For the fourth year in a row, Guy McClelland will be on hand at the Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival, Friday and Saturday (May 10-11) at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.
For the fourth year in a row, Guy McClelland will be on hand at the Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival, Friday and Saturday (May 10-11) at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.
"We just really like the show - with our authentic original European styles, and premium refined tastes from centuries of brewing, we try to seek out premium consumers," said McClelland, in an interview with the Outlook. "We have tended to gravitate to wine and food shows, as opposed to beer fests, because we try to focus on shows we think are higher calibre."
His company, McClelland Premium Imports, has been instrumental in bringing new beers to Canada from around the world for the last 10 years, with an emphasis on breweries in Europe.
"In proportion of our total national business, Alberta is 27 per cent," he said, noting Alberta is the company's second highest volume province. "We love Alberta and the freer access to market of new and small and special beers of the world.
"Alberta has twice the number of beer brands available as Ontario - for a small player of specialty beers, Alberta gives us a nice opportunity to ply our trade."
Alberta represents about 15 per cent of the total Canadian import beer business, he said.
"So our little company is overdeveloped there - I think it also says something about Alberta consumers in having an appreciation for that kind of selection and interest in premium products from Europe," he added.
Of the six European breweries the company represents, four beers which will be highlighted at this year's festival are Erdinger Weißbier, Stiegl, Stiegl Radler and Mort Subite.
"Since we've been long waiting for spring, it might be nice to talk about spring beers," he said. "Erdinger Weißbier, being a wheat beer, is light and summery, Stiegl is a Bavarian purity law lager - and lager is the favourite beer style of Canadians.
"Stiegl Radler is very special. Radler is the German word for cyclist, so this is biker beer. It's a style that was home-invented."
McClelland spoke excitedly about the Bavarian purity law, and what it means for quality beer.
"The Bavarian purity law is an important foundation for beer that makes European beer special," he said. "It's the highest and most referenced purity act for beer, and the law said, in order to be called beer, it can only contain the original four natural ingredients - water, hops, yeast and a malt of pure grain, barley or wheat - nothing else.
"This certification means there can be no other ingredients or adjuncts. In Canada, the majority of mass produced beers are anywhere from 30 to 50 per cent adjunct in the malt. Under the purity law, they are not beer."
With that in mind, Stiegl Radler doesn't qualify as a purity law beer.
"Radler has fruit juice in it, so it doesn't line up with purity laws," he said. "It's 50 per cent beer, and 50 per cent grapefruit juice.
"It's half the alcohol, very low in calories, and it's light bodied, crisp and refreshing. We're finding in Canada people are going crazy for this product, and it's as much about the taste as it is the lower calories."
Liquor Depot, which is putting on the festival, will highlight Stiegl Radler this year, he said.
"Another beer that fits with the seasonality is Mort Subite Kriek," he said. "Kriek is Flemish for sour cherry - it has quite a unique taste - and there's a beautiful history behind this style of beer.
"A lambic beer is the oldest known style of beer, from spontaneous fermentation. Lambic beer is named after the yeast strain that falls out of the air in this valley of Belgium. They open ferment it - so this is essentially wild beer - and they age it in oak casks; in the case of Kriek, they age it with the sour cherries for five years."
What goes into a bottle of Mort Subite is actually human tasted and blended, of up to three vintages, he explained.
"The portfolio we're bringing to the show is balance that Albertans may not be getting elsewhere," he said.
While McClelland likes to use the title "Beer Knight," there is some legitimacy to this, he said.
"I was knighted by the Belgian government for exploits in beer exportation," he said. "They mimic a knighting ceremony, and I did it in 2007, alongside the U.S. ambassador.
"They take their beer very seriously and it's a very important export industry for Belgians - it's like oil to Albertans - only better, they can drink it."
McClelland hopes to connect with beer drinkers at the festival, and share more of his stories.
"I find it fascinating and I feel a passion for some of these things that I've learned about beer, and we've learned most people appreciate hearing some of this stuff," he said. "And that's another reason we're at this show - a premium audience of Albertans will be there and it's our time to come tell our stories."
