Last Best Brewing and Distilling and the best friends behind it

"Last Best West"was a campaign phrase used to market the Canadian Prairies to prospective immigrants during the late 1800s to the start of the First World War.

"The Laurier administration believed that this area was the Last Best chance in the modern world for homesteaders to lay roots and shape their futures,"it explains on the Last Best Brewing and Distilling website.

"We think the accomplishments resulting from the first Last Best initiative have paved the way for the budding craft beer and distilling industries here in Alberta."

It's a good place to be in the beer business, as the province issurrounded by some of the best barley in the world.

The company is one of the newest breweries in the city,the fourth location in the Bear Hill Brewing family, which was started 11 years ago in Jasper by friends Brett Ireland, SocratesKorogonasand AlexDerksen.

The three have broughtlocal community-focused beer culture to Jasper, Banff and FortMcMurray.

"Me, Soc and Alex all went to school together,"Ireland said."Our parents have known each other forever. My grandfather lived across the street from Soc's grandfather.

"After we all graduated, we had all worked in restaurants our whole lives, and Socrates won a house in Vancouver one of those lottery houses and so he sold it and bought a restaurant in Jasper."

Jasper start

Phil Bryan, now the brewery operations manager,met the others at a craft brewer'sconference in 2013.

"We met in the back of a taxi, trying to find a bar that would serve us a beer after hours in D.C.," he said.

The friends went to help with the transformation, and being interested in the craft beer scene, got a deal on some equipment from the Okanagan and brought it up to Jasper to get started.

They seized an opportunity in Banff a few years later, and then in Fort Mac a few years after that.

The group also openedabrew-pub in Calgaryin the space that was once Amsterdam Rhino.Their Calgary opportunity cameafter the past owner of Brew Brothers was ready to pass the torch.

"Luckily we had the right talent to jump on it ...when the restaurant space became available,"said Ireland."Itwas much more than we planned to take on, but we went for it, and it ballooned into thisginormousproject we have now."

They intended to start small with a sort of test kitchen on the brewery side.

"Once we had a product to market, the week after that was when the two restaurants came available upstairs, so we took that on," said Bryan."We were still making beer for the 14 months the site was under construction."

Expansion continues

But they're not slowing down, with a new brewpuband their distilling program well underway.The friends planned to evolve into distilling even before the rules allowed them to.

"Based on our size, we didn't have the infrastructure or resources," Irelandsaid."Sowe rolled the dice, anticipating that theAlbertagovernment would change the rules. Wehad a distillery manufactured in Germany and had it sent to Fort Mac. The email came through during our AGM news that thegovernment released they were eliminating minimum production standardsso at 2 p.m.in the middle of our AGMwe got permission to start making spirits. That was the end of the AGM."

They also tapped adesigner who designs stills inLethbridge, and hadamore sophisticatedoperation installed here.

"Wesee a big future in the same way craft beer hasa true, authentic story to it," said Bryan. "Using local ingredients, creating something magical if you do it properly."

Under the direction of master distiller BryceParsons, they're working onmostly whisky andrum-orrye-based products.

"We have all kinds of ideasusing locally-grown potatoes and lots of things to do fun things with," said Bryan. "We're focusing on what's seasonal, what's localand what's endemic to Albertaso that other people begin to recognize that not only has this area of the world been producing the best barley in the world for generations, but now there's an industry there to support that."

Although it's a waiting game as whisky takes three years itprovidesan opportunity to plan and play anddo more off the cuff stuff.For example,they have spirits aging with locally-foraged raspberries and spruce tips in their Fort Mac distillery.

First bottled beer hitting shelves this week

Last Besthassome unique brews besides their alreadywell-knownShow Ponypale ale and Dirty Bird lager. It's worth visitingtheir 11thAvenue location to try the smooth,nitro-injected caramel latte beer (made with 44litresofFratellocoffee for each tank)andan imperial porter aged seven months in Jamaican rum barrels.

Their first ever bottled beerisbeing released this week, and you'll see it on liquor store shelves.

"It's big, it's bottled and it's a supercharged version of our regular Porter," Bryanwroteon his blog."It's also the first release in our Lineage Bottle Series.We've been brewing in Calgary since March 2014, and we drank our first pints of Show Pony at National in April.

"Why it took us this long to do a bottled release is simplewe were being bloody puritans. Every brewer I know is somewhat guilty of it, and this Imperial Porter is damning evidence. It took us this long because of a stubborn credo: we want every bottled beer to get better with time."

Like their business, it's a marriage of craft brewing and craft distillingthat keeps on getting better with age.