The Fulcrum staff recently travelled to Edmonton for NASH 76, a Canadian student journalism conference. During the trip, the crew sampled several local beers.
Alley Kat Full Moon IPA and Alley Kat Aprikat
Ottawa equivalents: Big Rig IPA and St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale
Easy-drinking India Pale Ales are becoming more difficult to find with the rise of hop-centric offerings, such as Hops and Bolts or Mad Tom IPA, so it was quite a surprising pleasure to find one of Edmonton’s most popular local breweries has one. If you’re ever in the neighbourhood, I highly recommend trying the Full Moon IPA, a refreshing and subtle ale that is smooth rather than bitter. If you’re looking for something as good in Ottawa, look no further than Big Rig’s IPA, which is a little more bitter and hoppy but just as delicious.
Edmonton’s real hidden gem was the Aprikat, a sweet beer with a rich apricot finish. This beer succeeds where many other fruit-flavoured beers fail: the fruit isn’t overpowering. This beer won’t leave you with a sugar-induced bad hangover the next day and manages to offer something unique for the average beer drinker. St. Ambroise’s Apricot Wheat Ale comes close to matching this one, but this beer almost makes a 40-hour road trip to Edmonton worth it in itself. Almost.
