The story behind Alberta’s craft beer boom. An insider’s look that brings together tasting notes, social history, politics, and science.

• In 2013, Alberta eliminated its law around mandatory minimum brewing capacity. At the time, there were roughly a dozen small-batch breweries throughout the province. Now there are more than one hundred, with new ones bubbling up each month.

• In 2016, Messenger kept a blog, One Year of Alberta Beer, which chronicled his year of purchasing nothing but Alberta beer. His experiences that year cultivated not only an appreciation for the Alberta beverage, but also an interest in the business behind it. This is the first book about Alberta’s sudden surge in craft breweries and the economic boost that arose as a result.

• With humour, straight-talking tasting notes, and a willingness to challenge stereotypes, Messenger introduces us to key players in the industry. We meet Graham Sherman of Tool Shed Brewing, who helped spearhead the change in legislation; Greg Zeschuk, whose Belgian-inspired brewery is poised to put Alberta beer on the global map; the sisters behind Northern Girls Hopyard, Alberta’s first hop farm; and others such as:

Caravel Craft Brewery
Wild Rose Brewery
Big Rock Brewery
Outcast Brewing
Field & Forge Brewing Co.
Snake Lake Brewing Company
Apex Predator Brewing
Folding Mountain Brewing
The Growlery Beer Co.
Something Brewing Company
Grizzly Paw Brewing Company
Half Hitch Brewing Company
Township 24 Brewery
and many more.

• Tapping the West is an insider’s look at history in the making—Messenger investigates artifacts left behind by Alberta brewers dating to the late-1800s, visits farms responsible for the province’s unrivalled malt, and digs into the brewhouses and backstories of some of Canada’s best new beermakers.

• Messenger winds up his narrative with a good, old-fashioned pub crawl, a fitting finale for the story of an industry that is, at its heart, about having fun with friends. Bringing together social history, politics, and science, Tapping the West is engaging and balanced—not unlike the perfect you-know-what.

SCOTT MESSENGER
author

Scott Messenger grew up in St. Albert, a suburban city on the outskirts of Edmonton, Alberta. In 2016, he created a blog, One Year of Alberta Beer, which chronicled a year of purchasing only Alberta-produced beer. It was featured on cbc radio, and led to a deeper examination of the steadily booming craft beer industry in Alberta. His writing on a variety of subjects has appeared in the Guardian, Canadian Geographic, Avenue, and more. In 2018, an essay he wrote for Eighteen Bridges won an Alberta Magazine Award. He is a communications specialist with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (nait), and is the editor of techlife.ca, the institution’s alumni website. He lives in Edmonton with his wife and two daughters.