JULY 2003

Beer Bottles – The Cellar

While I can’t recommend the Cellar simply based on their beer selection, I must rave about it because it offers so much more than an average liquor store. The Cellar is located downstairs across from A&B Sound downtown and provides a soothing hospice from busy 8^th Avenue. As you go down the stairs if you hang a left you’ll enter a store dedicated to booze accessories, such as wine glasses, beer glasses and pretty much anything else you would need to run a small bar at your house. If you hang a right you will come to liquor retail store, but not just any liquor store, an immaculately laid out liquor store, with the overall feeling of being in a wine cellar. Of course, given that theme, you can imagine the wine selection is very deep, but not only the wine selection. I found spectacular rums, bourbons and scotches that I had never laid eyes on before. Not to mention an excellent row of magazines and books all dedicated to various booze topics. I picked up Roger Protz’s Stout’s and Porters which was an insightful read into the history of Stouts and Porters in England. There is also internet access available and I found the store takes on more of a bookstore type of feel in that I could never just rush in there and buy a book, but rather I need to look around see if there is anything else I need and perhaps sit down and flip through a book before purchasing. They have an excellent online site, but they need to get their section of beers organized by country fixed as I know they have more than just German and Mexican beers. All and all this is a great place to visit and have a look around and, while you’re there pick up a bottle or two of something. The Cellar is located at 137 – 8 Avenue SW.

Bubbly Review – Tim’s Random Picks

This month instead of picking a specific group of beers I am just going to list beers that somehow I never had the chance to over the past little while.

My rating system focuses on how enjoyable the beer is to beer drinkers. The system will read as follows: 5 – Undoubtedly a favourite of many people; 4 – Outstanding, most people will like this beer; 3 – Some people will like this beer some won’t; 2 – I didn’t like this beer, but maybe you will; 1 – I don’t know how anyone could like this beer, but perhaps there is one person. Horsepiss – self-explanatory

Coopers – Sparkling Ale (Australia) 5.8%

The nose has a firm maltiness that reminded me a little of champagne with peaches and pears. The mouth is lively with lots of yeast and carbonation, but unlike a Unibroue, the body is very firm. The fruit flavours are very subtle, but play their role well in the background. The finish is malty, yeasty and refreshing. It is a complex ale in the simplest way. 4/5 (Two thumbs way up as a summer beer!)

Youngs – Special London Ale (England) 6.4%

This is everything I want an English ale to be! A light amber color, nose of apples, oranges pekoe and spice. The mouth has a firm, sweet, chewy malty backbone that starts fruity and finishes with a moderate bitterness. It is very complex for an English ale and it is very well balanced between the hops and the malt giving it a flavour complexity topped by very few other English ales. 4/5

Youngs – Double Chocolate Stout (England) 5%

A nice thick light brown head and a pitch-black color gives off a nose of chocolate and roasted malt. The body is full of rich sweet chocolately malt which has a dry finish. It is a nice heavy winter beer (or cold summer day beer), but I found it a little too one dimensional for my taste. 3½/5

Youngs – Ramrod (England) 5%

This beer says to me ‘Hey if that Special London Ale was too complex for your simple palate, try this.’ Cause this beer is a mildly bitter, mildly boring English ale with not a lot of complexity. That said a side-by-side tasting of it and the Special Ale would be interesting to see how different English ales can be. 2½/5

Huyghe – Campus (Belgium) 7%

Medium Amber color. Icing sugar and oranges dominate the nose along with hints of yeastiness. The palate has a malty sweetness combined with an Orange Bitters hoppiness that is a little off balance and a little too sweet. The finish is dry and orangey, but very refined. I also found the body had a little too much alcohol that took away from what could be an outstanding beer. 3½/5

Huyghe – Campus Gold (Belgium) 6%

This is their weaker beer (only in Belgium is the weaker beer 6%) out of the two Campuses. Arguably a Duvel wannabe. However the differences are apparent from the beginning with a loose quick dissipating head on top of a hazy golden colored brew. The nose was interesting, gooseberries and figs. While the body was full of rich malt and citrusy hops the finish was dry and felt incomplete. 3/5

Alley Kat – Full Moon Pale Ale (Edmonton) 5%

This clear brownish- orange medium bodied beverage gives off a Cascade hops floral nose with oranges and apricots being the most prevalent smells. The body is hoppy and chewy while the orange and apricots are present. I also pick up background hints of tobacco (not the first Alley Kat brew to have this trait). The tobacco comes across with a chewing tobacco likeness to it that accentuates the oranges and apricots. All of this leading into a firm, crisp moderately bitter finish. I love Pale Ales that actually try to achieve character instead of trying to be a bland, boring ale with no bitterness at all in it. This is an excellent North American Pale Ale! 4/5

Big Rock - Maibock (Calgary) 6.25%

Deep clear golden color with a rich malty nose giving off just the tiniest effervesces of fruits (pineapples and apricots??). Rich medium-full body with typical Big Rock maltiness. The fruitiness becomes clearer here and the palate can find hints of pineapple and brandy, while the finish is dry and lingering with rich maltiness. To be honest if I wasn’t from Calgary I probably would really love this beer, as I might not be familiar with B.R.’s standard malt/hops profile. But being from here I am just getting a little sick of the same malt/hop profile and want some zing or zang added to their beers. 3/5

Side Joke: What is the easier than stealing candy from a baby?? Picking out Big Rock beers at a beer tasting!!

