As I said to him, it was a funny co-incidence, because I was compiling my own list. Obviously, both of us are ready for summer to start.

I’m sick of the rain in Calgary, and ready for a cold one on a hot day.

And when the weather is really warm, here are five I tend to reach for. Not saying my list is better than Jeff’s, just wanted to offer my take.

1. Thornbridge Kipling South Pacific Pale Ale: Light but hoppy. Full of flavour. It’s perfect for a summer day, with flavours of kiwi and passionfruit, with a bit of lychee bitterness on the finish. I discovered this courtesy Dave the Beer Guy at Willow Park Wines & Spirits, who was pouring a selection of Thornbridge beers at an event last spring. It’s been a favourite warm-weather beer ever since.

2. Village Wit: If you offered me a choice between other Belgian-style wheat ales and the Village Wit, I’d probably take this local take on the classic combination of light ale, orange and coriander. More full-flavoured than some, and not as heavy on the orange as others, this is a deliciously well-balanced beer.

3. Okanagan Spring Summer Weizen: Everyone seems to have a favourite fruit beer.  Jeff offered up the Wild Rose WRaspberry, and my better half has taken a shine to the Stiegl Grapefruit Radler. For me, I was hooked when I first tried the Okanagan Spring Summer Weizen at the 2012 Calgary International Beerfest, in part because apricot is one of my favourite summer fruits. This is another unfiltered wheat beer, brewed with the delicious stone fruit.

4. Big Rock IPA: Call me a homer if you will, but I do really like Big Rock’s IPA. It’s very aromatic and has good hop flavour without being a palate-killer, making for a nice session-able ale. Grasshopper may be a summer favourite with Big Rock fans, and it’s certainly a great summer sipper, but I loves me some hops. A runner-up for great hop character would be Mill Street’s standout Tankhouse Ale.

5. Steam Whistle Pilsner:  Typically, I do not drink a lot of pale lagers. But I am always willing to make an exception when it’s hot out. A good pilsner — floral, grainy and grassy — goes with a sunny day like, er,  flowers and freshly cut grass. Steam Whistle is one of my “please everyone” barbecue beers.

With Friday being the first official day of summer, I have made my top-five easy picks for those thirsty beer drinkers who are looking to try some great brews that are perfect for the season.

These bottles of suds are the perfect way to enjoy a hot summer’s day on a patio or responsibly around a fire in a campground somewhere in Alberta. You can find all of these brews in a specialty beer store near you.

And if you think you know a better summertime beer out there, please leave a comment below or send me an email at jeff.cummings@sunmedia.ca.

5th — WRaspberry Ale from Wild Rose Brewery in Calgary

WRasberry Ale has always been a favourite of mine.

Sure, fruit and beer don’t always mix, but this awesome Calgary-based raspberry brew is tasty.

The ale has a nice light-pink colour and it does offer a tart-like taste.

It’s a great ale to enjoy when temperatures outside are scorching.

And the best food pairings to go with WRaspberry Ale include a green salad with a raspberry vinaigrette, fruit salad, or fresh mozzarella cheese.

4th — Wild Honey Organic Ale from the Nelson Brewing Company in Nelson, B.C.

This smooth tasting ale is a hidden gem in B.C’s West Kootenay region.

This is a nice, light tasting brew that includes organic malted barely and organic honey from Three Hills, Alta.-based Golden Acres Honey.

And what a combination — it’s delicious.

This NBC brew leaves a hint of honey in your palate and offers up a fruity smell.

It goes well with apple slices, a light salad, or swiss cheese.

3rd — Pale Ale from Idaho-based Laughing Dog Brewing

I remember this day well.

After driving non-stop from Seattle last September, my wife and I stayed overnight in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

I drove for five hours and I needed a break.

We sat down in a restaurant next to our hotel and I ordered a local beer after hearing the waiter explain to me — in great detail — why I should try this local brew.

I obviously caved to pressure because I was extremely tired, but I’m glad he introduced me to this ale.

The Laughing Dog Brewing company has brewed beer in Sandpoint, Idaho since 2005 and its Pale Ale is super tasty.

