Rarely do I ask a beer to represent more than itself. It is too much to ask (except in the marketing world) to expect a beer to symbolize something bigger than a good-tasting beer. I know the ad-crazy PR people will differ – they believe a beer is only what you can build the brand to be. But I think a beer should stand on its own merits.

However, I can see the attraction of considering what is a quintessential “Canadian” or “Albertan” or “Prairie” beer. Because beer has personality and sometimes that personality seems to reflect the place it comes from. I wouldn’t build an ad around it (right, Molson Canadian?) but it is okay, I think, to recognize that a beer might be the beer personification of a region.

I mention this because a couple months ago I tasted a beer that I truly thought could be called Alberta’s beer. I don’t want to go too far with that statement, but to be honest it did feel like a good fit. I am speaking, of course, of Oscher’s 1905 Porter, which I review in the latest issue of Vue Weekly, which you can read here. The piece was supposed to run about two months ago, but sometimes things happen in publishing. It got delayed partly because a couple other columns I submitted at the same time ran first, and partly because the editor asked for a special piece on coffee beer.

At any rate, the review finally ran. In it I argue that Oschner’s could meet the “Alberta’s Beer” bill for a number of reasons. First it is a collaboration between one of the province’s oldest craft brewers, Alley Kat, and Canada’s most exhaustive beer store, Sherbrooke Liquor. Second, it honours one of Alberta’s beer pioneers, Robert Oschner. Third, the beer is the child of homebrewers Ray Duperron and Patrick Doyle, who won the right to brew the beer by claiming best of show in last year’s Aurora Brewing Challenge, one of Canada’s largest homebrew competitions hosted by the Edmonton Homebrewers’ Guild.

Finally, I wrote about the beer because it is a damned fine ale. It is a seriously robust porter that verges on stout. I expected nothing less, given Ray’s and Patrick’s reputation.

Is it a symbolic Alberta beer? I don’t know. But I am happy to drink a few bottles to find out.