Canada is a nation of beer drinkers. While wine sales have been growing for the past few decades, beer continues to account for over half of all alcohol consumed in the country (51.1% of legal-aged alcohol consumption in 2008, versus 20.2% for wine, according to the Brewers Association of Canada). Canadians drink almost 70 liters of beer per capita per year; that figure includes every man, woman, and child in the country. Including only people of legal drinking age, the average Canadian consumes just under 90 liters of beer each year. In some provinces and territories, the annual per capita consumption of beer is as high as 160 liters.
Unibroue’s Maudite (“Damned”) ale label is a depiction of a Quebec tall tale from the days of Nouvelle France, when canoe-paddling voyageurs (fur traders) spent their winters in the northern forests. When one team of voyageurs tried to return home to Montreal for the holidays, with the rivers frozen, the devil appeared and offered to fly their canoe home through the air, provided they not invoke the name of God. But one scared voyageur could not hold his tongue and yelled “oh my God,” at which point the canoe crashed, and they were never heard from again. courtesy of unibroue
The Canadian beer market is dominated by a pair of companies owned by or merged with larger international conglomerates. Labatt Brewing Company Ltd., owned by Anheuser-Busch-InBev, controls 42.9% of the Canadian beer market, by volume.
Just as Canadian viewers flock to American TV, music and movies, so too do Canadian beer drinkers flock to American beer brands, which are heavily advertised in Canadian media, and US networks and publications available in Canada. In 2008 the top two selling beers in Canada were Budweiser and Coors Light, with approximately 13% and 12% of the market, respectively. Both are brewed in Canada (Budweiser by Labatt and Coors Light by Molson-Coors), an arrangement that predates their breweries’ current ownership structure. The sales of these American brands, albeit brewed in Canada, are included in Labatt and Molson’s market share figures. So too are beers that they distribute, but don’t brew, in Canada, such as Heineken and Corona (Molson-Coors) and Stella Artois (Labatt). Molson Canadian and Labatt Blue, which were for over two decades the top-selling two brands in the country, now rank third and fourth, respectively. Budweiser has been the country’s top-selling brand since knocking former No. 1 Molson Canadian off its perch in 2004. The vast majority of the country’s best-selling brands are pale lagers designed to appeal to a mass market.
Since the mid-1980s, a growing number of craft breweries have taken a small but growing share of the Canadian beer market, buoyed by consumer demand for more flavorful beers than what the major brewers were offering. In 2008 they controlled an estimated 4% of the national market, but had a significantly larger chunk in some provinces. In Quebec, craft breweries have a 5% share of the provincial market, according to estimates from several industry sources.
The first modern Canadian craft brewery was tiny, now defunct Horseshoe Bay Brewing, established in 1982 in Vancouver. It was followed soon after by Vancouver’s Granville Island Brewing (1984), Brick Brewing and Wellington Brewery in Guelph, Ontario (1984 and 1985, respectively), and Montreal’s McAuslan Brewing Company (1989). Also of note during the 1980s was the opening of several brewpubs, including a number in the British Columbia capital, Victoria (most notably Spinnaker’s and Swan’s), and one in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Much of the beer produced by the early microbreweries was English-style ale. Since then, microbreweries across the country, most notably in Quebec, have gone on to produce a wide variety of beer styles, ranging from “double IPAs” to Belgian ales and barley wines.
In British Columbia, notable microbreweries include Phillips and Granville Island. Alberta-based Big Rock is one of the bigger craft breweries in the country. In Ontario, there are roughly 35 craft breweries, many concentrated close to Toronto, with most specializing in English and German styles. On the east coast of Canada, Propeller Brewing Company and Garrison Brewing Company of Nova Scotia, and Pumphouse Brewery of Moncton, New Brunswick, fly the craft flag. The country’s northernmost craft brewery is the Yukon Brewing Company, based in Whitehorse.
