YYCTOURS
Calgary Brewery Tour Reviews
Cabin Brewing
July, 2024
No matter where in the world you go, there are always breweries that stand out as the most popular. Their patios and glasses are full, creating a vibrant atmosphere that draws in crowds. Meanwhile, other nearby breweries, despite making great beer, often find their seats empty and staff idly checking their phones. This discrepancy is often due to well-crafted marketing, appealing beer names, current trends, and prime locations.
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Cabin Brewing is often regarded as one of Calgary’s most popular breweries. There aren’t many who haven’t heard of, or tasted, Super Saturation NEPA, one of the trendiest styles over the last few summers. They have a great location and excellent branding/marketing. Their popularity is undeniable. But just because a brewery is a cool spot to hang out isn’t a metric we pay much attention to. The real question is, do they make good beer?
Upon walking through the doors on a sunny Friday evening, it is evident that Cabin Brewing has carved out a significant presence in Calgary’s bustling craft beer scene. Almost every seat in the house was taken, and the patio was completely full. They’ve clearly mastered the art of creating a welcoming and inviting atmosphere. The brewery's interior is designed to evoke the feeling of a cosy cabin in the woods. This is achieved through warm wood tones, natural materials, and a rustic yet refined decor. The taproom is spacious with an open layout and high ceilings that contribute to an airy and comfortable environment.It’s a very comfortable room.
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When it comes to beer, whenever we visit a brewery, we always look for a style that we have never tried before, or we gravitate to unique and classic versions that are hard to find. Unfortunately, during our visit, there wasn’t much in the way of variety, but this wasn’t Cabin’s fault. Likely it was caused by the effects of Calgary’s recent water restrictions, which saw local breweries scaling back operations and was also combined with about two weeks of above 30 degree (90F) temperatures that drove beer demand everywhere through the roof. Undoubtedly, if we had visited last month, there would have been a much larger variety to choose from. Nevertheless, we cozied up to the bar and got ready to make our choices.
The first thing we noticed from our bar stools was the impressive collection of more than 30 brewing awards featured around the menu board. Everything from gold and silver Canada Beer Cup trophies to Canadian Brewing Awards and Alberta Beer Awards of all colours were on full display. Cabin opened in December 2018, so this assortment of accolades was reassuring in that these trophies are not given out based on hype and popularity. They are awarded for beer that has been blindly evaluated by certified judges and, in the case of winners, become measuring sticks for all other breweries. Now we are excited!
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We are big fans of Monastic-style beers, so when we first saw Belgian Golden Strong on the menu board we were stoked to try this from such a heavily awarded brewery. Sadly, that beer is not available in flights, so we will have to come back another time when we do not have to drive as it came in at 10% ABV.
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That left us with eight choices, which normally is a great number of beers to choose from. However, Super Saturation NEPA we have had, so we passed on that one. Sunshine Rain IPA we have also enjoyed; in fact, we covered that beer in one of our beer evaluation tutorials here. Retrospectrum Pale Ale is another beer that, like SS and SR, were core styles that Cabin started with in 2018, so we have had that one a couple of times too. With new options quickly narrowing, Sangria Ale was a choice, but about an hour ago we had just enjoyed a glass of this at a meeting in the winery (City & Country) that collaborated on this one with Cabin. It was excellent, as was their previous release Zinfandel Lager. If you haven’t tried these collaboration wine/beer offerings, you’re seriously missing out. They are ultra-refreshing, crisp, and a great choice if you’re looking for something a little different from the norm.
Given all the above, by process of elimination, the choice was pretty much made for us. Simple Pleasures English Dark Mild, Mezcaloma Paloma Gose, Parklife Alberta Pils, and, even though it’s another core beer we have had before, the Luminosity Pils was ordered so that we could compare it to the Parklife Alberta Pils.
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First up: Luminosity, one of two Pils (not Pilsners) that were available. The word Pils means it is a German version of Pilsner, a beer invented in 1842 and named after the city where it was first created, Pilsen in the Czech Republic. This naming convention is deliberate so that the two can be differentiated. German Pils and Czech Pilsners differ in that each contains local and indigenous ingredients and therefore have individual distinguishing characteristics and flavour descriptions ranging from ‘cracker and hay’ in German ones to ‘spice and bread’ in Bohemian Pilsners. There is also often a bit more of a lingering hop bitterness with a German Pils. Because Luminosity has won a ton of awards, we’re not going to bother providing our two cents other than to say, obviously, this beer is very well done and deserves all respect from other German-style Pils.
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Next up, Parklife Alberta Pils. Once again, the name tells us everything. It’s not a Pilsner because it is not made in the Czech Republic, and it is likely made with local Alberta malts, hops, and water. Because of this, the flavour profile is going to be different from both the German and Czech versions. This beer featured a more restrained hop bitterness than Luminosity but contained the same clarity and crisp yet smooth drinkability. It was a nice easy-drinking lager.
Mezcaloma Paloma Gose was the one we drank fourth, but we’re putting it here so that we can save our favourite of the flight, and our pick for Beer of the Week, for last. Gose by definition is a tart, salted beer with coriander and wheat, which is believed to have been first made in the Middle Ages along the Gose River. Despite being so historic, Gose is not a ‘super popular’ style, and evaluating it can be difficult because there are not many comparables. Adding to that, this style is widely open to interpretation, especially in North America where adding fruit to complement the salt quality is common practice. Here, Cabin has recreated a Paloma cocktail in Gose form, and it was done with perfection. One thing we cover on our educational Calgary brewery tours is that you can always taste craftsmanship. No matter what style of beer, even one you are not familiar with, if the beer is well-balanced and nothing stands out as off-putting, then you are drinking a very well-made beer. That is certainly the case here.
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Last up, our pick for Beer of the Week: Simple Pleasures English Dark Mild. Have you ever seen a commercial or cooking show on television where a person takes a first bite of something and their eyes get huge enough to pop out of their head while their jaw drops and they exclaim wow? Well, that was us on our first sip of this beer. Even our basic level of beer knowledge could not prepare us for what we just experienced, and the first thing we wrote in our journal was WOW, all in capital letters. Milds by definition come in at a relatively low ABV, but that does not mean they do not have lots going on. As we chewed on our first sip, our mouth felt like a Volkswagen Beetle that had 50 clowns jumping out of it, each clown with a different flavour or characteristic. The dark malts used here gave us a delicious roast and chocolate character up front that slowly faded into a bit of nuttiness while the aroma of dark fruits filled our nostrils. This beer had so much going on yet was incredibly well balanced that we have to pick it as our favourite, even though all the others were also excellent.
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One last thing we noted about Cabin, which we have seen before at other venues, is that sometimes being a popular brewery can go to your head. This was not the case here. The staff were super friendly and accommodating and did not come off as beer snobs or as "our beer is better than your beer" types. Add this to the fact that Cabin makes seriously great brews across the board, paired with their excellent branding and comfy patios, and it is no wonder why it is often hard to find a seat in the house.
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If you haven’t tried Cabin beer from the taproom, we would love to take you there, and to other great breweries, on a Calgary brewery tour.
If beer is not your thing, YYCTOURS also offers Calgary Wine Tours and Distillery Tours.
Its our goal to visit every brewery in Calgary in one year, to see our take on other breweries in town we have been to, check out more reviews here.