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Study: Canada's trade in beer

2003

Canada's trade surplus in beer with the United States has expanded significantly in recent years as Canadian beer producers have made inroads into the US market, according to a new report.

Beer from Canada is among the top-selling imported beers in the United States, ranking third after Mexico and the Netherlands.

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Hewers of wood and brewers of beer.

[ 15 February 2006: Message edited by: fern hill ]

First, its no surprise that Canada has such a trade surplus with the US on beer. Let's talk about American beer for a moment - because a moment is all that's really warranted. It sucks. Imagine hell, my friendly Canadian friends, as a place where there is the most beautiful bar in the world - it goes on and on with lots of old hewn oak and shiny brass - large comfy stools, great tunes on the jukebox and a plentiful staff of friendly bartenders at your beck and call.

And you can have all the beer you want. Forever.

And the bartender says "what'll it be?"

And you say I'll have a Wellington Imperial Stout, please.

And the bartender flashes a wicked grin and says "sorry pal, we only serve Miller and Budweiser here."

Forever.

So even though many Canadians will gladly slag Molson and Labatts, they're a damnsite better than any of the commercial US brews and you count your lucky stars they are. Down here, those are regarded as premium imports.

Of course, I can get Sleemans honey brown (and 2 other varieties) down here so I'm helping the trade imbalance to be sure.

I was reading an online Star article today about this site: The Bar Towel which linked me to this site: rate beer which got me thinking about a thread on beer snobbery.

So maybe free trade works pretty well for sampling beers from all over the world? Keep it for that, I guess. So let's discuss - what are your favourite out of your area suds and why? Would you ever drink American beer - even if you were desperate. What are Canada's best micros in your opinion?

Of Canadian beer, I used to drink IPA and now mostly Keith's, also an India Pale Ale.

edited to take a final 'n' off India, sheesh, I'm stupid this morning

[ 15 February 2006: Message edited by: fern hill ]

The McAuslan brewery is not a true "micro" brewery; it is a fair size, but it makes far more authentic beers than the majors.

At La Maison des saveurs, at the Jean-Talon market, you can buy beers and ciders from truly micro producers...

I do buy at least six bottles of that a year, to cook with. It is wonderful in a dark rye bread, and in stews. I made a vegetarian tourtière for veggie friends thist past holiday season, and made a sauce with the Oatmeal stout... though I suspect it would be even better with a venison or bison tourtière...

A hot day, out on a deck - Miller Genuine Draft (the cheapest of the bunch and an acceptable American beer), Sol or Corona

After work, or when there is no food around - Guinness

At a hockey or football game - Molson Canadian (much as I hate Molson's the company - these for some reason taste great when you are watching a live hockey game), Great Western Lager (must be ice cold)

Eating: Stella Artois

Rule of Thumb: You really only taste the first two pints

Drinking around the house - Brewhouse Pilsner or, pretty much anything from Great Western. Molson lost my business when they moved from Regina. They wrecked Pil when they moved it from the Queen City. Down with the Edmonton Molson's plant! Pil was an institution - when you started to actually like Pil you became a Saskatchewan person.

And since I am being a homer, there is no way in hell that I, as someone who lives about a three minute drive from Taylor Field could drink Labatt's Blue knowing it is named after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

[ 16 February 2006: Message edited by: Deep Dish ]

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I'm not a big beer drinker to put it mildly (perhaps two or three a year, with friends on a terrasse) but I find our local McAuslan Saint-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout at least as good as Guinness, as available here anyway.

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Another good beer is Hoegaarden, a Belgian white beer brewed by a company owned by ImBev. Flavourful and whitty. It has a light taste with coriander and orange peel perfect for lunch in the spring.

I hate Guinness Draught... I think it's the nitrogen; Guinness Extra Stout (brewed by Molsons in Canada and the USA) is good, though.

For a "cheap" lager (not cheap in quality, but relatively), I'd go with Okanagan Springs Premium Lager or Granville Island.

I was quite unimpressed by Kokanee; it tasted like carbonated water with a slight hint of piss. Stella Artois reminded me of Deer Lake in Burnaby, which, on an entirely unrelated note, has skunk cabbage growing in spots and the said cabbages' smell is quite pungent at times.

One of my best friends suffers from migraine, so she can't touch red wine. No problem with white though, in reasonable quantities, so I've had to get to know a lot more about white wines. There are excellent white wines made in an Alsatian (or dry German) style in Ontario; we don't get many of them here, so I always pick one up when I'm in Ottawa.

As for St-Ambroise and Boréale, I don't share the anti-Fringe obsessions of some . Boréale is a fairly large "micro" as well. There is a really nice little pub near my house where they feature products of la Barberie, a true micro in Québec City, and other artisanal beers and ciders. I usually have a glass of good cider because of the aforementioned beer problem.

QuébécoisEs of my vintage will remember the horrible "cider" that was popular when its sale was first legalised in the early 1970s - cider had been produced on farms here since the first European settlers, who were mostly from Normandy, Brittany and nearby areas, but its sale was outlawed. The horrid cider was a fixture at parties when one had run out of wine - dépanneurs only sold beer and cider then, not wine - and guaranteed a splitting headache the morning after.

