Jon Shermack

Local Brews | Alley Kat makes beer for all tastes—even caffeine addicts.

When I walked into the Alley Kat brewery, I was immediately greeted by a rather surprising smell: garlic. What on earth was garlic doing in a brewery?

The answer came a little while later as I chatted with Alley Kat co-owner Lavonne Herbst. Turns out that every year, the brewery bottles a few cases of beer for Sorrentino’s Garlic Festival, and I happened to visit the brewery on the day that their special Garlic Lager was being bottled. Alley Kat co-founder (and Lavonne’s husband) Neil Herbst smiled at us from behind the bottling line as he popped a whole garlic clove into each bottle.

Herbst explains they do occasional contracts for people in and around the city, though over the past few years they’ve decided to shift their focus back to their own brands. And rightly so; established in the mid-’90s, Alley Kat is Edmonton’s longest running microbrewery, with a solid portfolio of award-winning craft brews. Though Alberta has seen the rise and fall of several microbreweries over the last couple decades, Alley Kat has managed to stave off elimination from the market without compromising quality. 

“Canada just isn’t a beer culture,” Herbst says. And yet, local microbreweries like Alley Kat are the stepping stones to a society of greater beer awareness.

The Regular Kats

Alley Kat’s lineup includes several different brews to appeal to different tastes. We started off with the Charlie Flint Lager, a light and refreshing beer named after the first microbrewer in Alberta. Herbst notes that Charlie Flint “doesn’t taste exactly like the major domestic brands, though it has some similarities that people can identify with.”

After Charlie Flint we sampled three other regular brews: the Aprikat, an apricot-flavoured beer cooler; the Amber Ale, which walks the line between red and brown ale; and the Full Moon Pale Ale, a fairly hoppy ale just shy of being an India Pale Ale. I was especially struck by Aprikat’s singular flavour—Herbst noted that you can also cook with it too. “Aprikat is great for things like salad dressings, sauces, and reductions,” she told me. I also loved the lemon-citrus flavours of the Full Moon; Herbst jokingly described it as “the lemonade of beers.”

The Facility

Feeling slightly buzzed, we hopped off our barstools and ventured into the back to check out the beermaking facilities. “When we built Alley Kat, we designed it for maximum flexibility,” Herbst says as we dodge the hoses and puddles on the brewery floor. “That’s why we don’t have any hard plumbing connecting the tanks; the beer is moved around through these,” she says, nudging a hose with her sneaker. “That way, we can move our tanks around or even replace them.” She then indicated two large tanks, double the size of the others, in the refrigerated conditioning room. “We are currently in the process of switching from 20- to 40-hectolitre tanks.”

They weren’t brewing anything on the day I visited, so I had to use my imagination and picture the mash tub full of a porridge-like mixture of malted barley and water being slowly and methodically stirred by the brewmaster, then pumped into the neighbouring kettle to be mixed with hops and brought to a boil. After this, the beer would then be pumped through the hoses we just stepped over, and into the fermenting tank where the real magic would happen.

Seasonal And Specialty Brews

Alley Kat releases a new seasonal brew with each season. Due to come out in a couple weeks is a bock, a strong lager characterized by complex malty flavours and balancing hop bitterness. In the last year, the brewery released two meads—beers based on an ancient style of liquor made from fermented honey. While traditional meads are usually higher in alcohol (10 to 15 per cent), Alley Kat lowered the alcohol in their version and increased the carbonation. 

“I think of these as similar to pop,” Herbst says. “We are trying to get a different demographic interested in beer, and I think these really appeal to people who wouldn’t normally drink beer.” I can’t speak for everyone, but I thought the meads were great, and was thrilled to hear they will probably become part of Alley Kat’s regular lineup.

“I think it’s important to taste the raw ingredients, because they constitute the final product,” Herbst continues, opening a few jars of barley from a shelf behind the tasting bar and inviting me to compare the taste of unmalted barley to the malted version. “A good analogy is to think of malting in terms of coffee. The more you roast the beans, the deeper and richer the flavours of the coffee. The same is true with beer.”

Speaking of coffee, Alley Kat’s current seasonal release is the absolutely fantastic Coffee Porter. Rich, expressive aromas leap out of the glass, and the flavours of coffee and mocha are creamy yet refreshing. Herbst assured me that it definitely has caffeine in it—and with that, I do believe I’ve found my new breakfast beer.