Yesterday evening, imagine my surprise to turn on the radio as I prepared dinner to hear the last bit of a piece on CBC Radio One’s The World at Six, their national early evening news program, discussing the challenges of brewing beer in Edgerton. That could be nobody less than Alberta’s Ribstone Creek Brewery. Later I found the audio of the story online (you can listen to it here) as well as an online written version (here).

The story isn’t particularly heavy-hitting, mostly talking about the growth in craft beer in Canada and the particular challenges of trying to make a small brewery profitable. Still, it was an interesting piece. And a nice bit of profile for the eastern Alberta brewery.

Plus, it also quoted yours truly. So in a way I shouldn’t have been that surprised to hear the story. However, they interviewed me weeks ago and told me it was for The National on CBC-TV. I don’t know if it did/will run on the program (I couldn’t find anything online). I didn’t know when the story was going to air and wasn’t expecting it to be a radio story, so I guess my surprise is legitimate.

The story mostly speaks for itself. I just thought I would draw readers’ attention to a rare moment – a prairie-based brewery getting national media coverage – something usually reserved for Ontario or B.C. breweries.