Joe McWilliams

Not everything is getting worse. Here’s an example of something that has improved a lot in recent years.

When I was young and stupid, I despised the taste of beer, but not because I was stupid. This may not be saying much, in the context of Western Canada at the time. To me, all beer tasted the same; was very strong and I just couldn’t see the point of pretending to like it. So I mostly stayed away from it, apart from a short period of determined effort when I was 19!

Imagine my surprise when I landed in Amsterdam in the fall of 1976 and tasted my first Dutch beer. Mild! Pleasant! What a surprise! Who knew such things were possible?

Well, as I’ve indicated, I was young and short on experience, in the ways of beer as in many other things.

Next thing you know, I’m over in London, England. Big thrill, seeing that place for the first time. Down to the local pub we go – something that must be done, or you’d never heard the end of it. One Guinness stout, please, having heard about it somewhere or other.

Ouch! It was shockingly bitter. I don’t think I got more than an inch off the top before closing time, which came mercifully early, at 10 p.m.

A few days later, out on the road East, I described the experience to Noel Cahill, a Dubliner and one of the Magic Bus drivers.

“Oh, that shite,” he said. “That’s not the real Guinness. The real stuff is just like cream.”

As it turned out, I stayed away from alcohol for the next 25 years or so. It seemed the sensible thing to do, under the circumstances. So I didn’t get around to testing out Mr. Cahill’s assertion.

Then in 2006 or thereabouts, somebody right here in Slave Lake (or it might have been Marten Beach) handed me a foaming glass of Guinness. Here we go, I thought! This horrible stuff again!

But it was really good! Not bitter! Very pleasant!

So I had to ask myself. Was it the beer that improved that much in the intervening years, or was it my taste or tolerance that had changed that much?

As it happened, I asked this question of somebody who knows a lot more about beer than I do. The beer’s definitely gotten better, he said.

There’s been a kind of revolution in beer in recent years. The industry, and its products have gotten a lot more interesting, less boring, more various (and expensive, let’s face it), thanks to the craft brewing phenomenon.

Even if you don’t drink the stuff – and I mostly don’t – you have to admit this has been a fine thing, even if only for the economic reasons.

Once upon a time in Canada a few big companies controlled the entire trade, aided by provincial and federal protection schemes. It resulted in a dull, boring, monotonous situation, with no innovation to speak of. But there were ideas about better, more interesting beer, fermenting away out of sight, it turned out.

And when the lawmakers eventually came to their senses and allowed independent brewers to flex their muscles, everything changed.

Back in the 1970s, when I first tasted beer and hated it, something like Dog Island Brewing (Slave Lake’s craft brewery) simply could not have existed – at least not legally. Times sure have changed, and for the better, I would say.