It offers a floral, citrusy taste and its balanced bitterness makes it the perfect brew to go with a meal that includes grilled fish.

2nd — Charlie Flint’s organic lager from Edmonton-based Alley Kat Brewing Company

Odds are if I am entertaining you in my house, bottles of this tasty lager from Alley Kat will be stocked in my fridge.

And there’s a reason for that.

It a smooth-drinking brew that offers up the right level of bitterness from the hops.

It’s a great European-style lager to enjoy in a backyard patio during a hot day and it goes well with a meal that includes a planked salmon or bruschetta.

According to the Edmonton beer company, the lager is also ideal with Thai, Pan-Asian, Mexican, Peruvian and other spicy cuisines.

1st — Grasshopper Wheat Ale from Big Rock Brewery in Calgary

If you’re a beer snob — like me — and you live somewhere in Alberta, odds are you’ve tried Big Rock’s Grasshopper Wheat Ale.

This longtime Calgary brewery has made this unique classic wheat ale since 1994 and it’s a summertime favourite.

This smooth-drinking tasty beer offers up the right amount of hops and it offers up a crisp finish making it the perfect brew to enjoy every summer.

It also offers up a unique, citrusy-sweet taste on your palette making Grasshopper the perfect ale for barbecued meals like smoked fish, grilled chicken, or shrimp.

As we approach summer, there are plenty of events for every taste, including five course gourmet meals and tastings.

Know of an event we should include? Be sure to let me know, dave.breakenridge@sunmedia.ca

After thousands of thirsty beer fans packed into Calgary’s BMO Centre at Stampede Park last May for the Calgary International Beerfest, organizers are expecting 10,000 thirsty Edmonton residents to pack the Expo Centre this weekend.

Edmonton beer drinkers will have a chance to sample 525 different varieties of beer representing 44 countries Friday and Saturday at the Edmonton Craft Beer Festival, as well as sampling food from some of the city’s best eateries.

And local craft beer fans have a chance to meet some beer masters from a handful of local and nearby breweries that include Yellowhead, Alley Kat, the Hog’s Head Brewing Company in St. Albert and Edgerton, Alta.-based Ribstone Creek Brewery.

“We’ve been asked for the last four or five years to do one in Edmonton,” said organizer Mark Kondrat, a University of Alberta alumni.

“Having an event in Edmonton felt right. We wanted to do something a little unique and do something that was a little more craft focused.”

And, as some Albertans already know, demand for craft beer is growing, according to Kondrat.

More people want better quality beer and they want to learn more about what it takes to make a really good brew, according to Kondrat.

“There are no frat parties here,” said Kondrat about the event.

“People want to know about the brew masters and the beer they represent.”

The festival will also give thirsty beer drinkers a chance to learn about proper food pairings with beer, along with how to cook with beer as an ingredient.

Thirsty beer drinkers also have a chance to help Edmonton’s Food Bank as they are being urged to bring a non-perrishable food item.

The event starts Friday at 4 p.m. for regular admission. Regular admission weekend passes are $29.

For more info, check out edmontoncraftbeerfest.com

As Edmonton’s Pride Festival continues, a popular beer store and Alley Kat is offering up a special brew.

The Sherbrooke Liquor Store is currently selling its Pride Beer special label series made and produced by Alley Kat.

Each bottle of brew shows rainbow flag logo that reads “Take Pride in Your Beer!”

And all the bottles — which come in different colours — have special quotes to help celebrates Edmonton’s LBGTQ community.

For example, every green bottle of Pride Beer contains the Dr. Seuss quote, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and whose who matter don’t mind.”

“It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy,” reads every red bottle — a quote from Lucille Ball.

Sherbrooke Liquor Store is located at 11819 St. Albert Trail.

The city’s pride festival wraps up Sunday.

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This ultra premium collection — featuring two rare single cask 1974 bottles of Ardeg in a leather gun case with eight sterling silver cups — would be the feather in any collector’s cap. Especially with its $15,210.49 price tag.

