Due to my life pre-occupations I have fallen a bit out of the loop about the goings-on with the prairie breweries outside Alberta. So I thought I would make up for it with a bit of a run-down on some of their latest releases and news, going west to east.

Yukon Brewing are launching a new series of one-off beer, which they call the Brewers A.D.D. series (because their brewers keep coming up with crazy ideas for new beer). They intend the beer to be a bit more creative, experimental and playful and it will come as single industry standard bottles in packing tubes (much like McAuslan does with its seasonals). The first to hit the streets sometime in the next couple of weeks is a Birch Marzen.

Paddock Wood have had a busy summer and fall, with sales of its regular beer climbing and their summer seasonals – Melon Head (which actually has NO melon and is designed as a Kolsch) and 1000 Monkeys Russian Imperial Stout (brewery only sales) – becoming huge hits. This fall they are tweaking their regular line-up, introducing Red Hammer, a beefed up version of their former Vienna Red seasonal, and knocking back the frequency of the Bete Noire Stout. Coming up is the annual Winter Ale, which looks like it will have a Belgian influence again this year. Plus they have more in the Sherbrooke Beer Gods series coming, but I will save those for another day.

Half Pints are keeping up their usual frenetic pace. They just released the 2011 edition of Humulus Ludicrous a week or so ago. This year it comes in 650 ml bottles (better for sharing with your friends!), but have brewed less of it than previous years. Currently in their fermenter is Smoktoberfest, a rauchbier made with 100% rauchmaltz (smoked malt). Now THAT will be one interesting beer. And, of course their 5th anniversary celebration is coming up October 15.