Halifax’s Garrison Brewing Company announced today that a shipment of Garrison product is currently working its way westward and will soon arrive in liquor stores in the prairie provinces. This marks their first ever shipment craft brewer to the west.

They have announced that packs of their Hopyard Pale Ale and their Imperial IPA will be in stock, as well as their mix 6-packs (which contain a mixture of their flagship beers: Irish Red, Nut Brown, Tall Ship Amber, Raspberry Wheat and Martello Stout).

This should be a regular offering to Alberta, with the other provinces uncertain. However the brewery warns that in the summer it has a hard time keeping up with demand at home, and so it may disappear during the hotter months, only to return again in the fall. I think we can cope with that.

The Pale Ale and Imperial IPA will be of particular note to craft beer followers on the prairies, as both are multiple award winners. The unfiltered Imperial IPA is considered the hoppiest beer in Atlantic Canada. This past summer Garrison also jumped into the Nova Scotia trend of wet-hopping, with their Three Fields Harvest Ale (as reported in the latest TAPS Magazine). The hops from that beer came from hops grown in the region. Sadly, none of that beer will make its way out here. But it does show that Garrison is not afraid of hops.

The Atlantic Canada beer scene has quietly become one of the most innovative and interesting in the country. Both the number of players and their size are fairly small (although Nova Scotia has more craft brewers per capita than Alberta), but they appear to have a friendly competition happening which is driving creativity and quality.

I also learned that Garrison’s owner Brian Titus developed his appreciation for craft beer while living in Edmonton for more than a decade. Does that mean we can claim him as a prairie brewer?

I have not yet had the Pale Ale or the Imperial IPA, and it has been a few years since I last had Garrison’s mainstays, so I look forward to trying them once they arrive. Maybe I will write more about them following a sample or two.

Expect the beer to be on shelves in 2-4 weeks (my estimate). [UPDATE: I have been told by Sherbrooke that they expect the beer to be on their shelves in 8-10 days. Much faster than I expected. Even better!]