I knew it was a mistake when I did it. I found a four-pack of tall boys from a B.C. brewery (whom I won’t name) selling for a couple of bucks under the average price at Sherbrooke. It was on the “new release” shelf, meaning it hadn’t been in Alberta long (plus I trust the gang at Sherbrooke to move product quickly and rotate when needed). There was no date stamp or code on the cans. I knew what I was dealing with. I was dealing with a beer that was being dumped into Alberta. I bought it anyway, just to check.

Why do I think they were dumping it? In addition to its suspiciously low price, it was a beer clearly past its prime. The beer gushed upon opening and it had that distinct musty cardboard note of oxidation. The beer was thin and lacked the malt character I expect from the style (I am refraining from indicating the style to prevent identification of the brewery). I also know this is a brewery that doesn’t normally import to Alberta and has a decidedly local focus overall. A strange way to introduce your brand to Alberta.

For those of you unaware of the term dumping (in beer terms), it is the practice of taking a nearly expired beer, or a beer that you know you won’t be able to sell in your local market, shipping it to another market, and selling at a reduced price in an effort to recoup some of the costs (even if you lose a bit of money per purchase). It was a major problem in Alberta in the 2000s and early 2010s. And I had hoped it had gone away.

The issue is this. When Alberta privatized liquor retail in the early 1990s, they also unilaterally opened Alberta’s borders to inter-provincial trade. They eliminated the liquor control board’s tasting panel and import restriction rules – which most provinces still retain to this very day – and flung the doors open. To sell a beer in Alberta all you needed was to have registered agent, fill out a two-page form and pay $50. Do that and you were in.

In the early 2000s, Alberta’s craft beer scene lagged behind many provinces, including B.C., Ontario and Quebec. We had, maybe, a dozen breweries struggling to get noticed, even though beer consumers’ tastes were starting to shift. Retail privatization and dumb rules like the minimum production capacity were severely limiting the ability of the industry to grow.

But with open borders, breweries in more vigorous jurisdictions like B.C. and Ontario (and the U.S.) had an opportunity. Given the lack of Alberta-based production, they could easily capture some of that nascent craft beer demand. In many cases, breweries shifted their business model to make Alberta a core component of their target audience and sent fresh beer sold at regular prices to fill the gap. This is perfectly legitimate. However, many breweries realized Alberta was also a great dumping ground. If they overproduced, they could ship the excess to Alberta at discounted prices to move it quickly. They might not make as much money, but it beat tossing beer down the drain.

Some breweries adopted this strategy with fresh beer, intentionally ramping up production higher than they might normally, knowing they had a convenient off-ramp if it didn’t move. Others, more cynically, shipped nearly stale-dated beer to Alberta with the hope that Alberta consumers would be blinded by the reduced price and wouldn’t notice the reduced quality.

It became such a problem that local Alberta brewers started to cry foul. They started lobbying the Alberta government to stem the flow of cheap, often sub-standard imports, which were squeezing them out of shelf space and tap lines. The former Conservative government was mostly deaf to their pleas (although Redford did make some key policy shifts to assist the industry). In 2015 the new NDP government was more receptive. They changed the mark-up policies to advantage locally produced beer over import beer by creating higher mark-ups for imports.

It would be an understatement to say that the policy was controversial. It failed both constitutional and internal free trade challenges and went through a couple of iterations over four years.

But it worked.

Over the four years the mark-up differential existed, Alberta’s beer scene exploded. By 2019 there were over 100 breweries. I estimate Alberta’s share of the market increased by more than 50%. Alberta breweries had pushed out import beer from tap lines and store shelves. Consumers were embracing Alberta beer.

I am well aware that the mark-up policy is not the only factor leading to Alberta’s beer explosion. The removal of the minimum production capacity was key to encouraging new breweries. Plus there was a growing interest in local food around that time that naturally spilled over into beer. We also can’t dismiss the availability of capital due to the oil downturn, especially in Calgary. But the mark-ups helped breweries elbow their way onto the shelves.

In 2019, the UCP returned to a mark-up policy that treated all beer the same, regardless of origin (they kept graduation by production volume). But by that time Alberta producers had the toehold they needed to stay competitive in the market. Imported beer remains a key segment of the craft beer market in Alberta, but less dominant than it was a decade ago. The province remains the most open market in the country.

Today, Alberta is a very crowded, competitive market. Good beer will sell, but no longer can a brewery trust that just because it is on the shelves it will move. Consumers have far more choice and will naturally gravitate to product that excels in quality, branding and accessibility. To my mind, that would mean dumping no longer works as a strategy. Consumers will no longer buy your product because it is cheap and it is all there is.

But I am thinking I might be wrong. Maybe the ease in which you can enter the Alberta market still makes it tempting for some breweries to use the province as a quick-fix for excess production problems? I cannot see how it is a sustainable strategy, but possibly they hope they can get away with it in the short term. I am not sure why they would want to risk their reputation in this way, but that is their call, I guess.

It is a “free” market and all that, so I appreciate the rule is “buyer beware”. So let this be a public service announcement to consumers to eye new entrants, especially those with discounted prices, with a dose of skepticism. Check the date codes (if possible). Ask yourself if they can make money at that price point. And mostly, let your taste buds guide you. You will know a dumped beer when you taste it.