Autumn is one of the four best seasons to drink beer.

The Capital Region suburbs seem to be the place to be over the next couple of weeks, as there are a couple of different food and beverage festivals happening. I though a quick note on them might be useful.

Tonight and tomorrow is Little Guy Liquor’s second annual Autumn Harvest Festival at Festival Place in Sherwood Park. It is once again a fundraiser for Sherwood Park A.C.T., so that is always a good reason to spend a bit of money drinking good beer. They will have over 170 different beer, wine and spirits available. It starts at 5:00 each day, so head over early and avoid the rush. Last year’s event had a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Little Guy does a fantastic job of punching above its weight, beer-wise and charity-wise. For a small store, it is chock full of quality craft beer.

Next weekend (October 27) at the opposite end of town is the first annual Sturgeon Food and Wine Festival at the Enjoy Centre in St. Albert. While less beer-oriented, it will have some incredible food and samples from some of the craft beer mainstays on the prairies, including Alley Kat, Wild Rose, Yukon, Yellowhead and Jasper. Plus, for those of you who haven’t tried it yet, the newish Ribstone Creek will have a booth, so you can sample their lager as well. They will have two sessions on the saturday – an afternoon and an evening.

I won’t bother giving addresses to either festival, because if you are from those parts you know exactly where each of those locations are.

Further, I am encouraged that we are starting to see growth of these kind of showcases beyond the big cities. It may yet be another sign of how craft beer (and food and beverage appreciation generally) is growing.

So, if you are in those parts – or you live elsewhere and just are really kind of bored and don’t mind driving to get there – think about popping in for an hour and try out some quality beer.