The latest craft beer centre?
The two Craft Beer Festivals (the latest being Edmonton this past weekend) quietly launched the latest craft brewery in Alberta. Something Brewing was tucked in a corner booth energetically pouring the first batches of its three new beer.
Technically Something Brewing (no website yet) is not a new brewery, but it is legitimately a new addition to the province’s craft beer scene. Something Brewing is the brand new craft arm of the Red Deer Drummond Brewing (this website is down, too) boys, Kevin Wood and Cody Geddes-Backman. Drummond, of course, is the “value segment” lager brewery that has been growing at a remarkable rate.
Now, before you scrunch your face up in skepticism, keep in mind this was their plan from the beginning. Wood and Geddes-Backman are passionate beer fans, and Cody has been soaking up all the craft brewing knowledge he can over the last few years. They also know the economics of the discount market is killer. Small margins and a very price sensitive consumer make it a tough segment to play in. So, their plan was to one day branch into craft product. That day has finally come.
To show they are serious – and as I hinted a few weeks back (in this post here) – they are the first brewery in Canada (that I am aware) to employ a hop torpedo in their brewing process.
At the festival they were serving their first three beer. They are likely to be their mainstay products, but Wood and Geddes-Backman are keeping their options open. The whole point of this venture is to experiment and explore. Their Gimme That Nutt Brown Ale is a classic nut brown ale with a bit of American hop character (26 IBUs worth). Darkside Schwarzbier starts soft and clean and finishes with just a hint of drying dark malt. The third beer, Hop Bomb IPA, is an assertive example of an American IPA but one that retains a soft hop flavour (the torpedo at work?). It clocks in at 7% alcohol and 65 IBUs, so hop forwar but not over the top. Adding to the hop flavour and aroma was their decision, at the festival anyway, to serve the beer through a Randall system (which forces the beer through a chamber packed with hops).
Their plan is to release (in the coming weeks) all three beer in 4-packs of cans (Drummond possesses only a canning line), as well find select tap accounts around the province.
Wood and Geddes-Backman readily acknowledge this is the first step in the process and they are not yet certain exactly where the project will take them. Good thing we are all on the ground floor with them and can watch (and sample) their various beer incarnations.
June 9, 2014 at 4:43 PM
I tried them at the beer fest on the weekend. I enjoyed the nut brown, especially the cask version. On the flip side, I was underwhelmed by the IPA. I don’t necessarily need a palate killer, in fact I’m a big fan of IPAs that are hoppy but show a notable balance at the same time, but I would prefer to see more hops in the aroma and flavor in this one.
June 10, 2014 at 7:21 AM
They would have been a lot smarter to brew craft beer FIRST and then realize they never needed to brew another garbage buck-a-beer for the masses. How do you take the makers of Beer Beer seriously? Gonna be a hard sell to craft beer fans in the know.. .
June 10, 2014 at 2:37 PM
I have a lot of time for anyone independent who is willing to branch into Craft Beer. Of course, I also have a lot of time for Great Western Brewing, who are unapologetic about their status as a buck-a-beer player. There is nothing inherently evil about pale american style lagers if they are done well. There is nothing morally corrupt about providing discount beer as part of your product line, although the economics of it are probably not the best.
Now that is not to say that I wholeheartedly endorse every player in the market who flog buck-a-beer and a craft lineup on the side (and we know who I am talking about) because the craft offering has to speak for itself. Don’t underestimate the skill required to brew pale lagers, and those skills do translate into brewing more interesting beer.
September 19, 2014 at 5:50 PM
I just picked up a four pack of the IPA(~$10) and I’m pretty impressed. The websites are still down from what I’ve seen.
September 26, 2014 at 1:56 PM
Tried the Gimmie that Nut.. can’t say I was a fan very subtle flavour not sure if they did much with hops… at least it was not a 6 pack. But at least they are trying I will try the IPA next!
October 10, 2014 at 11:12 PM
All good here. Drummond itself is too small to be lumped in with molsons or whoever owns them these days so don’t treat them as such. There is actually some craft lineage here. Uncle Ben’s brewery, back in the 70s and based in Prince George, had a brewery location in south Red Deer. Uncle Ben (Ben Ginter), an original craft brewer in my mind, would go in the local red deer parade, then go take on o’keefe’s in BC. But I digress. He passed away, the red deer brewery became a Drummond brewery, that ended, became a Chapters store… then Drummond was recently revived and located in NW Red Deer. The intent is craft here and that’s what matters. Keep em coming.
November 9, 2014 at 8:38 PM
Tried the schwarzbier which because of the pricing and the fact that I like to support Alberta craft brewers….horrific. One word. Horrific. Initial sourness so overwhelming that any dark roast flavor was completely an after-thought. Drummond needs to step their game up…Big Rock tried the same half-hearted attempt at this sort of thing years ago. fool me once….
November 15, 2014 at 8:32 PM
@Shadman, totally with you on this one. They have some sanitation issues it seems, unless they’re going for some lambic fusion on this beer. But, they did label it a Schwartzbier style, so shame on them. Get some QA set up in you brewery before you go to market guys. Will not waste another dime on their product after being burned this first time.
October 26, 2015 at 2:29 PM
I am a beer lover. Out of all the delicious beers in the world, I love IPA the most.
I had never had an IPA that I couldn’t finish until I had Hop Bomb IPA. To my taste buds, it’s horrific. It’s a car crash of a beer – there’s a trumpet blast of sourness first, followed by a cacophony of sickly citrus notes. No hoppiness arrives later to hide this mess of sensation. Instead that sourness lingers – like you’d just put your tongue against the end of a 9 volt battery.
I am a beer lover. I never leave a bottle empty or a glass unfinished.
Hop Bomb IPA made for the exception of this rule.
If it were the only beer on the planet I would never drink beer again.