But the last of the Double Barrel is being unloaded for a special event tasting hosted by Kensington Wine Market (Canada’s first Ardbeg embassy), in partnership with Moet Hennessy and Ardbeg Distillery.

Just a handful of tickets are left for the Ultimate Ardbeg Tasting Featuring Double Barrel, being held Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Southern Alberta Pioneers Hall.

The event features a tasting from the Double Barrel, plus the Ardbeg 17 Year, Ardbeg 1977, Ardbeg 10 Year, Ardbeg Corryvreckan, Ardbeg Uigeadail and the latest release Ardbeg Ardbog.

Given the rarity of the whisky, the event isn’t cheap. But lovers of the peaty heavyweight will surely enjoy a chance to try the best of the range.

Tickets are $300 +GST and are available through Kensington Wine Market.

No one would actually do that to big papa, considering there’s plenty out there worth buying the guy.

Some dads are into tools, and fixing stuff, and others are into books and movies, or sports. Surely most of you out there have a decent idea of what your dad is into.

For those who have a dad who, like me, are interested in something with a little kick, here’s my Top 10 can’t-miss gifts.

Less than $30

Beer: Spend some time perusing the cooler at a good liquor store. Look for an interesting collection of big bottle craft beer. Try something different. Like what, you ask? Well, locally, Big Rock and Wild Rose both run a great seasonal program, with Wild Rose offering something called Gose Rider, brewed with wheat and barley, Saaz hops, coriander and salt. Meanwhile,  Innis & Gunn is offering a special Canadian Cherrywood Finish — their rich Scottish ale aged over black cherrywood. This is an interesting beer. It definitely has hints of cherry, mostly on the nose, but still has that familiar Innis & Gunn flavour.

Books: If dad has enough beer (who has ENOUGH beer?), perhaps he’d like something to read while he enjoys his stash. There are plenty of books about craft beer, making beer and drinking beer. There are some recent books that explore the explosion in craft beer on both sides of the 49th Parallel, including The Audacity of Hops, by Tom Acitelli,which looks at nearly four decades of craft beer growth in the U.S. and Craft Beer Revolution: The Insider’s Guide to B.C.’s Breweries, by Joe Wiebe, which explores the healthy beer scene in our western neighbour. Both are available through Chapters and Indigo.

Put it on ice: Look, I’m not much for ice in my whisky. I feel it takes away from the flavour. I don’t think a proper cube would fit in my preferred Glencairn glass, but if your dad likes his scotch on the rocks, may I suggest this On the Rock Glass and Ice Ball? It makes one large ice sphere to chill your whisky without too much dilution.

$30-100

Brew it at home: What’s better than a bottle of beer that will be empty eventually? The beer gift that keeps on giving. Home brewing is getting bigger, but it isn’t necessarily the easiest of tasks. Mister Beer Bottled Brew takes a lot of the hassle out, and produces a pretty decent final product. And they’re available here in Alberta. For those who want to get a little more creative, Chapters and Indigo has started carrying the Brooklyn Brew Shop’s Beer Making Kit. Available in store and online, the company also sells a book chock full of interesting recipes.

Shake it up: Your dad a “cocktail after a hard day’s work” kind of guy? Let him elevate his martini or Manhattan with a bottle of decent hooch and a set of nice stemware. For Vodka, get dad a striking bottle of Luksusowa or Belvedere. If you’re going for some whisky, you can’t go wrong with Alberta Premium, and if Bourbon is more your thing, check out Knob Creek Single Barrel. But don’t forget glasses and a shaker.

Send him out for the night: If dad drinks it, chances are there’s a special event where he can go sample it. Belgo Brasserie is hosting a special Beer Dinner June 26, and The Libertine Public House is hosting its Pig-A-Palooza June 22. Craft Beer Market hosts regular Brewmaster Dinner. And that doesn’t even mention the plethora of tastings hosted by liquor stores around town. For starters, check out Kensington Wine Market, Willow Park Wines & Spirits and Co-op Wines Spirits Beer.

