Your Microbrew Destination:
Here at Andrew Hilton Wine & Spirits, we're serious about beer. We are proud to be Southern Alberta's Microbrew Destination, with over 250 different brews from around the world. From world famous breweries like Ayinger and O'Hanlons, to local favorites like Wild Rose and Alley Kat, we cover a broad spectrum of styles, with a focus on Belgian Trappist breweries, and North American Innovators like Dogfish Head, Rogue, and Lagunitas.
Latest Beer Arrivals:
NEW! - Celt Golden Ale 500mL (61 Points @ Ratebeer.com)
NEW! - Sam Adams/Weihenstephaner Infinium 750mL (87 Points @ Ratebeer.com)
NEW! - Les Trois Mousquetaires Baltic Porter 750mL (99 Points @ Ratebeer.com)
NEW! - Rogue Captain Sig's IPA 650mL (95 Points @ Ratebeer.com)
NEW! - Alley Kat Belgian Quad 650mL (A Brand NEW Beer!)
NEW! - Phillips Hammer Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout 650mL (A Brand NEW Beer!)
Maisel's Original Weisse 500mL (94 Points @ Ratebeer.com)
Maisel's Weisse Dunkel 500mL (83 Points @ Ratebeer.com)
Dead Frog Fusion-Hopped IPA 650mL (A Brand NEW Beer!)
Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout 650mL (96 Points @ Ratebeer.com)
Phillips Mash-Up Baltic Porter 650mL ( A Brand NEW Beer!)
St. Ambroise Russian Imperial Stout 341mL (99 Points @ Ratebeer.com)
2011 - A Year in Review!
2011 was really the year that the 'Craft Beer Boom' hit Alberta, and the year that most people feel that Craft Beer in general jumped the shark. It wasn't the full-throttle, massive expansion year we saw in 2010, but in every way we saw the market just get stronger, and continue to build on the successes of 2010. There weren't all that many big new brewery launches this year (though Phillips and Ommegang were certainly worth mentioning), and a major player (Dogfish Head) pulled out of the market at the peak of their popularity, but the volume of craft beer sold in Alberta this year was almost triple the amount sold in 2010.
As I mentioned above, while the list of new brewers coming to Alberta was less star-studded than it was in 2010, we still saw a ton of strong contenders coming into the market, with Ommegang, Hopworks, and several small British breweries like Fyne Ales and Thornbridge jumping in, but mostly the market was about getting MORE from existing breweries in the market. We saw almost 2 new seasonals every month from Lagunitas, Big Rock carried on with their Kaspar Schultz seasonal series, finally releasing the Scottish Heavy in bottles, we got twice as much new Mikkeller as we did a year ago, plus seasonals from Haand, Dieu du Ciel, and others.
Further, we saw some reasonably intersting things shake out here in Western Canada as well: Driftwood Brewery has rather established themselves as one of the premier breweries not just in Canada, but on the West Coast in general. Phillips expansion to Alberta was a runaway success, and Paddock Wood continues to just get better and better. 2011 also saw the opening of Calgary's Craft Beer Market, Alberta's first 100+ tap bar, as well as Beer Revolution, which is a very cool new spot, with fewer taps, but with much more interesting beers on tap at any given time.
Also of note, was that two really strong breweries were forced to pull out of the Alberta market, not because sales were too weak, but rather because sales in their home markets were too strong! Both Trou du Diable and Dogfish Head pulled out of the Alberta market in early 2011, as they simply lacked the production capacity to keep their own local markets satisfied, and so ceased exports to Alberta. A nice problem for them to have, though it didn't help us out very much around here! I'm expecting to see both of them back sometime in 2012, so this should only be a temporary setback.
So like I said, the beer scene here in Alberta just gets bigger and better, and with just about every beer agent talking about their "Next Big Thing" being just around the corner, we could see some very exciting new releases here in 2012. Happy New Year everyone, and I think that 2012 could be even better than 2011!
Cheers!
Kyle Baines