Byward Taps. Looks like a place with decent beer selection -- but it ain't

This past weekend I flew back out to Halifax to spend some time there for the second straight spring. As such cross-Canada trips often necessitate, I spent some time hanging around an airport waiting for a connection. Over the last few years,  I have found myself killing time in most of the country’s major airports. Even if I don’t have time for, or feel like, a beer (and my interest often drops off like a stone when I see the selection), I often pop my head in to see what kind of beer selection the places behind security have.

And answer me this? Why do they, almost to a one, offer only the big boys? One place has Kokanee/Stella/Bud/Bud Light. Another (if you are lucky) will have Canadian/Coors Light/Rickard’s. I swear you can completely forget what city you are in.

Now, I must admit that this is a rhetorical question, as I already know the real answer. Food services in airports are contracted to large catering companies, who control the restaurants behind security. They, naturally, contract to the big boys – likely getting big discounts – and, voila!, no decent beer selection for you. Another factor could be that travelers may be the single hardest consumer group to satisfy – as they come from all walks of life and all regions, meaning the big boys are the safest option. Maybe, but I think the former holds more sway.

I also know there a few exceptions. You can get Granville Island in Vancouver, and some of the less impressive locals (e.g. Boreale) in Montreal. And now Toronto has a Mill Street location (but I haven’t been there yet). But mostly, it is the same old thing. Even in places with rich, vibrant pub cultures and local beer scenes, the airport is something of a dead zone.

I am not telling you anything you don’t know. I just want to raise the question why this state of affairs continues, despite the surge in craft beer in this country. And, more importantly, contemplate what we can do about it.

Unfortunately, I don’t think our usual tools as consumers apply here. You can go into your local pub/liquor store/restaurant and demand a better selection, inform the owner and use your dollars to create economic pressure. But this is different. This is all about big contracts, which invariably involve big corporations. They will be far less susceptible to the complaints of the one customer in 100 who care about this. Doubly sad is that probably 30 or 40 of the remaining 99 might appreciate trying a local beer while waiting for their flight. They just aren’t likely to ask for it. My personal observation (which is far from scientific) is that most people scan the tap handles and pick whatever is closest to their preference . If there was an unfamiliar tap handle from some local brewery, they might ask about it – and maybe even try it.

My take is that if craft beer is finally to crack airports (and the Toronto’s Mill Street Pub is a good step forward), we just have to make the weight of craft beer too much to take. The vibrancy and interest (and therefore money) behind offering a diversity of local, craft-brewed beer needs to be too much for the corporates to resist. I like to point to Whitehorse as an example (although I have never been in their airport). Yukon Brewing is so dominant on tap in that city, that even Boston Pizza – probably one of the biggest bastions of corporate beer ordering – stocks Yukon on tap. They realized they had no choice to keep their customers.

Airports have you captive. No getting around that. But once you step outside their security scanners, you can undermine their monopoly by making it increasingly an island of corporate exclusivity in a sea of craft diversity. That will take a long time, but I don’t know about you, but I am in this for the long haul. I fully expect that, one day, airports in Edmonton, Halifax, Ottawa, Regina and other cities will carry a decent selection of local craft beer in their restaurants. For now it is a dream, but not an unreasonable one.