The Anchor Weekly – The Chestermere Lake News

Your humble narrator finds himself penning this week’s column without the aid of a wee dram or a cold pint. Yes, gentle reader, your intrepid liquor reporter is visiting the city of Steinbach, also known as Manitoba’s last dry community. Founded in 1874 by German-speaking Mennonite settlers from Russia who were migrating to avoid military conscription, the town of Steinbach has never been particularly welcoming to boozers. Bars and cocktail lounges have only been legal in Steinbach since October. Yes gentle reader, if you go back more than 4 short months ago, operating a drinking establishment in this town was [...]

February 29 is one of the rarest of holidays, only coming around once every 4 years. To observe this momentus occasion, your intrepid liquor reporter drinks only the rarest and most special of tipples. Our story begins on a chilly February evening way back in the year 2000. The world was still shaking its head about the utter non-event that Y2K turned out to be, and muttering that those infernal computers might just be more trouble than they were worth. There were the usual amount of fringe nutcases that are convinced that whatever deity they follow really dislikes big round [...]

The recent release of the blockbuster Adventures of Tintin movie got your humble narrator to thinking about Belgium. Yes, gentle reader, in addition to being home to that spunky investigative reporter Tintin and his little dog Snowy, Belgium is also home to the finest and most diverse beers the world over. While many countries can lay claim to a dozen or two beer styles being widely available, there are over 500 different styles of beer available in Belgium, which truly makes it the mecca that all beer geeks one day long to visit. Unlike the German breweries that are faithful [...]

Your intrepid liquor reporter was enjoying the half-price pizza night at the Wildfire Saloon in Langdon last Sunday. Unfortunately, the night didn’t begin well, as I was trying to chat up this cute little redheaded beerslinger behind the bar, but she was somehow resistant to my charm and wit, and would not hand over her phone number, despite all my sly and mesmerizing pleas to the contrary. It’s almost like hot bartendrixes wearing short shorts get hit on by slurring patrons like your humble narrator on a regular basis. Luckily, a smouldering Spanish beauty ambled into the bar while I [...]

Lost in the beer-soaked mists of time, Calgary’s historic Inglewood neighbourhood once held an iconic brewery. The empty shell still sits on the eastern end of 9th Avenue, a reminder of bygone days. Let’s have a bit of a history lesson before we talk about that golden liquid we all know and love. A.E. Cross was a prominent rancher in Calgary back in the 1890′s, and was one of the four founders of the Calgary Stampede. Hint: he’s one of the four in the “Big 4″ building on the Stampede Grounds. In 1892, Cross established the Calgary Brewing and Malting [...]

The life of a beer marketing executive must be a rough one. There is the need to appeal to the male demographic, which makes up 75% of beer consumption. That’s why most beer commercials are full of cleavage and short skirts. However, the fairer sex still make up 25% of the market, so the beer barons have to be careful not to chase them back to their more ladylike Vodka Sodas or Cosmopolitans with excessively sexist marketing. There have been a few new beers come onto the market that are specifically designed to appeal to the lady drinker. Carlsberg has [...]

Christmas was a very special day for your intrepid liquor reporter. No, gentle reader, it’s not because I was a good little boy and Santa was good to me. Rather, Christmas day is the one day each year that I drink Samichlaus, the Christmas beer. Readers of Swiss-German descent will recognize that Samichlaus translates into Santa Claus for the Anglos in the audience. That’s why I drink this very special beer only on Christmas day. For those not in the know, Samichlaus is the strongest lager beer in the world, weighing in at 14% ABV. This fine beer is brewed [...]

After our unseasonably warm November, your intrepid liquor reporter was beginning to think that his barley sacrifices to the beer gods over the summer had convinced the powers that be to let us skip winter this year. Sadly, my hopes were dashed with the recent arrival of snow and cold, so it seems to be time to hunker down and prepare to endure yet another winter. Yes gentle reader, it’s time to contemplate the milestones that come with the changes of season. The winter tires. The lack of exposed flesh to ogle. The switch from summer beer to winter beer. [...]

It’s that time of year again. The Thanksgiving and Halloween holidays are long behind us, but Christmas, Hannukah, Kwaanza, and Festivus are just around the corner. This leaves our friendly merchants and retailers only a few more weeks to whip us into a frenzied orgy of consumer spending for the holiday season. Your intrepid liquor report is quite partial to the many extended lunches and corporate parties that happen this time of year, and I take full advantage of the open bars at the holiday parties I manage to weasel my way into. But, as you may have already guessed, [...]

Your intrepid liquor report is hopping mad this week. No, gentle reader, not in the occupy city hall in a tent kind of hopping mad, but mad for the fabulous hoppy taste of a new beer in Calgary! Faithful readers may recall tales of dragging my lady friend along to brewery tours across the country this past summer, including the Phillips Brewery in Victoria, BC. Phillips Brewing was started on a shoestring back in 2001, and has since won countless awards for their finely crafted beers. A decade later, we are finally getting the delicious brews here in Alberta. For [...]