The beer you drink

[JohnyCanuck]

The Battle of our Beers

Multinationals crush craft ales in Canada’s suds industry

by Elizabeth Falcon

On your way home from work you decide to pick up a few beers. You bypass that 'Canadian classic' Labatt Blue, and consider Keith’s, which hits closer to your Maritime roots. Or maybe you’re in the mood for something a little classier, so you consider a posh Stella Artois. In the end you decide to go with Löwenbräu, an old-fashioned German brew.

It looks like you have a lot of choice, but the shelves are misleading. InBev, the world’s largest brewing company, owns all of these brands.

<snip>

InBev is one of two multinationals that share control over 90 per cent of the Canadian beer market. The second player is Molson Coors, the result of a separate 2004 merger between historic Montreal brewery Molson and the Colorado-based Coors. Molson Coors is currently the fifth largest brewer in the industry, sporting a portfolio of over 40 brands.

These two companies own Canada’s four most popular beers, Budweiser, Molson Canadian, Labatt Blue and Coors Light. They also own a number of regional breweries that consumers do not tend to associate with multinationals, such as InBev’s Keith’s and Kokanee or Molson Coors’ Creemore Springs.

http://dominionpaper.ca/business/2006/01/26/the_battle.html

So what's wrong with this picture, besides the fact that your beer money might be going to support soulless multinationals and conservative causes without your knowledge? (The Coors family has a history of donating to and supporting the Republican party and right wing, Republican causes). According to allegations in the article, the big brands are also engaging in anti-competitive practices in an effort to shut out the competition from micro breweries. So next time you are beer shopping maybe check around to see if you can help support the little guy buy and go for a microbrewery brew.

http://realbeer.com/canada/brewtour/ON-microbrewery.html

[tuvor]

1. Or you can support a Canadian company by making your own.

Not nearly as difficult as you might think. Inexpensive and tasty, too!

http://www.rjspagnols.com/

[Minstrel Boy]

2. That's a helluva thing.

I missed the story from last April about Molson - oops, I mean Molson Coors - buying Creemore. Damn.

[frylock]

3. think globally, drink locally..

Stone Brewing Company

[hermetic]

4. Lakeport Honey

Yum http://www.lakeportbrewing.ca/index.html

[Swede]

5. I drink Great Western,it's brewed and owned right here in Saskatoon.

The workers bought the brewery when Carling closed it. Great beer.

http://www.greatwesternbrewing.com/

[MrPrax]

9. A good NDP thing...

Great Western has a few good products and it was the SK NDP that floated the money to buy it for the workers...

The gov't got it's money back with interest, workers got their jobs protected and enhanced, and the public gets more choice...

Win-Win allround when the NDP lives up to it's history...

[hopeisaplace]

6. I stopped buying Coors long ago because of their political leanings

[SidDithers]

7. Trafalgar Brewery for me...

http://www.alesandmeads.com/

Brewed right here in Oakville. They also do meads for the Ontario Rennaisance Festival, which is a fun day that our family tries to do every year.

Sid

Edit: Oh, 600ml bottles too :)

[MrPrax]

8. The really sad part...

is that the breweries are still 'trade' protected by provincial barriers that favour the Big Two and hamper the independent brews.

It sure would be nice if some of the same political motiviations that 'spin' fair trade products, were actually applied to the 'home front'.

It sure would be nice to buy a Maritimes beer, made by brothers and sisters in the maritimes, where the money goes back to the maritimes...

OH dam...that's right...independents are not usually unionized, whereas Adolph Coor's beer IS union-made.

Bit of a quandry, no?

[V. Kid]

10. It's interesting, but the big companies don't have good beer, taste wise.

I just try to avoid them, as they're barley drinkable at best. But I didn't know the extent to which they owned other labels, ie: InBev owning Stella Artrois. That said, since they own Labatts, doesn't that mean Labatt's isn't Canadian anymore, and therefore wouldn't be able to donate to Canadian political parties? The law changed in 2003, so any donations by Labatts would be illegal, and even if they were Canadian they would technically only be allowed to donate 5,000 or 1,000 a year, I'm not quite sure.

In any case I didn't know Sleemans owned Shaftesbury or Oakanagan Springs. I like all three, and they're much better than any Labatts or Molsons (or American import) products. But I'd say Granville Island Brewing (http://www.gib.ca/home.cfm) is pretty good.

[Canuckistanian]

11. La Fin du Monde or Maudite

By Unibroue (now Moosehead).

[SidDithers]

12. I've had both...

nuthin' like a high alcohol beer in a big bottle :)

:toast:

Sid