Craft Education: craft beer choices at The Highland Pub

The Student Pub at university evokes images of academics discussing the merits of the Doha Round of the WTO meetings over a snifter of brandy… then again, it also evokes images of grown men and women scantily clad in neon clothing drinking yellow corn-based adjunct-lagers straight from plastic pitchers.

If you think your evening is more likely to resemble the latter, you should at least up your beer game so that when you inevitably email your prof about missing lecture, you can justify your hangover with the smug self righteousness that it was caused by seven artfully produced ales hand-crafted by a bearded man in East Van.

Luckily, the Highland Pub has a selection of craft ales to numb the self-loathing after you fail to make your Friday night 4 p.m. tutorial for the fifth time. Heads up: you don’t have to be self-loathing to drink these beers. You could just be, hypothetically, thirsty.

Big Rock Traditional Ale

Big Rock is a mid sized regional brewer from Alberta who makes decent yet unexciting beers. Traditional Ale is brown ale with a touch of toasted malt providing a great entry point into the craft world.

Big Rock Pale Ale

This is not a west coast pale ale, so expect a muted hop profile relative to west coast beers like Fat Tug, but a well-balanced and more malt forward pale ale.

Driftwood Fat Tug IPA

India Pale Ales are brewed with higher ABVs around six to eight per cent as well as a heavier helping of hops. The extra hops help to create floral, fruity, and bitter flavours, and this IPA has those qualities in spades. Fat Tug pours a blonde colour and instantly emits an aroma of grapefruit. A taste will lead you to note additional fruit flavours like passionfruit and mango. This IPA comes with a heavy bitter punch, but it’s well matched by a nuanced malt flavor that balances the bitterness nicely.

Driftwood Crooked Coast Altbier

So the first time I had an Altbier I thought it was “alternative” beer — one for steampunk goths, maybe? But in reality, “alt” is just an old world way of saying old, and thus this is an old style beer. Crooked Coast is made with German hops and malts giving this almost amber-ish ale a clean malt profile with relatively subtle earthy flavoured hops providing a balanced and pleasant mildness.

Driftwood Farmhand Saison

Saisons were traditionally made with the harvest in Europe throwing whatever in malts were available, and then kept until following summer to be consumed. Today the Farmhand makes a wonderful light-bodied beer with fruity esters, a hint of spice, and a bite from a high carbonation.

University is a place where you will spend a lot of money studying and expanding your mind — only to quickly forget what you’ve learned with the first pub night.

So if you are going to drink away your education, at least do so with a well crafted lager or ale in hand. Or both.