The major breweries have dealt with the small but growing movement in a few different ways, for instance, by setting up small subsidiary breweries with a different selection than standard macro-brewed product, distributing more imported beer, and buying existing craft breweries. Molson has broadened its “pub-style” Rickards line. In 2005 Molson bought Creemore Springs Brewery Ltd., a microbrewery established in 1987 in Creemore, Ontario. Beer aficionados worried at the time that the big brewery would tamper with Creemore’s highly praised lager, broadly in the pilsner style, but Molson seems to have lived up to its word to leave production of the beer alone. In spring 2010 Molson completed its purchase of Vancouver’s Granville Island Brewing.
Beer was probably introduced to Canada by French settlers in what is now Quebec in the 17th century. While arguments have been put forth for various candidates to be the first person to have brewed in Quebec (then known as Nouvelle-France), in all likelihood the correct name is lost to history, as in those days brewing was largely a home affair. Still, three of the usual candidates for the first non-home brewer are Frère Ambroise, Louis Prud’homme, and Jean Talon. Frère Ambroise, a monk, was the brewer at the first “institutional” (i.e., non-home) brewery in Nouvelle-France, just outside current-day Quebec City. It was established in 1646 for the refreshment of Jesuit priests. In 1650 Prud’homme was granted a royal decree to run a brewery in Montreal. In 1670 Talon, the Intendant (the region’s chief civil administrator), created a brewery in Quebec City. La Brasserie du Roy produced 4,000 barrels (880,000 liters) per year before it closed shortly after Talon returned to France in 1672. One person not usually given credit for being the first known brewer in Quebec is Marie Rollet. Rollet was the wife of a Parisian pharmacist named Louis Hébert, who settled in Quebec in 1617. As mentioned in Mario d’Eer’s Le Guide de la Bonne Bière du Quebec, Rollet acted as a communal brewer for the then-tiny colony, which numbered roughly 60 or so settlers.
After the French were defeated by the English in 1759, brewing in Quebec and the growing colony of Upper Canada (today Ontario) again became a largely home-based affair for another few decades. In 1786, however, a young Englishman named John Molson gained control of a small, faltering brewery in Montreal. The popularity of his brews grew and Molson soon became the largest brewery in Quebec; today, the seventh generation of his family is still involved with the company that bears his name.
The beers brewed by Molson, Labatt, and other brewers of their time were largely English-style ales. Lagers came to Canada later, with the settling of the Canadian prairies by immigrants from central Europe.
By the time Prohibition rolled around before World War I, there were 118 breweries across Canada. After Prohibition ended by 1930 in all but one province, there were just 69.
After Prohibition ended, surviving breweries were subject to a wave of restrictions on where and how beer could be sold. Succeeding waves of consolidation in the industry—most notoriously driven by horse-racing and industrial magnate E.P. Taylor from the 1930s through the 1960s—meant that by the late 1970s, three companies (Molson, Labatt, and the company Taylor had built into Carling O’Keefe) controlled well over 90% of the Canadian beer market. In 1989 Molson purchased Carling O’Keefe, becoming what was then the largest brewer in Canada, and fifth-largest in the world.
Canadian breweries must navigate a complex maze of distribution, tax, and production regulations. As the regulation of alcohol consumption and production is largely a provincial responsibility, the challenges vary widely across the country. Several provinces grant favorable tax treatment to brewers who operate locally.
In Ontario, the most heavily populated province, the beer distribution system is essentially a two-tier affair. Roughly 80% of the Ontario beer market is controlled by Brewers Retail, which began in 1927 as a brewers’ cooperative warehouse system as the province came out of prohibition. Thanks to industry consolidation, Brewers Retail is now owned by Labatt, Molson (49% each), and Sleeman (2%). While other brewers may distribute their beers through the chain’s locations, called The Beer Store, craft breweries complain that the listing fees are unaffordable. The other main distribution channel for beer in Ontario is the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), which controls roughly 20% of the market. The LCBO also sets minimum prices for all beer sold in the province. All products stocked at LCBO stores must go through a lengthy, rigorous approval process. As in other provinces, brewers may sell beer out of their own brewery, but there are no corner store or grocery sales.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, beer is sold in the government-run Newfoundland Labrador Liquor Corporation (NLC) stores, and in corner stores. To access the much wider distribution found in corner stores, however, a brewery must operate locally. Labatt and Molson each operate a small brewery in the provincial capital, St. John’s.
