Who needs Guinness?

A few weeks ago, Planet S/Prairie Dog asked me to look at good beer for transitioning away from macro beer to craft beer. The first installment of that series ran a couple weeks ago (see the post about it here). The second piece is now out (read the Planet S version here).

This time I look at some of the “premium” brand offerings from the corporate brewers, ranging from Kokanee to Rickard’s Red to the various Whites out there. I also offer alternatives to the so-called Import Premium category – the Stella, Heineken, Dos Equis offerings. Finally I offer some more assertive replacements for the stand-by Guinness.

Finding replacements in this category is actually easier than the first installment. Each of the so-called premium brands actually have some noted flavour to begin with, so finding a similar flavour profile is not too difficult. In fact the most challenging aspect of the column was finding alternatives actually available in Saskatchewan. With Alberta’s offerings the column might have just written itself.

So the suggestions are the stuff you would expect – Original 16, Barking Squirrel, Blanche de Chambly, Thirsty Beaver and so on.  St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout and Paddock Wood’s Bete Noire get the Guinness nod. Actually as I look down the list of the recommendations, I would say every one of the craft alternatives are well-made, interesting beer that I would happily drink anytime, depending on my mood. I realize Unibroue is owned by one of the big boys, and Pilsner Urquell can suffer the same skunking problems as Stella and Heineken (in the bottle, at least), but in my mind both still deserve a place on the craft list.

The next challenge is to figure out a third category of macro-beer that could serve as a third part in the series down the road. A replacement for Bud Light Platinum? Or how about Mountain Crest? Okay, now this is just getting silly.