Thanksgiving WTF?

This Thanksgiving my wife and child spent the holiday in Calgary catching up with old/best friends, I decided to drive the other way and spend the day with my folks in Wainwright.

Wainwright is a smaller prairie community surrounded by rolling farms and a massive Canadian Forces training base.  Having grown up in this town I tend to generalize the people there as closed minded hicks, who swill the cheapest beer known to man just to get wasted and see who they can suck into a fight.  Maybe things have changed, it has been years since I've lived there and I don't (to my Mom's disappointment...sorry Mom) get out there as often as I probably should.  So this Thanksgiving, seeing that it would just be the three of us for dinner, Dad decided we would forgo the traditional turkey feast and indulge in sticky BBQ smoked pork ribs.  Of course ribs like these deserve a refreshing crisp beer along with it.  With my preconceived ideas about what Wainwright would have to offer in this department I settled on the fact I would probably be enjoying a Kokanee, or maybe if I was lucky a Stella, to wash down my saucy ribs.  Well smack my ass and call me Sally, we walk into the newly renovated Wainwright liquor store to a wall of some of the best available North American craft beer!  I couldn't believe it, a craft beer selection like this in my home town....things are really looking up!  Maybe I was wrong about this place, these hicks have some taste!  Are the piss swilling hicks a thing of the past?  It's probably too early to tell.

A little overwhelmed by the selection I'm only used to seeing at my trusty beer store in Edmonton, I jumped on a six pack of Red Racer Pale Ale for it's smooth easy drinking and powerful hoppy bite.  My Dad, having developed a taste for Alley Kat Charlie Flint Lager last time he was in Edmonton, was delighted to find it available and scooped one up post haste.  I also ventured into the equally impressive European import wall on the other side of the cooler and found a bottle of Brewdog's Hardcore IPA to be enjoyed on a later date.  Beer store success.  I walked out of that place shocked and proud.  Alberta has a long way to go in the craft beer world, but if Wainwright has jumped on board, I think we're doing alright.