In Quebec, out-of-province breweries must establish their own warehouse and get a distributor’s license if they want access to grocery stores and dépanneurs (corner stores), which are much more widespread than the government-operated Société des alcools du Quebec’s network of stores.
In all 13 provinces and territories except Alberta, an official government agency acts as the importer of record for beer (and all other alcohol) from outside the province; most breweries use a local agency to help navigate each province’s regulations. In some cases, a brewing company can ship straight to retailers if they also have a brewery in the province, even if the beer being shipped is brewed elsewhere. This has led to the establishment or purchase of some small breweries by bigger companies, in order to avoid dealing with the provincial agencies.
In Alberta, the government has privatized the retail, import, and warehousing business; the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) regulates the industry and collects revenue from alcohol sales.
In addition to being the first part of Canada where brewing occurred, Quebec is significant to the Canadian beer scene for another reason: it is home to some of the most creative and talented brewers in the country.
There are roughly 75 breweries in Quebec, including dozens of brewpubs, serving a population of approximately 7.8 million people. In contrast, neighboring Ontario, with a population of just under 13 million, has between 40 and 50 breweries, including no more than 12 brewpubs.
There are breweries quite literally from one end of the province to the other, producing a far wider array of styles than breweries elsewhere in Canada. Close to the western border with Ontario, Ferme Brasserie Schoune produces several ales, including a creditable attempt at a gueuze. In the windswept Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the east, à l’Abri de la Tempête makes several fine beers, some with locally grown barley malted at the brewery.
In the Montreal area alone, there are 30 breweries, including roughly 20 brewpubs. McAuslan Brewing Company makes a very good range of mostly English-style beers, including St. Ambroise Pale Ale and the luxurious St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout. Dieu du Ciel, which began as a brewpub, makes some excellent beers, ranging in style from dry-hopped Belgian strong ales, to a coffee-flavored imperial stout, and a Belgian wheat beer flavored with hibiscus flowers.
Perhaps the most influential craft brewery in Quebec is Unibroue, located in the Montreal suburb of Chambly. Started in 1991 by businessmen André Dion and Serge Racine, Unibroue is arguably one of the finest producers of Belgian- style ales to be found outside of Belgium. In 1992 the brewery got a massive publicity boost when Quebec singer Robert Charlebois bought a small stake.
Belgian brewery Riva did some initial consulting for Unibroue, but the brewery has since gone on to create a wide range of ales on its own. Its flagship beer is the spritzy, citrusy Blanche de Chambly, but Unibroue specializes in stronger abbey ales, including the decadently rich, strong (9% ABV) Trois Pistoles. Most of Unibroue’s beers are bottle-conditioned. The brewery also features compelling artwork on all its labels, many of them based on traditional Quebec legends and stories. Other more recent Quebec craft breweries have followed in Unibroue’s footsteps, both with a sizeable Belgian stylistic influence, and in the use of elaborate artwork on their labels. In 2004 Unibroue was purchased by Ontario-based Sleeman, which itself was bought by Japan’s Sapporo in 2006.
Quebec is also home to Canada’s best beer festival, the annual Mondial de la Bière in Montreal. Mondial (in English, the Montreal Beer Festival) attracted 80,000 visitors in 2009. They were lured by 450 beers from 98 breweries, with roughly a quarter of the breweries being from Quebec. There is also a good selection of products from Quebec’s cider producers, including the local specialty, ice cider.
There are several explanations for the vibrancy of the Quebec beer scene; the truth is probably found in a combination of factors. One explanation is that Quebecers have a greater openness to exploring good food and beverage than other Canadians, partly thanks to the French cultural influence in the province. Another more prosaic explanation is that thanks to the ability to sell beer in grocery stores and corner stores, Quebec brewers are able more easily to explore a variety of beer styles. Rather than having to supply an entire chain of government-run stores with a new beer, they can make a small pilot batch, and send it to a few independent corner stores. If it sells successfully, they can produce more; if not, there’s not much damage done. Another factor that favors Quebec breweries is the set of obstacles faced by brewers based in the other provinces.