It is municipal election day in Alberta today, and so I hope all of you who reside in the oil province find time to vote during your busy day. And if you drink craft beer, it appears you are more likely to vote. At least according to a poll sponsored by Calgary’s Village Brewing.

Village partnered with polling and consulting firm Stone-Olafson to survey Calgarians about their beverage choices and linking that to their level of engagement and opinions about various civic leaders. The results, which Village Calls the “Give a $#!t Index”, suggests beer drinkers are more engaged and craft beer drinkers particularly more engaged (see the results here). Well, Village claims that Village beer drinkers are more engaged, as for some reason they refused to include any other small craft brewers, such as Wild Rose, in their list. It somewhat skews the results, I suggest to you. Plus, I suspect the effect has more to do with demographics than it does beer shifting one’s opinions about such matters. Still, it is an interesting glimpse into the opinions of beer drinkers.

In other news, Big Rock is releasing their latest Alchemist Series beer this week. Anthea Wet Hop Ale is exactly as its name implies. The folks at Big Rock claim they used fresh Cascade hops that had been picked 21 hours earlier in the Yakima valley to make this pale ale. Only 3600 bottles were produced, so it won’t be around long. For those not familiar with wet hops, it is a term for using recently harvested hops that have not been dried. Most hops are dried before used in brewing.

Over in Manitoba, fans of Half Pints get to be regaled by a second year of Noche De Los Alebrijes, their Mexican-inspired dark lager. Alebrijes are the colourful, strange folk sculptures found in Mexico, and in the province of Oaxaca in particular. No word on whether it anyone other than Manitobans get to experience it.

Hog’s Head is producing a house beer for the Sherlock Holmes pub chain, which recently changed ownership. But this isn’t your ordinary house beer. Called Colleen’s Amber Ale, it is named after the new owner’s wife, who passed away from cancer recently. Fifty cents from every pint sold will go to support ovarian cancer research. It is an easy drinking red ale (which I will write more about in a future post).

Finally (for now) the latest versions of Paddock Wood’s Winter Ale and Loki double IPA are out and about. Paddock Wood puts both these beer out once a year. Expect them on shelves any day.

Once again be sure to vote today, and then when you are done that task congratulate yourself for being a good citizen by opening a quality craft beer of your choice. The nice thing about craft beer is that it is election day every day. You always get to choose the best option!