10 awesome Alberta craft beers for 10 excellent 2022 albums


Raise a toast to another great year of music

Choosing 10 favourite albums from 2022 wasn’t easy. Fun, but not easy. In years past, I’d have struggled to fill out the list. The music wasn’t coming out or it simply wasn’t that good.

The difference this year, I believe, is that we’re seeing the artistic outcome of isolation. When musicians got stuck at home, they started writing. As soon as they could, they got back into the studio – and they made some pretty good records.

Really, how could they not be? The world passed through its most immediate existential reckoning in decades. You cannot be unmoved by that.

The difference this year, is that we’re seeing the artistic outcome of isolation.

Once again, I’m raising a toast to those artists. The 10 albums here were a source of comfort, inspiration and even reassurance for me during 2022. What better way to recognize them than with Alberta craft beer? Brewing in the province has become no less of an art. In that sense, the toast extends to the breweries as well.

So cheers! Here’s hoping that 2023 brings a similar level of craft to our music and beer, but without having to go through all the bad stuff to get there.

Aubades, Jean-Michel Blaise – Writer’s Blanc, Trial and Ale Brewing

writer's blanc hopped sour ale by Trial and Ale brewing

Jean-Michel Blaise’s latest album took me by surprise. While his early material was sparse but compelling piano arrangements, Aubades coupled those with strings and wind instruments, like a gentle backlash to the sense of aloneness of past recordings.

Calling this album contemporary classical might scare listeners off, but I suppose that’s what it is. But despite, or because of, its refinement it is entirely accessible. I think of Trail and Ale’s Writer’s Blanc the same way – a summer thirst quencher from a brewery that stands apart for its intricate and elegant barrel-aged mix ferments.

Standout track: Yanni


Hygiene, Drug Church – Wave Pool Hazy IPA, ’88 Brewing

Albany, New York’s Drug Church, as you might guess from the name, does not take itself very seriously. Heavily influenced by alt-rock greats Seaweed, the band combines catchy post-hardcore riffs with ironic hipster humour. It asks little and offers a lot – like a wave pool of rock n’ roll!

Hazy IPAs tend to strike me that way: a big splash but not making much of a lasting impression. But this one from ’88 has some depth: a punchbowl helping of pineapple and guava flavours and aromas delicately cut by grapefruit and orange rind. Give Hygiene a spin and see if Wave Pool’s cheerful tropical notes don’t punch through that much more.

Standout track: Super Saturated


Resist, Midnight Oil – Abbey Lane, Ribstone Creek Brewery

I experienced two real heartbreaks this summer: Midnight Oil toured Canada for the last time and Ribstone Creek announced it was shuttering its Edgerton brewery. Maybe both were inevitable. The Oils’ first album came out in 1978 – almost half a century ago. Edgerton is a town 2.5 hours from Edmonton with less than 400 people. The will to carry on will only take you so far.

But I hear that Midnight Oil may still make albums without touring, and that Ribstone beer may still exist despite having no brewery and no taproom. For me, neither will be quite the same, and I’ll miss them both – this flavourful dark mild in particular.

Standout track: Nobody’s Child


Unison, Brutus – Rearrange Us, The Establishment Brewing Co.

Unison is an album of intriguing incongruities. In keeping with the Belgian trio’s previous two records, it’s post-rock that leans hard on melody. When a crack in the wall-of-sound emerges, it’s filled with a shimmering wash of bar chimes. The ethereal voice of Stefanie Mannaerts (who’s also smashing away at the drums) floats over all of it. And, occasionally, the English lyrics reveal the syntactical challenges of writing in a second language.

But it all comes together on Unison. So does Rearrange Us, a sour IPA that brightens the bitterness without burying it.

Standout track: Victoria


Angel in Realtime, Gang of Youths – Good Golden Cream Ale, Talking Dog Brewing

When I heard a track from this album from Australia’s Gang of Youths playing in the grocery store one day, I realized I’d gotten hooked on a gateway band. I should have known – lead singer David Le’aupepe has a voice typical of soundtracks for romantic films that dabble in tragedy but end happily, and there are layers of strings throughout, alternating between poignant and uplifting.

But Le’aupepe also writes lyrics that can make anyone wondering what the “human condition” is all about go, Oh – that’s it.

These are toe-tappers that put a foot in the door between pop and the deeper stuff beyond. And Good Golden Cream Ale is the easygoing, malt-focused pint you give to a buddy when you’re trying to show them how much more the world has to offer.

