Starting up a small, local craft brewery is hard enough. Licensing and permit bureaucracies to navigate. Tons of technical issues to tackle. And then there is the money. It requires tonnes of work with a big question that hangs over… Continue Reading →
It is not the mega-trend that is hazy, or Kviek, or fruited sour beer, but I am certain there are more tea beer around these days, and more diversity in the types of teas being used. I am so certain… Continue Reading →
Happy Canada Day! It may be one of the most half-baked and amateurishly implemented marketing campaigns in recent memory, but it got people talking, I guess. I am referring to the campaign launched a couple weeks ago by Molson Coors… Continue Reading →
Releasing a book during COVID-19 must be an author’s nightmare. No real opportunities to promote the book, no in-store sales. Only word of mouth to work with. Not ideal. Such is the case for Scott Messenger, an Edmonton-based writer and… Continue Reading →
This is one of those stories that is part-COVID-19 and part-longer term trend. We have all seen the shift craft breweries in this part of the world have been making to cans. That has been taking place for the past… Continue Reading →
News came last week that brewery taprooms and brewpubs (along with other licensees except nighclubs) will be included in the first phase of the Alberta government COVID-19 re-opening strategy, with restrictions. This news came as a bit of a surprise… Continue Reading →
A couple weeks ago I sat down (virtually) with Dalen Landis of Grain Bin Brewing in Grande Prairie. During the COVID crisis, he has been doing a series of informal conversations with various local personalities (including the Mayor!), people with… Continue Reading →
As will surprise no one, I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to fads and crazes in the beer world. I am old enough to have seen quite a few of them and so usually need to… Continue Reading →
Recently, before the world went to pieces over COVID-19, my wife and I took a trip to B.C.’s Sunshine Coast to escape Edmonton’s interminable winter. We have been to that part of the country a few times – we quite… Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago there were rumours flying around the Alberta beer industry that Calgary brewery Caravel Brewing had closed its taproom and the future of the brewery was in doubt. Then the COVID crisis hit and that story quickly… Continue Reading →