As I predicted in my last newsy post (which you can read here), mere hours after I made the post live I got word of other beer-y activities on the prairies. I was going to write an update last week but the breaking news of new AGLC policy kind of took the site over for a few days, which is fair enough.

However, I have had time to collect myself and I now offer some of the more recent beer news on the scene.

• First mention must go to Ribstone Creek, who emailed me less than 45 minutes after my last news post went live about their latest seasonal beer. Old Man Winter is a strong, dark ale that head brewer Aaron Hogarth suggests fits most closely with a Robust Porter. At 6.6% alcohol, it clearly has a bit of kick. This single-batch, keg-only product will only be around for a few weeks. I haven’t tried it yet, but hope to very soon.

• Yukon Brewing also recently let me in on their latest doings. The event with the most future potential is their release of an experimental gluten-reduced Yukon Gold. Apparently Yukon has been exploring ways to produce a gluten-free beer for some time, but have been unhappy with the results of non-traditional grains. Recently they utilized the enzyme process used by Mongozo and others which permits the use of barley as the base ingredient, but allowing enzymes to break down the gluten. This process can’t guarantee a 100% gluten-free product, but can reduce gluten levels below government standards for the label “gluten-free” (which in Canada is, I believe, 20 parts-per-million). Apparently the gluten-reduced Gold came in at 11 ppm. They are test driving it in Whitehorse and once they get a better handle on what they are creating may release it to Alberta.

• In other Yukon news, later this week the first bottles of their 2013 Christmas beer will be hitting Alberta shelves. Trying to deviate from regular Xmas ales, the folks at Yukon went the fruitcake route. Twinkle In Her Eye Fruitcake Ale has all the ingredients you would expect in your aunt’s potent fruitcake. They added apricot, red cherries, cranberries, and mandarin oranges as fruit and then cinnamon sticks, pureed ginger, nutmeg, and whole cloves for spicing. To top off the experience they tossed in some molasses, some demerara sugar, rolled oats, and whole vanilla beans. Whoa! That there has a lot going on.

• And while I am on Yukon, before New Year’s we can expect some kegs of their Milk Stout to sample. Watch for it at usual Yukon accounts.

• Finally, possibly the biggest news is Big Rock’s announcement of their brewing plans for next year. And, believe you me, 2014 promises to offer likely the largest number of one-off beer this region has ever seen. Over the 12 months of the year, we can expect to see 14 different specialty beer from Big Rock. Fowl Mouth Bitter will be the first release, supposedly a traditional English ESB playing off the company’s rooster logo. Other initiatives range from the interesting, such as a Saison, a “Red Trad”, a wheat lager and a harvest ale, to the more imaginative, including a plum beer, a braggot, a kvass and a gruit. Plus they will also offer up some barrel-aged beer and another version of their Cuvee Bru.

That gets us caught up and I suspect will get us through the holiday season. Or maybe not. We’ll see.