Standout track: In the Wake of your Leave


Innate Passage, Elder – Hop Gravy, Bent Stick Brewing

What Berlin-based prog-rockers Elder do with a single song, a typical rock band does with an entire album. It’s like they figure that every track will be their last, making each one a sacred repository for every riff, motif, phrase, time change, tempo shift and flourish they can think of. As a result the songs – which are rarely shorter than eight minutes – are immensely and wonderfully complicated.

Hop Gravy, one of my favourite beers of 2022, feels like that to me. A hazy brown IPA? It isn’t exactly pretty, but it has a lot of awesome stuff going on, and worth revisiting to try to parse out the pieces and figure out how they all fit together so unexpectedly well.

Standout track: Coalescence


The Rise, The Rural Alberta Advantage – Blacksmith, Village Brewery

There’s comfort music in the same way that there’s comfort food. It’s what you queue up when you don’t know what else to go to, it’s undemanding, it’s familiar without being boring. But it’s still really good.

The Rural Alberta Advantage has been that for me since the band’s 2009 debut, Hometowns. The Rise, a six-song EP, doesn’t branch off too far from those folk-rock roots, but it’s new growth that’s more mature, more confident, richer. Blacksmith is a homey brown ale featuring roasty, caramel notes that never let me down. Showier beers will always rotate through my fridge, but this one’s a mainstay.

Standout track: Lifetime


Reason in Decline, Archers of Loaf – Czech Pilsner, Brewsters Brewing Co.

Is pilsner the comeback style of our time? When I was a kid, “pil” was just the beer with the bunnies on the side of the can that was in every dad’s hand on a hot summer day. Now, we’re getting reacquainted with it as the crisp, clear, European-inspired affair that it should be, as brewers revisit it as part of a broader, and welcome, lager renaissance.

For me, Brewsters’ entry is a treat for its mineral bite and mild toasty sweetness. Here’s another comeback to embrace: the first album in 24 years from 1990s college-rock darlings Archers of Loaf, Reason in Decline.

Standout track: Breaking Even


Sunrise on Slaughter Beach, Clutch – T2G IPA, The Dandy Brewing Co.

Clutch is an old-school IPA band. Generally, the arrangements are straightforward and instrumentation minimal. But the attack overrides the simplicity, which is especially true of the forceful nine tracks of Sunrise on Slaughter Beach. Lead vocalist Neil Fallon sings every note from the gut, the flagbearer in an onslaught of regimented sound.

A bold, remember-how-simple-things-used-to-be IPA strikes me as similar, requiring just a few ingredients, well used, to make a big impact. I’m going with the Dandy for this one, because of a more mindful balance between hop bitterness, maltiness and citrus than I find in some of its local contemporaries. Like Clutch, it’s assertive but intentional.

Standout track: Skeletons on Mars


Deathwestern, Spiritworld – Homebrew

Who likes Slayer? From 1983’s Show no Mercy to 2015’s Repentless, you can hear all of it on Deathwestern, the sophomore release from Spiritworld, a metal act out of Las Vegas. I miss Slayer terribly, and this album brings back all those warm, fuzzy, heavily distorted feelings I’d get when spinning one of those dark old discs.

It’s not a pale imitator, mind you. This feels edgier than Slayer, more urgent, more like a band with something to prove. So I’m pairing it with my own homebrew – doesn’t matter what style – which I always consider an homage to Alberta beer. It will strive hard, though never quite live up (thanks mostly to those “edgy” phenolics).

So, maybe not the best pairing. But I mean well, I really do. So does Spiritworld, and it shows.

Standout track: Purified in Violence


Want more music? Check out my beer and album picks for 2021.

7 beers for 7 albums: My favourite music of 2020 paired with Alberta craft beers

High points in a pretty bad year

In addition to my family, and friends who were willing to tolerate glitchy video calls, three things got me sanely through 2020: running, music and beer. 

The running I can manage on my own. As for music and beer – despite my acoustic guitar and homebrewing equipment – well, to say they’re just not the same is to be kind to myself. I need a better, more reliable supply of both.

Happily, that remained available throughout this heartbreaking holding-pattern of a year, though not without sacrifices. Musicians delivered, despite having to virtually give it away thanks to cancelled tours. For brewers, just breaking even likely proved a luxury for many. But in both cases, creativity was clearly not curtailed.

To close out the year, I’m pairing my favourite albums of 2020 with Alberta craft beers that were experiences in their own right. These were bright lights illuminating anything that stayed good during dark times. Let it never be said that funding for the arts is misspent, or that government grants to help build a nascent industry were misguided.

After all, it’s sobering to think of the world without amazing music or excellent Alberta craft beer, even in a year without a plague.

Matthew Good, Moving Walls | Dark Mild, Sturgeon Brewing

dark mild beer, sturgeon brewing co.

