Alberta Beer Tourism Takes Off
Outside having a small retail space and maybe a tasting room, these huge beer factories didn’t want non-employees inside their buildings; tripping over hoses, touching valves, and otherwise mucking up the works.
by DAVID NUTTALL
As tourism became an industry in the mid1800s, breweries in Europe established beer gardens to draw in the public while still keeping them outside the building.
Over the centuries, as breweries grew from small commercial entities into Mega Breweries, they somehow lost their connection to the consumer.
In North America, major breweries stood as monoliths on the edges of downtowns, seemingly shielded from the outside world. But when craft brewing emerged in the 1980s, these (much) smaller ventures realized they needed to market themselves differently from the big boys, and presented a kinder, gentler brewery which welcomed their patrons inside, with the tasting room and brewery tours becoming a crucial marketing tool. As larger locales began to include multiple breweries, beer tourism ensued, and by the 1990s cities like Seattle, Denver, Portland, and San Diego in the U.S., and Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, and Montreal in Canada had companies dedicated to taking people around to local breweries. Now, in 2019, Alberta has joined the club. This province’s rapid expansion from around 20 breweries in 2015 to over 100 today has brought beer tourism with it. After testing the waters in 2017-18, several enterprises now have organized excursions for both the local and international traveler. Government agencies have also become involved by working with local breweries, meaderies, wineries, cideries, and distilleries, to promote and help coordinate tours. Travel Alberta (travelalberta.com) has designed multi-day, self-guided trails, called Discover Craft Beer, for both northern and southern Alberta. Tourism Calgary (visitcalgary.com), Edmonton Tourism (exploreedmonton.com), and other regional travel boards provide up-to-date information on local tours.
42 Alberta's freshest food & beverage magazine - June 2019