We were serving at Sips! at Klondike Days

Some images stolen from our friends' Facebook

We were picked on CBC radio's "Wine of the week"

Wine pick for July 31, 2008 (Runs 4:37)Our wine columnist Gurvinder Bhatia is departing from his usual practice and recommending a beer. This one comes from an Edmonton brewery. It's Amber's Sap Vampire Maple Lager, $12.99 for a pack of 6.

Graham Hicks From the Edmonton Sun, July 20, 2008

BEER HUNTERS HEAVEN
SIP! echoes Taste of Edmonton, with a difference.
In a quiet corner of Hall A during Capital EX, its emphasis is on speciality appetizers (pricey at $5 each) developed by Northlands' flourishing kitchen, and samplings ($2 per mini-glass) of a broad range of unusual alcoholic beverages.
At Art of Conversation XXVII on Thursday evening, the beer hunter in Hicks on Six emerged.
Best of this show was Amber Brewery's Australian Mountain Pepper Lager, a brew Jim Gibbon makes in town with a tarty touch and a delightful after-bite.
Runners-up, the American Great White beer saved by the Sherbrooke Liquor Store for its beer club members, and Black Velvet - half Guinness, half champagne.
The appetizers were superb, beef, lamb, and legume fusion dishes, matched to sauces and veggie garnishes.
Great desserts too, I was told. I didn't try them. Dessert doesn't go well with beer.
Hicks (hic) on Six did not drive home!

Here is the video of space cowboy setting the record...

Here is the original
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqLxLE002S4

Were are the official beer of the "Edmonton Street Performers Festival"


And, as a result a WORLD RECORD was set with OUR KEGS!!!!!!

Space Cowboy lifted a record weight (4 kegs) with a sword in his throat...

Here is a picture





Here is the picture in situ from the site:
http://www.edmontonstreetfest.com/web_version/content.html

A World Of Pure Imagination

Amber’s takes SEE on a Willy Wonka tour of their brewery: beer ca taste like pancakes?Published June 26, 2008 by Melissa Priestley in Food & Drink


Come With Me, And You’ll See It’s no Chocolate Factory, but the beers coming out of Amber’s are as magical as anything Willy Wonka ever invented.

Upon walking into Amber’s, my first thought is “Where’s the brewery?” As my eyes adjust from the blazing summer sun to the filtered interior, I’m hailed by brewmaster Joe Parrell, who saunters up to me with a good-natured grin.
Amber’s Brewing Company (9926-78 Ave) was born a couple years ago as a two-person operation manned by Parrell and owner Jim Gibbon. They created their first beer through contract with Alley Kat. Last summer they found their new digs in an old Chinese noodle factory, Wing’s Foods, and renovated the entire facility. And Amber’s lineup of craft-brewed beers have been appearing in more and more places around Edmonton ever since.
As we walk amongst gleaming stainless steel tanks and valves, Parrell intersperses his descriptions of beer production with candid stories of the growing pains he experienced as the new brewery took shape.
“I wish you could have seen this place last year—it was a disaster!” he laughs, describing the place as a mess of cords, wires, nuts, and bolts. “I was constantly finding pieces, organizing piles of stuff.... It was like the biggest jigsaw puzzle I’ve ever done.”
He points out a sawed-off pipe jutting out of the ceiling next to a large steel tank and explains that it used to be a container for liquid sugar. “We thought the line was empty,” Parrell says, “so we cut it.” They all too quickly discovered that it wasn’t empty at all. “It ran for three days! We carried thousands of buckets of sugar out to the back. On the first day there were only a couple wasps around. By the third day, there were hundreds. Brewing school doesn’t prepare you for that kind of thing!” (The space has since been converted into a chillout area, complete with vintage chairs and lava lamps.)
As we walk around the mash tun, Parrell notes his previous experience working for Molson was wholly different from what working at Amber’s is like. “I learned more at Amber’s in three months than I did in my whole time at Molson,” he says. “There, everything was automated—you just pushed a few buttons and the beer was made. But here, we climb around on the equipment like it’s monkey bars.”
Most microbreweries follow a similar do-it-yourself approach, as the cost of opening a brewery with shiny new robotic equipment is simply prohibitive. Amber’s uses equipment from the retired microbrewery Flanagan and Sons; their bottling machine comes from the original Coca-Cola plant in Atlanta, Georgia. (As soon as I see that baby blue monstrosity I’m in love: I’m a sucker for anything vintage.) However, even the bottling line was not without its share of trials. On its first test run, Parnell and Gibbon discovered it was designed for the classic stubby Coke bottles, so it had to be modified to fit the modern, sleeker beer bottle. The machine also takes a good 30 to 40 minutes to get going. Parrell describes it as an old man: “it takes him a while to get out of bed in the morning, but when he finally does he’s ready to go.”
We move to the makeshift bar in the middle of the room, where I sample their lineup. I had tried the Australian Mountain Pepper Berry before, which has a unique, powerfully peppery flavour that builds at the back of your palate. It was one of their first brews, released just before the Pale Ale, which is refreshing, crisp, and very good for summer sipping.
I also tried Bub’s Lunch Pail Ale, made with water from the High Level Bridge waterfall. (Don’t worry, it’s clean drinking water, not scummy river water. I checked.) It’s more of an English-style ale and is dangerously smooth, with a small bite of citrusy hops at the end.
With an interesting name and even more interesting flavour, the Sap Vampire Maple Lager is memorable, even if it doesn’t suit your taste. This beer is liquid pancakes. I’m not joking—it’s straight up Aunt Jemima’s, and after a couple of sips, my craving for bacon becomes insatiable. (Why do I always discover breakfast beer while visiting breweries?)
We finish off with Grog, something I hesitate to call a “cooler” as this word has unfortunately become synonymous with mass-produced, hyper-marketed bitchpops favoured by the high school crowd. Grog far outshines anything in the cooler category, tasting like something derived from real fruit. It even has some pulp floating in it. With aromas of fresh limes and a well-balanced palate, it’s a drink you can indulge in without feeling guilty (or underage).
Amber’s may still be in its infancy, but the beer is already good and will only get better with time. And if you need a final reason to check them out, Amber’s is eco-friendly: they have implemented an effective, all-inclusive recycling program and have even gotten rid of their industrial garbage bin.
Ah, guilt-free alcohol

We were serving at the Edmonton Festival of Beer

http://www.edmontonsfestivalofbeer.com/


And here is a video (we are not in it...)

