As I mentioned in my recent post about the state of craft beer in Canada, the number of Quebec breweries in the database of Canadian breweries I keep has always been the shakiest. This is mostly because of my limitations as a uni-lingual Anglo. However, after that post, the Association Des Microbrasseries de Quebec reached out to me and offered a list of active manufacturing licenses in the province. I am very grateful. I wanted to offer an update on Quebec so the accurate numbers are available to the public.

I spent a few hours reconciling the two lists. The first step was to confirm the breweries we had in common.Then the hard work started. I had to understand why we each had breweries the other didn’t. I clearly missed a bunch of breweries on their list – for the most part I think I missed smaller breweries whose existence had not yet crossed over to the English-language blogs, forums and posts. Then there were some on my list they didn’t have, which turned out to be mostly contract breweries whose promotional material fooled me (partly due to my language limitations).

So, here are the results (cue the trumpets). As of early December 2023 Quebec has 279 operating breweries, under my definition, up from my previous estimate of 269. For transparency, their list had 313 breweries. The discrepancy is due to definitional differences. Their list includes all active licenses in the province. For my analysis I count multiple locations owned by the same company (e.g., brewpub chains, acquisitions and mergers) as one brewing operation. I also exclude breweries with active licenses but not yet selling product to the public as of December 2023, as well as producers whose primary product was not beer (i.e., distilleries, meaderies and cideries who also have a beer production license).

The new numbers mean Quebec has 3.21 breweries per 100,000 population and 3.80 per 100,000 population 15 years plus. These number do not change their relative position as 6th highest province (excluding territories), but it does edge their statistics up a nudge.

I appreciate a difference of 10 breweries is not that significant in terms of my analysis. However that final tally glosses over a significantly higher level of churn under the surface to create a more accurate list. Also, I feel it is important to put this more accurate number out there so that it is available to those searching for Canadian craft beer industry information.

Last but not least, I finally feel like I have a trustworthy Quebec number, which is hugely satisfying to me (in particular the stats nerd part of me). I want to offer huge thanks to the staff at L’Association Des Microbrasseries de Quebec for the time and energy they spent assisting me in reconciling the lists. It would not have been possible without them.