Wind, Coal and Coulees

Southern Prairies & Badlands

Alberta, Canada

Breweries

Towns

Closed

Tally's take

The character

Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and the Crowsnest Pass — dry country with a wet history. This is rum-running ground: Alberta went dry in 1916, BC didn't stay dry, and the Pass became one of the busiest smuggling corridors in the country. The Alibi Run retraces it. Lethbridge has now lost a brewery twice, which tells you the margins down here are as thin as the rainfall.

Medicine Hat3Lethbridge3Brooks2Lundbreck1Blairmore1Drumheller1

The breweries

11 in this scene

Lundbreck, Alberta, Canada

Oldman River Brewing Ltd.

Lundbreck is a village of a few hundred people on Highway 3, minutes from Lundbreck Falls, at the point where the mountains hand over to ranch country. Oldman River Brewing has been pouring there…

IndependentAdvection · 5.9%

Blairmore, Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, Canada

The Pass Beer Co.

Opening a taproom in the spring of 2020 was, on paper, the worst timing in modern brewing. Indoor service was banned before they could use it, so The Pass Beer Co. started life as a pick-up window…

IndependentTrees Don't Move · 6.2%

Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Medicine Hat Brewing Company

Brewing in the town Kipling called the place with all hell for a basement — natural gas under the ground and a brewery above it.

IndependentBurnside Blood Orange Ale

Brooks, Alberta, Canada

Piston Broke Brewing

Brooks is a feedlot and gas town on the Trans-Canada, and Piston Broke is the reason to stop there.

IndependentBrooks Blonde Ale

Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Theoretically Brewing Company

Science-themed and genuinely science-literate, in a university town. The Hypothesis is the cream ale you test everything else against.

ClosedThe Hypothesis Cream Ale

Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Coulee Brew Co.

Deborah Pallett and Scott Crighton spent three and a half years bringing brewing back to Lethbridge, a city that once had it and lost it. Coulee is now closed — the second time Lethbridge has had to…

Closed

Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Valley Brewing

Current official brewery page identifies the Valley Brewing family, local barley context and active tasting room; Travel Alberta dates opening to Aug. 2, 2019. Production evidence: PRODUCTION…

Ownership unknownProfile in progress

Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Hell's Basement Brewery

Travel Alberta and Alberta Ale Trail identify Hell's Basement as Medicine Hat's first craft brewery, operating since summer 2016, with beer made on site. Legal entity: Hell's Basement Brewery Inc..…

Ownership unknownProfile in progress

Brooks, Alberta, Canada

Iron Hat Brewing Co.

Official brewery/shop identifies active Brooks craft brewery and current beer catalogue; Brooks regional job posting identifies Iron Hat Brewing Company Ltd. and active manufacturing operations.…

Ownership unknownProfile in progress

Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Spectrum Ale Works

Travel Alberta and Alberta Ale Trail identify active Lethbridge brewery established in 2017; 2026 municipal business-licence evidence corroborates current operation. Legal entity: Spectrum Ale Works…

Ownership unknownProfile in progress

Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Travois Ale Works

Official site says brewing since 2018 in seven-barrel single batches; Tourism Medicine Hat and AHS corroborate current brewery/address and legal operating name. Legal entity: Travois Ale Works Ltd..…

Ownership unknownProfile in progress

Counts here are the length of this list, not an estimate. For why a brewery you know might be missing — closures, shared roofs, contract brands, ownership exclusions — see how we count.