Tag Archives: Olds Alberta

What’s New is Olds

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Bean Brokers is a cozy coffee shop in Olds, Alberta

Here’s a clever way to find a good, substantial lunch in Calgary for less than $10. Get out of Calgary!

Okay, it’s illogical. But the math works when we gather, for a cousins’ reunion, in Olds, an agricultural town of 9,000 an hour’s drive north of Calgary off the QE 2.

It’s kind of hard to read the metal menu board at Bean Brokers, a cozy coffee shop where we meet. But I’m nonetheless rubbing my eyes in disbelief at the prices.

These days, I’m used to paying $12 and up for a decent sandwich in Calgary. Here, I’m only being charged $8 for a substantial grilled turkey panini with pesto. A first-rate breakfast sandwich is about the same price. And the big mugs of coffee are good, too.

A fine turkey panini for only $8

In fact, we’re having such a good time, it’s hard to get the 10 of us out the door. But off we must go for an early-season tour of the extensive botanic gardens and wetlands at Olds College.

The college opened in 1913 and offers extensive agricultural and horticultural education. One of its programs is learning how to make craft beer. How good is that? The good news is there’s a retail store, where imbibing members of the public can mix and match from about half a dozen styles of beer.

Stocking up on student-crafted brews at Olds College Brewery

Finally, the college has a national meat training centre, with again a retail store where you can buy fine, reasonably priced steaks, roasts and sausages.

And retail meats

Did I mention, Olds is only an hour north of Calgary?

Bean Brokers
5014 46 Avenue, Olds, Alberta
Weekdays 7 am-5 pm, Saturday 9 am-3 pm, closed Sunday
403-556-1069

Olds College Brewery
Corner of Highways 27 and 2A
Tuesday to Thursday 11 am-5 pm, Friday and Saturday 11 am-6 pm
403-556-8293

Olds College Retail Meat Store
Weekdays noon-5 pm, Saturday 10 am-4 pm
403-556-8283

Brew U: Olds College Brewery

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Lisa with all the gleaming new beer-making tanks at Olds College Brewery

Lisa with all the gleaming new beer-making tanks at Olds College Brewery

For time immemorial, university students and the swilling of suds have been inextricably linked. So to actually get educational certification for sampling and making beer, well, who wouldn’t want to enroll?

Since 2013, Olds College, in central Alberta, has been making this student dream a reality with its two-year brewmaster program. Can you imagine sitting in a campus bar and someone asking what you’re studying? “Making beer, man.” “Yeah, right.”

Yet when you think about it, it may be the perfect program for turning out freshly-minted brewmasters, or apprentices, for all these microbreweries that keep popping up across North America. And what better place to do it than at a long-standing agricultural college surrounded by some of the world’s finest barley fields?

The program was nirvana for student Lisa, who had taken her love for microbrews on a cross-country beer-sampling tour, paired with her Littlest Beer Blog on the Prairie. In honour of International Women’s Day, she and other female students in the program have developed a hopped-up Calamity Jane Pale Ale.

It’s just one of half a dozen standard and seasonal beers that Olds College Brewery sells (in bottles, cans and growlers) in its little retail outlet, a few minutes west of the frenetic Highway 2 (QE 2), an hour north of Calgary. You can also find its products in some Alberta liquor stores, pubs and restaurants. My early verdict: Some decent beers but not yet threatening the best micro-brewmasters.

A growler of oatmeal stout and a six pack of mix-and-match bottles

A growler of oatmeal stout and a six pack of mix-and-match bottles

I just have one question. Is it too late for me to go back to school?

Olds College Brewery
Corner of Highways 27 and 2A, Olds, Alberta
Monday to Saturday noon-6 pm. Closed Sunday