“Be Different. Drink Different.”
Review and photos by Ani Heslop
I’ve never been much of a beer drinker. I’ve always preferred a highball or a cocktail, but my tastes have begun to evolve as I’m getting older. I thought the Edmonton Craft Beer Festival on March 7 would be a good opportunity to see how my tastes have actually changed. Plus it looked really, really fun: a collaboration of local Edmonton businesses, a celebration of industry accomplishments, and most of all drinking good beer with good Edmontonians.
6:00pm
The crowd in the Edmonton Expo Centre crawled to Halls B and C; people have been filing in since the doors opened at 5:30. My friend Av and I had our tickets scanned, we were given tasting glasses with a little handle, and we bought 80 tokens each for $80, which we would use to buy our drink samples. I’m happy to say that the drink cup fit perfectly into my cargo pants pocket.
Samples were 2-3 tokens each, and food ranged from 5-10 tokens. Throughout the night, I kept calling them ‘tickets’, because they were most certainly paper tickets, not coin tokens, like the word makes you think, and I was insistently corrected about my terminology.
We grabbed a copy of the map and headed into the seemingly endless event space. It was so big, we felt like we had free reign of the entire festival. We started at the east end and made our way west, trying the first vendors we came across: Dark Woods Brewing, and Wild Rose Brewery. I chose a light beer from Dark Woods (ironic) and an ale from Wild Rose. To be completely honest, each one tasted just like any other beer to me, but I’m happy to say that I liked them both, wheaty, tart, and fizzy. True North Cider was next, and the raspberry cider was so sour. The festival had so much to offer, and after half an hour, we had only grazed the surface.
6.30 pm
We both agreed it was time for food, and we stopped at Meuwly’s, a charcuterie and artisan food vendor. Av spun the prize wheel and got a free plate of charcuterie! He chose brie cheese, salami, strawberries, and sharp cheddar – it was the perfect amuse bouche. But I think they could have come up with a better delivery system than a flimsy paper plate; it wasn’t the classy vibe that a nice charcuterie should bring.
I was craving more meat, so I stopped by the Flipside BBQ truck. I got the Flipdope Tots for eight tickets — ahem, I mean tokens. Potato tater tots covered with smoked and shredded brisket, mozzarella cheese, green onion, and their signature sauce. The tater tots fell apart when I stabbed them with my fork, making it tricky to eat, but the mess just made it that much better.
My friend got a pulled pork slider from Blowers and Grafton; they serve authentic Halifax street food. I didn’t regret my tater tots, but I could have probably eaten three of those sliders.
7:00pm
By this time, we had both had at least a couple of standard sized beers, of all kinds, lager, ales, porters, pilsners. My favourites were definitely light or red, my least were dark, which I think makes sense for my naive taste.
We decided to find our way to the bathrooms. Two indoor bathrooms were roped off for “VIP Access Only,” so we followed the signs advertising the lowly, general admission washrooms, and I immediately realized why the VIP’s had their own luxurious bathrooms.
Rows of Portapotties lined the smoking pit outside, bright red plastic, and it smelled like hand sanitizer, cigarette smoke, and half drunk patrons. Overall though, I think it added to the experience: there’s nothing quite like meeting new friends while half drunk in the bathroom line.
7:30pm
There was so much more to do than just taste beer. Every couple of feet there was a ‘lounge’, which was basically a rest stop with either chairs, or some fun activity. There was a mini golf set, giant Jenga, and a sit down, lawn badminton game. That one was tricky, I didn’t want to bop the birdie into the crowd, which I did do, admittedly more than once.
7:45pm
I wanted to find my top vendors of the night, so I continued tasting, and eventually, I found all three of my favourites, and they all had one thing in common…
Manual Labour Beer Co. caught my eye immediately because of their catchy slogan: “Beer Tastes Better Earned.” The brewery was started by Nicole and Richard, a blue collar husband and wife duo. They had the most delicious blueberry beer that was perfectly sour and just sweet enough. They’ve only been brewing since 2023, and they said that the festival certainly helps sales and brand recognition. In fact, every vendor I talked to said the same thing: that this festival is important for their business.
I also liked Solutions Brewing Co. Again, it was their catchy name that stopped me, and also their catchy advertising. A handmade poster showing the process of brewing beer had me intrigued: I realized that I never actually knew how beer was made. I tried the “Friends Night Out” Ale, and it tasted like Ale. I don’t prefer when drinks have weird names that you have to order, but I liked the overall marketing. Ron, Steve, and Brendan all use creative problem solving in their day jobs, so brewing beer was just one more solution they came up with.
My last favourite was Georgian Bay Beverage Co. They didn’t serve beer, but spirits and coolers. The green and orange on their booth was bright, lively, and inviting, plus the drinks were delicious. I went back probably 5 times for samples, I could not get enough of their margarita soda, so deliciously tequila-ey after all the beer I’ve had.
All the vendors that caught my eye had the most creative names, the best branding, and the smartest marketing. They were the standouts, and that either makes me a sucker, or it means that good marketing is important for a good brand.
8:15pm
After 8 pm, the crowd really picked up. The volume of both the music and the chatter increased immensely. It seemed like each vendor had their own music playing: there were live music stages playing acoustic, dubstep coming from somewhere, and also a hockey game playing on a big screen. For anyone more sensitive than I, it would have been very overstimulating.
This is around the time when Av and I got separated. I wanted to listen to the acoustic guitar cover music by the Sherlock Holmes Pub Lounge and sip, and he wanted to keep trying as many beers as his tickets — sorry, I mean tokens — would buy. Plus, I wanted to wait around to see if I could catch Bill Robinson, the president of the festival.
After some time and some light dancing, my signature red cargo pants were spotted by Bill in the crowd, and we moved to a quieter place to talk.
The whole point of the festival, Bill told me, is to create a community around craft brewing and “trying to make beer a closed circuit economy.” Breweries supporting breweries, and beer drinkers supporting them. “But it’s also evolved over time,” he said, “it’s not just beer, it’s spirits, ciders, sodas,” and the whole point is to experience the food, the community, the culture, and the drinks all together in one place.
I was curious about the vendors themselves, and Bill confirmed my hypothesis when he said, “[brewing beer] draws a certain type of person — adventurous, daring. It’s expensive to start, it’s risky.”
It’s true, you never know if it will fail, but also, you have no idea where it could take you. Each vendor and brewer I talked to was passionate and loved their product, and they were excited to be there.
With over 180 vendors, countless sponsors and volunteers, hundreds and hundreds of attendees, and supporting 4 charities, Bill obviously had a lot to attend to. I thanked him for his time, and he gifted me with 10 tickets — ahem, tokens — to enjoy the rest of the festival.
9:30
Last call was fast approaching, and I still had so many tickets. While spending them as quickly as I could and trying to find my friend, I came across the photobooth and simply had to wrap myself in a feather boa and snap a few.
My mind was spinning from the drinks, I had drunk at least 40 samples, and my stomach and mind felt warm. The space was emptying very quickly when the vendors stopped serving, so we followed the crowd to the crisp, cool March evening air. I don’t think there was a single sober person in the crowd, including myself. I was the kind of drunk that makes me want to make friends with everyone and take my shoes off. The atmosphere was jovial, enthusiastic, and overwhelmingly positive; the chatter and laughter was loud. In fact, the whole festival was. Everyone was eager to share their story, share their product, and make real connections. That’s what the festival was about the whole time, community, culture, and connection.
Edmonton Craft Beer Festival
March 7 & 8 2025
Edmonton Expo Centre
