So I think we need to see this development in the proper context. A few years ago, it was a craft beer desert. Now, with a little searching, a thirsty beer geek can, within reason, find a couple of options for their imbibing pleasure. That is a seismic shift, in a way. If a city of 60,000 now has good beer on tap, can a local brewpub or start-up micro be too far behind? Who knows what the next 5-10 years will hold?

Pluse, if Medicine Hat can find a way to serve decent beer to its citizens, what excuse does any other mid-sized prairie city have? Get crackin’ pubs of Brandon, Moose Jaw, Red Deer, Lethbridge and so on…