A WEEK IN REVIEW

Hello beer fans. It has been a pretty busy week here at SwB. It started out with an afternoon visit on Tuesday to Situation Brewing (more on them later)

I tried the Devil’s Canoe E.S.B. which I really enjoyed. It’s cool to see a few local breweries brewing this English style pale ale. I also tried their Sandwich Cubano. The sandwich was delicious, but I was battling to keep it in sandwich form. The beer mustard although amazing acted as a lubricant and the ham/pork/gruyere/pickles kept trying to escape the baguette. Thankfully no pictures exist of my eventual victory.

Next up was a Thursday lunch and brew with my good friend Brian. Lately Brian and I have been exploring different pubs around south central Edmonton that we had not previously visited. Past pubs include Fionn McCool’s and Duggan Boundary Pub. This week we decided on the Time Out Pub in the Hazeldean neighbourhood.

The beer selection was mostly macros but the pizza and wings were exactly what we were looking for. They have those super crispy wings that I really enjoy and it’s hard to go wrong with the Frank’s style of hot sauce. The pizza was thick and cheesy with toppings that want to fall off the crust. This might not be to everyones liking but I think this neighbourhood pub is a great find.

Friday was a big day for Suds with Buds. Darren had the idea to do an Instagram live stream while we were recording a podcast. This gave people a chance to check out our recording procedures, as well as gave us a chance to interact live with the viewers. Another first for us was having an industry professional join us in the studio. Situation Brewing was kind enough to lend us Mike, their social media and sales guru. We covered a wide range of topics from Situation Brewing’s beginnings to the current state of craft brewing in Alberta. For those of you who didn’t get a chance to see it live the edited version of the podcast will be out this week. We learned a lot from the stream and have some great ideas for next time.

Huge thank you to Darren and the gang at Flock Audio. Huge thanks to Situation Brewing and Mike.

One final update from last week. On Saturday Sam and I finally got to check out Zwick’s Pretzels. If you haven’t been yet I can highly recommend it. We waited about 15 minutes for our made to order pretzels, I tried the Spicy Scallion and Mozza while Sam had the Butter and Salt flavour. Definitely worth the drive over to the 124 Street area for us. What visit to 124 Street would be complete without a stop at Northern Chicken. Oh boy, I could eat their chicken every week. The combination of crispy skin and juicy chicken in unmatched in my opinion. My only complaint is that on some visits the Extra Hot is just the right amount of heat, and sometimes it’s “burn your mouth off after the first bite” hot. I almost forgot about the cornbread, oh my, it’s heavenly. I could use more descriptive adjectives to describe it, but I think you get my point.

That wraps up the Monday Morning Hangover for this week. If I can leave you with one thing it is this. Try something new. Try a new beer, try a new pub, try a new dish. The excitement of discovery is only surpassed by the excitement of sharing your discovery. I look forward to hearing from you. Enjoy.

-Wade