Support Keri's Tournament...





http://www.keristournament.com/index.html

We are in food for thought magazine!!!!!!

We are in the Yeast City Rambler's Magazine


http://www.yeastwranglers.ca/CYW/Newsletters/Vol2_Iss1.pdf

Dr. Beer

Joe Parrell will cure what ales you

Caitlin Crawshaw, edmontonjournal.com

Published: Wednesday, November 14 2007

Most partying college kids joke that while they're bound to fail biochem, they'll pass Beer 101 with flying colours.

But Joe Parrell isn't, well, your average Joe. He excelled at both and has since developed a career in beer from a solid background in biochemistry and a love of fine lagers that precedes his university days.

"I know that when I was younger, all of the university students loved to party, but even before that, my dad used to home-brew all the time, so I used to be his test guinea pig," laughs the 31-year-old, who'd "work with him to get a nice balance in the beer."

Beer makes for a bubbling career.

Ryan Jackson/Edmonton Journal

He admits, "I might've been a little underage."

These days, Parrell is the brew master at Amber's Brewing Company, a brand-new Edmonton microbrewery blocks away from the Whyte Avenue drinking district. How new? Parrell and brewery owner Jim Gibbon finished their first batch - a pale ale - just weeks ago.

Brewing is as much an art form (yes, there is taste-testing involved) as a science, Parrell explains. Each part of the process - from the choice of hops to how the beer is brewed - can affect the flavour. The entire brewery must be kept clear of beer spoilers like bacteria and spores which, even in small traces, can ruin the batch.

As an employee at a craft brewery (a fancy word for microbrewery), Parrell has been involved in a wide variety of operations. He's helped prepare the warehouse for the brewery equipment, manage the bottling - even help with some of the plumbing and electrical when needed.

The brewery is worlds away from the government food lab where Parrell began his career, but also very different from his job at the city's now-defunct Molson plant, where he worked after completing training with London's Institute of Brewing and Distilling.

"The big guys have their recipes, the processors have been in place for a long time," he explains. "But here you get to develop your own recipes, you fill it from the start, you fix your process, you sell yourself. When you make it yourself, it's a lot easier to sell yourself. You know what you put into it."

And the public is buying in, says Parrell. People are eager to try new recipes.

"The big guys - Bud, Molson, Coors, Labatt - they've been around forever and they have their market share, but it seems to be declining. What's growing is this kind of brewing because people want to try something different. When you get craft brewing you get traditional beers, pale ales, Belgian styles - you can brew whatever. And people drink it and you keep exploring."

Here is the Original:

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/ed/story.html?id=4c62f22c-dfd1-4149-95ff-6b8f661cdc9f&k=6283

Visits from the Journal..

We Sponsored Moonlight in the Meadows...

Welcome to Beaverlodge

Well, we are now at the Beaverlodge Motel.

Go here to have a look around.
http://www.discoverthepeacecountry.com/htmlpages/beaverlodge.html

U of A Business Alumni Magazine

Another Sharp eyed Viewer

Thanks for sending the scan.

This article appeared in Edmonton's September/October City Palate magazine. p.s. we have no idea who Jim Abbott is but if you know him call us, we would love a picture of him...

2 coincidences

Both of these are from 2 weeks ago but we had some web issues so we are backtracking a bit

First, we had two new stores pick us up:
Hinton Liquor Store 125 JASPER Street, Hinton
&
Wines & Spirits Warehouse 11452 JASPER Ave, Edmonton
Thanks so much to all involved for picking up the line. Did you notice... two new stores... both on Jasper.... (ok not a super coincidence but kind of neat)

Second
While visiting the Reynolds Alberta Museum (http://www.machinemuseum.net/) to see the history of the motorcycle we stumbled upon this photo, sort of the centerpeice for the exibit.

















Now look at this one. One of ours that was earmarked for use on phase 2 of the website...









Judging by the men in the picture (the Edmonton Motorcycle club in 1929) these picture were taken just seconds apart...

That's a coincidence...

In the Media

Apparently we appeared in this month's City Palate magazine in Edmonton. Can anyone send us a scan?

Any help would be appreciated.

Tasting at the SHAW Center in Downtown Edmonton

We had a tasting last week with a one hour window. there were over 1700 people there. We served over 250 samples in that time, then we cleaned up and joined in the dinner.


All we can say is wow. If you ever get a chance to take part in the "FEASTival of Fine Chefs" it is one of the most amazing culinery experiences you will be able to take part in (whoops, ended that sentence in a preposition).



So go here http://www.afpa.com/pro/feast.shtml and have alook around.

The AFPA sure knows how to throw a party.

What a crazy last few weeks it has been

We have been developing a number of new flavours and are actively seeking "tasters". If you are interested just email us at jim@ambersbrewing.com...

One nevers knows where such things will lead.