$100+

Scotch: If you went to the trouble to buy any scotch whisky, I’m sure your dad would be pleased. But why settle for any old scotch? If your dad likes blended whisky, Chivas has recently released its 18-year bottle in collaboration with Italian designer Pininfarina, which is best known for its work in the auto industry (Ferrari, Alfa Romero, etc.). The Chivas 18 Pininfarina is housed in a case designed to look like a “streamlined water drop.”

A perfect symbol of collaboration. Liquid shaped by air. Pininfarina’s mastery of aerodynamics, combined with the peerless whisky of Chivas. Uniting and embodying the passions of both icons, it is the inspiration behind three limited edition expressions of the partnership.

For the single-malt lover, Glenmorangie, known for interesting expressions in its range, has recently released the Ealeanta, which was aged for 19 years in air-dried virgin American oak casks. The companies website says: “The porous oak wood, air-dried for over 2 years, but in this instance never seasoned with any other whisky, allows our precious spirit to extract maximum flavours as nature intended – producing a whisky of incredible taste and smoothness, with layers of vanilla and candied orange peel, interwoven with sugar coated almonds.” Kensington Wine Market is taking orders through its website.

Join the club: More on the whisky train, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s Canadian chapter is based here in Calgary, members get access to tastings and the exclusive opportunity to purchase single cask whiskies. Every membership comes with a kit containing four 100-ml bottles, plus you get the society’s quarterly magazine. Initial membership runs at $230.

School your dad: Say your dad has all the beer and whisky he needs. We may not believe you, but just say he does. He can learn more about the world of wine and spirits through WSET courses. They’re not cheap, but surely dad has earned that with a lifetime of Saturday morning hockey practices, right?

Travel: Want to experience wine country? Authentic Irish Pub culture? The Whisky Trail? There’s a trip out there for you and your dad. AMA offers several different excuursions, while Ferguson Whisky Tours focuses on whisky the world over. But surely your favourite travel agent has a package to give your dad a trip to remember.

Even though there’s less than a week to go, there’s still time to give your thirsty father a special day.

True, the article was talking as much about marketing as I am mixing, but the point can be made in both areas.

A lot of bartenders I have met would tend to agree, because it can act as a blank canvas on which to build a cocktail. Not to say that it’s a lazy bartender’s base spirit, but it is more flexible because of its relative lack of overwhelming flavour, except if you’re drinking the cheap stuff.

A tip, one amateur to the other, if your vodka smells like nail polish remover, you may want to move up a price point or two. Trust me. The good stuff, made from a good grain, can have a surprising richness in flavour, like Belvedere, or Absolut.

But even though these brands, and others, strive for premium and purity in their spirits, the flavoured vodka market keeps growing.

These allow for creativity for bartenders, but just like with the pure version, you have to be careful when it comes to flavoured vodkas. They aren’t created equal.

While it may be hard for a 19-year-old college kid to pass up fruit loop, cupcake, or even bacon flavoured vodka, I’d steer clear.

On the off-chance I find myself drinking something other than my usual gin, Belvedere and Absolut are usually a good place to start. Both use real fruit in their spirits, which make for a better final product than artificial flavours do.

Belvedere has a great grapefruit vodka that lends to a number of cocktails, and both labels do a good twist on lemon.

One of Absolut’s newest flavours is a hybrid, so it lends itself well to a myriad drink possibilities.

Absolut Cherrykran blends cherry, white cranberry and plum into a lively concoction that smells mostly of cherries on the nose, which makes it a natural for cola. And it’s a delicious pairing.

But the cranberry flavour also lends to cocktails like a cosmo, or other martinis.

You can check out more recipes here, or feel free to substitute it for pure vodka in your favourite mix.

According to a story by Edmonton Sun city hall scribe Angelique Rodrigues — a hard-working colleague — they very well could be.

Rodrigues talked to two Edmonton pub owners who admit a younger, whisky-drinking crowd are starting to pour into their bars.

“I would say I have definitely seen a general increase in Scotch and whisky consumption,” said Cathal O’Byrne, owner of O’Byrne’s Irish Pub, Tuesday. He added he’s noticed one trend that could be contributing.