I don’t think everything is automatic for Matt Good anymore. Over the years, his music has evolved from the catchy Can-rock mould buster that was Underdogs to much more introspective, more carefully crafted stuff. It’s a searching of the soul as though Good lost the key to his own heart somewhere there in the darkest recesses.

Moody and wistful, Moving Walls grabs on and gets you thinking about things you probably don’t think about too often. That tends to take a while. A couple of savoury Sturgeon Brewing dark milds will do the job, and without making the next day feel like work you can’t handle.

Standout track: Parts

Sophie Hutchings, Scattered on the Wind | Separated to a Degree, Trial and Ale Brewing

trial and ale, separated to a degree, beer

Australian composer Sophie Hutchings produced much of my go-to writing music for Tapping the West, my book about Alberta craft beer (also a pandemic release). Pianos do that, though, don’t they?

When played in a certain way, as Hutchings does on Scattered on the Wind (at once atmospheric and focused, uplifting and ominous), they can awaken sleepy parts of the brain that actually have things to say, if they just get poked once in a while.

Separated to a Degree, Trial and Ale’s first barrel-aged offering, was a beer that, for me, encouraged more thoughtful tasting. What is a beer, really? it seemed to ask as the cork popped. It was a question that inspired deep consideration, a more vigorous exercising of the senses, and I was pleased to oblige.

Standout track: Two Flames

Dogleg, Melee | Ring Pop Kveik Double IPA, Eighty-eight Brewing

ring pop kveik double ipa, eighty-eight brewing co

Oh, what a joyful noise! Listening to this Detroit punk-pop quartet is like riding a crazy carpet down the stairs, and Melee is Dogleg’s most bombastic outing yet.

If 2020 was determined to bring you down, this record’s screamy but melodic vocals and blistering guitars promised to pick you up by the collar, give you a good shake and tell you that you’re alive and well and you damn well better remember that. Ring Pop, bright and boisterously hoppy, had pretty much the same effect, demanding attention and gratitude in equal measure.

Standout track: Wartortle

Hum, Inlet | The Wolf, Sea Change Brewing

the wolf, hazy pale ale, sea change

After 22 long years, one of my favourite bands from youth, Hum, returned with an album so good it does indeed seem as if it has been slaved over for decades. I feel like the Wolf, Sea Change’s multi-award-winning hazy pale ale, is also a thing that was worked on until it was just so (whether that was the case or not).

Inlet is classic Hum drone rock: dense, layered and mysterious. Again, same for the Wolf, I’d say. I go back to both again and again, and always find something unexpected to enjoy, some new way into both.

Standout track: Step into You

Sarah Harmer, Are You Gone | Front Lawn Saison, Bent Stick Brewing

front lawn saison, bent stick brewing
Dear Bent Stick, sorry this photo is so bad.

Throughout her career, Ontario singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer has used nostalgia as a bridge between herself and listeners. Whatever past she conjures up she is able to transform into a past we all share. Those are worth revisiting, especially when they sound like Are you Gone, which is beautiful and grounding.

It’s a fine match for Front Lawn Saison, a down-to-earth, dandelion-infused 2020 favourite for me. After all, what’s a more nostalgic image than that of plucking that yellow flower gone to seed, and watching it disappear on the fleeting breath of childhood?

Standout track: Wildlife

Travis, 10 Songs | 1929, The Growlery Beer Co.

This is proof that you should take a photo of every beer you drink. You never know when you’ll need it.

Nearly 20 years after the tear-jerker hit “Flowers in the Window,” Scottish pop-rockers Travis are still sowing the seeds of chart-topping hits, even if the charts don’t care like they used to.

Six albums later, the band sounds more grown up, less saccharine (though not a lot), but as accessible as ever. 10 songs is undemanding yet unrelentingly clever and poignant. To me, that sounds like a kolsch, a deceptively simple beer. The Growlery’s crystal-clear and delightfully crispy 1929 is one of my favourites among Alberta offerings.

Standout track: A ghost

Elder, Omens | Oh My Quad, Brewsters Brewing Co.

Since 2005, Boston’s Elder has grown into a much more progressive band than its gnarled roots as a sludgy, stoner metal band might have been expected to produce. Yet much of the old black magic of early records remains. It just shimmers and shines more than it used to.

Make no mistake, Omens is heavy, sonically viscous stuff. The shortest of the album’s five songs clocks in at more than nine minutes (it’s 55, all told). Oh My Quad, Brewsters’ big, rich Belgian ale, was the perfect slow-sipper for this musical journey, which takes the scenic route through uncharted territories of the imagination – just like a great record, and a great beer, should.

Standout track: Embers