The Pain Is Just Getting Started: The State of Craft Beer in Canada, 2024
Canada's craft beer industry is contracting in the first time in two decades, and the worst is yet to come. Read my annual statistical analysis on the state of the industry.
The first couple months of 2025 have been action packed in the Alberta beer world. In addition to being blindsided by sudden changes to mark-up policy and coping with the many lunatic (and increasingly imperialistic) tariff actions of President Donald… Continue Reading →
When your job is beer it is important to keep perspective on things at times like this. The growing economic storm due to Donald Trump’s maniacal rampaging is serious. It will harm millions of Canadians and Americans. In that context,… Continue Reading →
The 2025/26 Alberta Provincial Government was tabled last Thursday. Most of the talk revolved around the proposed income tax cut, the size of the deficit and what responses might come as a result of Trump tariffs. The government (and the… Continue Reading →
Last year in my annual-ish statistical analysis of craft beer in Canada, I declared the party was over (read it here, and you can find 2022 and 2020 as well, as well as my Quebec 2023 update). The period of… Continue Reading →
Most of you will have heard the news last week that Edmonton’s Blind Enthusiasm is closing its highly regarded restaurant Biera and Market brewery, at the end of December (you can read their statement here). Many expressed surprise at the… Continue Reading →
The 2024 Alberta Beer Awards, the seventh edition, are now officially in the books with the release of the winners at a gala event last night. My biggest observation this year was how many breweries took home a medal. Of… Continue Reading →
Ontario is not my beat. But they seem to be making the most beer headlines recently with their breath-y announcements of allowing beer, wine and ready-to-drink beverages in convenience stores. It seems like it has been Doug Ford’s biggest priority… Continue Reading →
There have been some fascinating developments in the craft beer industry in Alberta in the first eight months of 2024. In many ways it has been quieter than i initially expected, but what changes there have been have been both… Continue Reading →
In a way this is not my business. I am an Albertan living under a privatized liquor retail system who only visits Ontario once every year or two. Yet, I feel compelled to weigh in on the growing tire fire… Continue Reading →