“I see the younger generation starting to branch into that category, where before it might have been like ‘oh, that’s an older person’s beverage.’”

Distributors and bars in the United States are seeing a growing demand for whisky and that’s causing suppliers to scramble.

And — as reported by Rodrigues — a report released by food industry market research firm Technomic says whisky consumption rose by more than 5% in 2012 in the U.S.

That’s just a sign of a better economy, a behavioral shift in people’s drinking habits, and pop-culture influences, says one Edmonton-based whisky expert.

Stephen Richmond, who calls himself “the whisky guy” at Vines-Riverbend Wine Merchants at 2331 Rabbit Hill Road, says young people have more money to spend, but they want quality.

“You look at the trends over the years and people are drinking less, but they are drinking better quality stuff” said Richmond.

“That includes single malts, bourbons — and if you look at the tequila market too, that’s pretty much gone the same way.”

Richmond — who helps organize the The Edmonton Whisky Festival every year to support the MS Society — says he has seen clubs and tastings grow substantially in Edmonton.

In January, Richmond says the festival packed 600 whisky connoisseurs into one room at the Edmonton Delta South. He said the average age during that event was around the early to mid 30s.

And, with the popular-hit TV drama Mad Men, its fuelling the demand even further, said Richmond.

“This is the age of that demographic, and now it is hip, cool, and sexy to be drinking good ryes, or, obviously, good single malts,” said Richmond when asked about how Mad Men is impacting whisky trends.

However, the sudden demand for whisky has caused some distilleries to make some tough decisions in the U.S.

In a press release, the Kentucky-based Buffalo Trace Distillery issued a warning to its customers to expect shortages.

And some companies — like Beam Inc. — have reportedly diluted its premium bourbon brands just so it can produce more booze.

Here in Canada, whisky distilleries are seeing a sudden boost in sales and are trying new ways to bring in newbie whisky drinkers.

Companies like Crown Royal are already offering up maple-flavoured whisky and here in Alberta, Constellation Brands offers up a caramel-flavoured Black Velvet Whisky.

“There are new (whisky tasting) clubs that have now sprung up in Edmonton,” said Richmond, who added there’s now a women’s only tasting club in Alberta’s capital city.

“There is a thirst for whisky.”

Bourbon Boom in KY May Cause Shortages at BTD FINAL 5-22-13-1

Everyone needs to find a little latitude now and then, right?

Alberta wine drinkers can find themselves some latitude in a bottle of a pair of New Zealand wines, available now in liquor stores.

The makers of Stoneleigh wines say the Latitude series comes from an area known as the ‘Golden Mile’, an area regarded for its growing conditions.

“Produced in the Marlborough region, Stoneleigh vineyards are scattered with stones left by an ancient riverbed. The stones soak up the warmth of the sun’s rays by day and radiate that heat to help ripen the grapes by night. This natural phenomenon, coupled with the free-draining stony soils, inspires a distinctively crisp, fresh and elegant wine.”

With the 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, winemaker Jamie Marfell says the Golden Mile has once again lived up to its name.

“These free-draining soils together with an abundance of stones have produced a typically ripe tropical fruit expression of Sauvignon Blanc from the Rapaura sub region, with palate weight and a fresh, crisp finish,” Marfell said.

The tasting notes describe lots of citrus, as well as hints of melon on the nose, with the honeydew, grapefruit and lime carrying over onto the palate.

As for the 2011 Pinot Noir, this wine seems more my speed.

“It’s all about the stones,” Marfell says, calling it a true reflection of the land on which it was grown.

It’s described as having smoky chocolate aromas with lots of red fruit on the palate with a silky finish.

While I am not a white wine drinker, the Sauv Blanc sounds like it would be a good match for chicken fresh off the grill.

But even when the weather warms up, I still tend to reach for a bottle of red. And that usually means a good Pinot Noir.

Although, rather than the duck confit Stoneleigh suggests as a pairing, I may lean toward a good bit of bison.

Look for Latitude wines at your local liquor store, or search it out on