Alley Kat launches Back Alley Brews
Edmonton’s Alley Kat Brewing is preparing to launch a new series of experimental beers called Back Alley Brews and I am excited about it. Experimentation and creativity are hallmarks of craft brewing and keep us beer lovers coming back for more.
Alley Kat’s Neil Herbst says they have always done a fair amount of experimentation, but most of those creations haven’t made it out of the brewery.
“The thought is to let others try those experimental beers along with us. Some of these Back Alley Brews will be highly experimental, some will be our spin on regular beer styles, so I expect a wide variety of beers.”
The first Back Alley Brew will be a spruce beer made with added hops and lots of fresh spruce tips.
Herbst says the plan is to release a new brew every couple of months, but “in reality the releases will probably be somewhat irregular.” The spruce beer should be ready in a couple of weeks.
FORT MCMURRAY BREW PUB POURING AGAIN THANKS TO A LITTLE HELP
One of the great things about the Alberta craftbeer community is that it’s a collegial community, not an industry where cutthroat competition is the norm.
The most recent example of this is the help provided to Wood Buffalo Brewing in Fort McMurray, which has reopened its pub after the wildfires, but is still getting the brewery back up to speed.
Thanks to seven Alberta microbreweries, pub patrons will have some fine craft brewed suds to sip while Wood Buffalo’s brewery gets back in production. Alley Kat, Wildrose, Toolshed, Yellowhead, Brewsters, Village and Big Rock are each donating a couple of kegs to allow the brewery to serve customers while it builds up its own supplies. All proceeds from the sale of that donated beer will go to the Fort McMurray firefighters relief fund.
When the wildfire hit town on May 3, staff were in the middle of brewing a batch of beer when the facility had to be quickly evacuated.
“There was a tank with 500 litres of half-brewed beer that we had to get rid of,” head brewer Spike Baker told my colleague Keith Gerein in Fort McMurray last week. “It’s always sad to lose some beer.”
But have no fear, more beer is on the way. A post on the brewery’s Facebook page says they are brewing again and the first batch out of the brewery will be Blueberry Vanilla Ale.