Should you find yourself at loose ends this evening, might I suggest a hobby – knitting, wood carving, that thing where you use a hammer and variety of tools to imprint pieces of leather which you subsequently whipstitch together to form wallets and combholders and so on.

But if that seems needlessly effort-laden, then how about we split the difference, and you make a trip over to Alley Kat Brewery (9929-60th Ave). The brewmasters are opening their doors to folks between 5 and 8:30 p.m. tonight, and will be offering beer samples, snacks and tours of their facility. The cause for celebration? The launch of their snazzy new ginger beer – part of a limited run of specialty beers honouring the company’s 15th anniversary.

“We were curious about a “real” ginger beer and thought it would be fun to brew one,” explains Alley Kat co-owner Neil Herbst, via email.

“The Anniversary Beer series gave us the opportunity, so we brewed a couple of test batches and were very pleased with the result.”

Ginger beer is just one of a number of novel ideas from the Edmonton brewers. These are, after all, the geniuses behind my beloved Aprikat, Pumpkin Pi Spiced Ale and fantastic Brewberry Blueberry Ale.

“Our ideas…come from a number of areas,” explains Herbst. “Tasting other craft breweries beers, reading about different beers, tasting various home-brewed beers, and probably insomnia ;).”

If, though, you are SOMEHOW too busy for complimentary food and beverages this evening – because you are SOOO IMPORTANT and have SO MUCH to do (what the hell is my problem?) -  you can still visit Alley Kat over at the Taste of Edmonton Festival in Churchill Square, July 23-August 1.