Calgary’s Six Newest Craft Breweries

There’s a craft beer scene brewing in this Prairie cultural capital, so we decided to check it out. Here are six new additions that are putting the tasty in tasting room. —Stephen Smysnuik, The Growler

The Dandy Brewing Co.: Alberta’s smallest brewery is also quite possibly its most DIY. Dandy’s mash tun and brew kettle are two halves of a recycled bright tank from Wild Rose. They use plastic fermenters. All the beer is bottled by hand. This is also one of the first breweries to open after the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission changed the rules. But rather than pander to newbies accustomed to drinking Labatt, Dandy came out swinging with a lineup designed to lure the beer connoisseur. This is a brewery that thrives on experimentation and the element of surprise, whose flagship beer is (inexplicably) an oyster stout and a damn fine one to boot. It’s also the only local brewery we visited that made a sour beer and a Berliner Weisse. The tasting room is tiny, cramped and lacking air conditioning, but its impressive all the same.

For five more breweries, check out our slideshow.

Header image: Hop In Brew Pub