When I wrote up the latest beer news roundup less than two weeks ago. I predicted that within days a whole bunch of new releases would be announced. Well, I was right. Last week was a busy one for announcements and news. So, I thought I might as well do a quick catch-up before the latest news gets lost like my garden hose under a blanket of snow.

So here are some new beer you will see soon, and some other related news.

• Starting out east (sort of), Half Pints in Winnipeg has just released its latest incarnation of Noche De Los Alebrijes, their Mexican-style dark lager which comes out once in a while.

• One province over, Paddock Wood has just put out Cherry Monkey, their imperial stout aged in cherry barrels. Alas, it is a small batch so unlikely to leave the boundaries of Saskatoon.

• Edmonton’s Alley Kat has not one, but two releases this month. First up, last Thursday, was the latest Dragon Series release, White Dragon, brewed with Chinook hops. This coming Thursday sees the return of Olde Deuteronomy, their annual Barley Wine release that had to get back burnered for a couple of years due to tight capacity at the brewery. I am particularly excited about Old Deut’s return as I have kept a handful of bottles from each and every year it was released. Vertical tasting, anyone?

• Grizzly Paw in Canmore announced that their one-time one-time release, Chinook Red IPA, will now become a year-round product, as part of its recently launched Summit Series. It joins Rundlestone Session Ale as the second brand in this new series.

• In a similar vein, over in Calgary, Big Rock has announced that its Dunkelweizen will become the latest beer in its Signature Series, which is its name for its regular year-round line-up. Also, coming in the next few days is the latest Alchemist Series beer. Ivan the Fermentable is a Russian Kvass Ale. It is a low alcohol (2.5%) beer modeled after the historic Eastern European beer brewed with rye bread.

• Still hanging around Calgary, Village Brewing has just released its latest community beer, Village Gardener Community Ale. It is brewed with locally grown/produced honey and lavender and also includes hops grown in four Calgary communities, making it quite the local project. This is the second year of this annual community collaboration project. It comes in a rather unique looking 1-litre howler bottle.

• Finally, for under the “almost there” file, Tool Shed Brewing announced that they produced the first test batch on their newly constructed Calgary brewery. Within a couple of months the upstart will be able to officially join the ranks of Alberta-based breweries. Their beer is currently being brewed by Dead Frog in B.C.

Okay, that is all for now. Come on, prairie brewers, I dare you to release something in the next couple days just to keep my stupid streak of bad news round up timing alive!