Bring a Local Beer this Holiday Season

Ok, ok I know we start each blog with 'sorry we don't blog anymore' but here we go. 

So this holiday, living in the prairies affords you all sorts of wonderful local brews to enjoy

There's a lot of visiting and I say, instead of bringing that bottle of wine you'd normally bring, bring a couple big beers. 

The obvious standards of Big Rock (great new recipes lately), Wildrose (cherry's out again), Alley Kat (dragon anyone?), Paddock Wood, Fort Garry, Half Pints, Grizzly Paw Norsemann, Bushwakkers and Brewsters (as if that's not enough) there's a few newer ones some guests may not have tried 

Tool Shed

Village

Last Best

and all Bearhill national park beers (Banff Ave, Jasper, Wood Buffalo)

Dandy

Ribstone Creek

Benchcreek

Blindman

Yellowhead

Boiling Oar

Something Brewing

Drummond

Minhas

Troubled Monk

Two Sergeants

Olds College

Rebellion

Black Bridge

Nine Mile

Nokomis

Saskatoon Brewery

Farmery

There's lots to choose from so keep it local this holiday

Canada's Best Beer

Well this question is addressed each year at the Canadian Brewing Awards but today was asked by a local radio station

I think the growth of craft beer had made this much harder to answer these days. 

Is it 'best' by most sold in a year? 'Best' regionally? 'Best' by style?  I think it's this last one that you have to go by as so many beers are so different from one another. If you are pilsner drinker than you probably wouldn't vote for a Russian imperial or a barley wine but it doesn't mean they're not great - or even the best. 

Try beers out of your comfort zones. Your world will vastly expand. 

Oh what are our thoughts?

Tough but:

ESB - Propellar

Stout - Wildrose Alberta Crude

IPA - mad Tom from Muskoka

Lager - liking Big Surf right now

This may take some time 

Still Here - Just with less to say

Yes, we know we're the worst bloggers ever.

There's constant excuses with time and our real jobs, but as we discuss this blog, the true realization is that perhaps there's less for us to discuss.

We started this idea years ago in hopes to be a part of the future craft beer revolution in Canada by promoting the great beers many were undertaking.  I feel we were a part - maybe a small one, but in the beginning, maybe not.

Anyway. we're still promoting the great beer that comes to the west and more importantly, produced in the west but it's not in this post.

Keep drinking good, local beer.  Seek new ones out.  Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - you all have newer breweries - find a beer they make that fits your taste and drink local.  If not truly local, than western, at least.

If you happen to not be a beer drinker, there are so many cider houses, distilleries and wineries in Canada and in the west, you can still drink local.