A couple weeks ago I published a post that offered up the comings and goings in Alberta craft beer over the summer (which you can read here). Alas, things have been moving very quickly this fall and there is enough movement I felt I should do another update post. And unfortunately this one is all bad news. In the past couple weeks not one, but three, breweries have announced their closure and/or I have confirmed that their demise is a fact. I lament what I have do to here, but here goes.

Ribstone Creek (Edgerton): This is likely the most significant closure. They have been a mainstay in the Alberta beer scene since 2012, so predate the big wave a few years back. Their anchor beer was an accessible lager, but I think it was their rotationals that caught the attention of craft beer fans. Their Abbey Lane Mild and Old Man Winter Porter were a couple of my favourites. There has been no official word from the brewery but independent sources, including someone connected to the company, have confirmed it. One of their challenges from the beginning was attracting staff to work at the brewery in Edgerton, which boasts only 400 people and is a full 2 1/2 hours from Edmonton.

Rural Routes Brewing (Leduc): This one comes with an official announcement from the company that they have closed their doors. I blame this closure fully on COVID. They opened months before the pandemic hit and as a nascent operation suffering through closures, capacity restrictions and customer wariness, it may be they simply didn’t have a chance. I am told they finally ran out of cash reserves. They did package in cans but didn’t have enough runway pre-pandemic to build up name recognition. It is a shame. Leduc needs a brewery.

Legend 7 Brewing (Calgary): I have also confirmed from multiple independent sources that Northam Group, the BC-based beverage company that owns Legend 7, has pulled the plug on their Alberta toehold. They opened in 2017 at the peak of the Alberta brewery boom and never really caught on. At first they packaged in bottles, right at the moment when everyone was switching to cans. I always found their branding to be rather esoteric and there never seemed to be much marketing weight behind them. I will confess they were one of the breweries at the beginning of COVID that I predicted would not survive the tumult of the pandemic. I am not pleased to be proven right.

Are these the last closures? Not a chance, unfortunately. Alberta’s rapid growth combined with the hell that was/is COVID was certain to create some collateral damage. We are starting to see it. In the coming weeks I will offer a longer analysis of COVID’s effects on the industry. For now this sombre update will have to suffice.