Tim’s Take

Lacking and Slacking Styles on retail shelves and a Response to the Parkland Institute

This month I would like to talk about styles of beer that we are sadly lacking in our fair city. First and foremost I would like to start with one of my favourite styles, Stout. Sure, sure, we have stouts in Calgary and even good ones, but I still have a beef with this style. First, lets look at the Stouts on hand in the city; we have Big Rock’s MacNally’s Reserve Stout, which is lackluster out of the bottle, but at the right pubs, Drum and Monkey comes to mind, can be a damn good beer, but that doesn’t help when you just want a social on the weekend. Next we have the crowd favourite, Guinness, and although it isn’t too bad on draught or can, it is just too popular and too familiar to get an deep sense of appreciation of, plus it is expensive on tap, especially for the quality. Next we have Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout, which is truly a wonderful beer, but it is not a regular, dry stout, not that there is anything wrong with Oatmeal, and it is bloody expensive, pushing over $6 a bottle in some places. The Double Chocolate Stout from Young’s is also very nice and I won’t complain, but what I am looking for is a Stout that I can buy in a six-pack or have on draught, is relatively inexpensive. All brewpubs in the area also make Stouts, but they do not achieve any real success in my opinion. Even worse, there are no readily available Imperial Stouts in Calgary. This is one of my, if not the, favourite style of beer. The stout issue disappoints me as most cities of our size in North America have at a least one good local stout available in bottles and draught.

Keeping with the dark beer theme, I would also complain about a lack of Porters. It seems that in this city if I want a Porter, I am limited to Samuel Smith’s Tadcaster Porter or Okanagan Spring’s Hotel Porter. Not that these are bad beers, but it is the lack of selection that gets me, and the fact that the O.S. Hotel Porter is actually an Imperial Porter and not a regular porter. That leaves the Tadcaster as the only available standard Porter. Big Rock used to make a half decent Cold Cock Porter, but it hasn’t been around for for a couple of years. What a shame, no local Porters to speak of!!!

And lastly, on the beer styles, some styles that are pretty much non-existent in Calgary; The light and flavourful Saison, the sour and astringent Flander’s Brown Ale, or the sour, Gueze. Somehow Bock beers only seem to be seasonal here and not available on a regular basis.

I also would like to respond to a report by the Parkland Institute called Sobering Result: The Alberta Liquor Industry 10 years after Privatization. Some of you would have seen this article in the Calgary Herald along with comparisons of the price of Molson Canadian and Crown Royal across Canada. In Alberta, as we all know, prices vary from store to store but are standardized in many other provinces across Canada. The first thing that bugged me about the article is the price comparisons, which I thought was part of the report but after reading the report I found it is not so. In fact it is the Herald who selectively takes two liquor stores in Calgary and compared their prices for a 12 pack of Molson Canadian and a 750ml of Crown Royal Whisky to the rest of Canada (though the Parkland Institute’s report did not mention which liquor stores they used in the comparison). I am not sure why this information was selectively used unless to show a biased viewpoint. Once I had a look further at the article itself I realized they compared several products including (sic) Big Rock. In fact they only compared prices in BC and Alberta and did not in fact compare across Canada (I was actually shocked by what I read as the Herald obviously wanted to put a spin on the report that was much less biased than indicated in the paper). They found the mean price for their basket of 10 products was a mere $1 difference between Alberta and BC, which is obviously insignificant. Even further, the reported price variance is greatest in Calgary where there was close to a 20% difference in price between the cheapest place and most expensive place they took their sample basket from.

Secondly, the wages issue. Yes, back in the good old ALCB days (which was before I was 18) clerks got paid $14/hour with benefits, but I feel that people should get paid what they are worth and being a clerk at a liquor store does not justify a $14/hour plus benefits job. A liquor store does not need to act as a welfare program for less skilled people, rather the wages that liquor store employees get now are relatively low, but justifiably so, in that little skill or knowledge is required to work in most liquor stores. With more knowledge, more pay seems appropriate. But I don’t think there is any need for the liquor store industry to be promoted as a good career path based solely on wages alone (this is not to slight anyone in the industry, but is a generalizing comment about public organizations and the relatively decent wages for low skilled jobs). Of course many people who do choose this as a career path do so out of interest in the industry and not solely based on the wages. A decrease in wages I see as a much more positive, than a negative, thing though I am sure several readers will have opposing views.

Thirdly, the proliferation of liquor stores. Yes, I agree that it has got out of hand how many liquor stores there are in this city. I have never been to any other city in the world where it is easier to find a liquor store. I can count five liquor stores within a 10-minute walk from my house. Two of them I have never been to and probably never will. On this issue I think the government could have had limits on the number of liquor stores opening up each year to control the excess amount.

Lastly the Parkland Institute argues that prices will increase, while revenue won’t and that it will become an oligopolistic market with large retail chains prevailing. I say if that is true then great!! I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing as it could possibly lead to lower prices and more specialization. What it does mean however is the average liquor store without a good business plan is going to fall by the wayside and Darwin’s theory will prevail. In conjunction with this point I would like to say that we don’t need a centralized wholesale warehouse, which is still run by the ALCB and they of course will want to hold on to this cash cow. However, I think liquor stores or other licensed establishments should have the flexibility to act as agents to bring in whatever products they want at whatever price. This will lead to each store defining their market as they will have to compete in either the specialty market or the low cost market.