Earlier this week, Molson-Coors Canada announced that it is re-launching Calgary Beer in Calgary for the first time in years. This announcement may be of fleeting interest to anyone not from Calgary (and even to those in Calgary), but I think it has some significance.

But before I discuss its significance, I  need to explain what Calgary Beer is. In short, it is one of the oldest beer brands in Alberta. A.E. Cross opened Calgary Brewing and Malting in 1892 – one of the oldest breweries in the province. His beer, and the buffalo logo he designed, quickly became quite popular in frontier Alberta. Operating continually for decades (it survived prohibition by exporting its beer to Mexico), the company thrived in the growing province. It bought up a couple of other Calgary breweries and the Northwest Brewing Company in Edmonton (in 1953), renaming it Bohemian Maid. Its iconic buffalo and horseshoe logo became famous across western Canada.

Calgary Brewing was purchased in 1961 by E.P. Taylor’s Canadian Breweries, later to become Carling O’Keefe. Carling kept operating the Calgary brewery. When Carling and Molson “merged” in 1989, the Calgary brewery was declared surplus and closed. In 1985, Carling discontinued Calgary Beer in Calgary, but continued to sell it in Saskatchewan. Molson kept up the practice.Twice before it returned Calgary Beer to is home market – around the 1988 Olympics and a single batch in 1992 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Calgary Brewing.

Apparently this latest incarnation is a trial run for now., with a possibility of more continuous availability. For the record, Calgary Beer is now brewed at the Vancouver Molson plant, since Molson does not have a plant on the prairies.

Aside from historical curiousity, I still see this as a small but interesting move by Molson. I always found it odd that Calgary Beer was available in Regina but not Calgary. It seems a no-brainer to try to connect the city with its namesake beer. Personally I vacillate over seeing this as a mild PR reclamation effort or as a cynical marketing ploy. Remember, this is the same company that closed all its prairie breweries in a fifteen year span of brewery-cide. It has made no efforts to preserve or protect the historical heritage of the regional breweries it purchased.  The beer brewed today has no connection, other than the name, to the Cross original, much like the sad evolution of Alexander Keith’s. So it feels a bit rich for Molson to proclaim their great attachment to Calgary when they do very little for the city these days.

However, I am trying to keep the cynical side in check, and allow this to be a small moment of correction. Calgary Beer belongs in Calgary. Even if it isn’t a Calgary beer anymore.