On Tuesday, September 25, we enjoyed our first and “foam-most” Speaker Series presentation of 2018-19, Cheers – Tales of Alberta Beer.
Historians Julia Petrov & Trisha Carleton led us through the fascinating development of brewing in our province, from the legal and geographical restrictions of the 1880s to the regional industry that pitted Calgary, Edmonton, Strathcona, Lethbridge and others against each other starting in the 1890s; from a booming height symbolized by the 1913 construction of Edmonton Brewing and Malting Company’s “Beer Castle” (which still stands in the city’s Brewery District today) to the grim depths of prohibition from 1916 – 1923; from the near-total dominance of Molson and Labatt in the 1970s and ‘80s, to the rebirth of local with Big Rock in the 1980s to the recent wildfire popularity of craft brewing.
Afterwards, about 20 of us made our way to Situation Brewing in Old Strathcona for a tour of a local craft brewer and, of course, a sampling of their wares. All in all, it was a smooth, satisfying presentation — with a wonderful after taste.