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Rank Name Score Rate Count Style
1 Dieu du Ciel Aphrodisiaque 4.19 28 Sweet Stout
2 Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel 4.15 232 Imperial Stout
3 La Face Cachée de la Pomme Frimas Ice Cider 4.14 25 Cider
4 St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout 4.12 386 Stout
5 La Face Cachée de la Pomme Neige Ice Cider 4.04 32 Cider
6 Unibroue Trois Pistoles 4.04 879 Belgian Strong Ale
7 St. Ambroise Vintage Ale 1999/2001 4.01 94 Barley Wine
8 Dieu du Ciel Grande Noirceur 4 46 Imperial Stout
9 Denisons Weissbier 3.99 66 German Hefeweizen
10 Dieu du Ciel Quintessence 3.98 42 American Strong Ale

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Here's the link page: top Canadian beers

I'll take St. Ambroise/Griffon over Boreale anyday and for a good Quebec lager, Belle Gueule. And if we're going to split hairs over "micro," how micro can La Barberie be now that it's sold outside of Quebec City? For seriously micro beer, Le Cheval Blanc (not connected with beers of the same name in the stores AFAIK) brewpub down by the bus station is my favorite, though I've never been to Dieu de Ciel. There are no nice pubs in Verdun, in fact there aren't any at all by longstanding local bylaw. Given the video lottery dens next door in the Pointe and Cote Saint Paul, that's probably understandable.

In Vancouver: Granville Island Lager and Amber Ale, Okanagon Spring Pale Ale and Stout, Vancouver Island Hermann's Dark Lager. Admittedly, I'm out of touch with the raft of new micro's out there.

When I lived in the Midwest, I enjoyed Goose Island beers out of Chicago, and for American-made Belgian-style beers easily as good as anything mad e in Quebec, seek out Brewery Ommegang beers out of Cooperstown, New York.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any micro-beers in Japan, but since there's often regional sake and shochu, no matter. All the familiar major beers (Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin) are good, and they all have interesting varieties not sold in Canada.

If you're ever within 30 km of Detmold in Germany, find some Detmolder. I can't really recommend the Egyptian beer Stella though it was appropriately light for the heat. It may have improved since I was there during the first Gulf War.

Any in the area should come to Montréal's "Mondial de la bière" The first weekend in June. They'll have hundreds of these American beers that don't suck, and are in fact, world beaters. It gets quite packed on the weekends, so you should try it early in the week. They will also have five of the six available Trappist Ales, which are otherwise unavailable in Canada, and are the delicious standard for Belgian style Ales.

Mind you, there's some good local brews in Victoria too, from places like Swan's, Spinnaker's, Phillips, Canoe Club....

[ 16 February 2006: Message edited by: obscurantist ]

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Mmm, the Saint-Ambroise oatmeal stout sounds great. Any idea whether you can get it out west? If not, I may have to plan another trip to Montreal sometime soon.

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Originally posted by obscurantist:
Mmm, the Saint-Ambroise oatmeal stout sounds great. Any idea whether you can get it out west? If not, I may have to plan another trip to Montreal sometime soon.

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posted by HeywoodFloyd: When I came back from the CPC convention last year, one of my carry-on bags was full of St. Ambroise.

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The St. Ambroise oatmeal stout is delicious, and I'm particularily fond of the Unibrue beers (Trois-Pistoles and Maudite are my faves).

Ottawa used to have a pretty good micro, I think it was called Carleton, or maybe I'm thinking that because they were in Carleton Place. Anyways, their Dragon's Breath IPA was really good, and their brewery tours were exceptional. Read: kegs were tapped and cups handed out; revelery ended when you decided to leave.

And for those of you in Saskatoon, check out Paddockwood brewing supplies and offsale (in Sutherland). The owner, Steve, taught Mr. Sun to brew, and also brews on-premise some interesting beers for sale.

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They wrecked Pil when they moved it from the Queen City. Down with the Edmonton Molson's plant! Pil was an institution - when you started to actually like Pil you became a Saskatchewan person.

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Pil's pretty good, as far as industrial beers go. I like Bohemian too.

I like Alsatian beers such as Fisher and Maitre Kanter. Stella Artois is the most over-rated beer in the world.

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Its ironic that we can buy wines of the world, here in BC, but we can't buy wines from Ontario.

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We can't? I'm not a big wine drinker, but I could swear I've seen Ontario wines in stores here, at least in the bigger BC Liquor Stores (the ones that haven't been privatized-by-stealth). I'll have a look next time I'm in one.

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They wrecked Pil when they moved it from the Queen City.

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When I saw this on TAT I thought at first it was a reference to New Westminster, B.C., which had a Labatt's plant until recently.

It closed some time ago and, when I drove by there a week or two ago, they'd started to demolish the old plant. Now, I haven't bought any Labatt product (which is a good term for their stuff, as is "industrial beer") in a very long time, so I'm not nostalgic or anything.

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posted by Michael Watkins: Its ironic that we can buy wines of the world, here in BC, but we can't buy wines from Ontario.

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The Anchor Brewing Co. out of San Francisco does some pretty good stuff although you can usually only find it from time to time in the "Vintages" LCBO stores.

Samuel Adams out of Boston is available in the Brewer's Retail outlets across Ontario. It's the only good U.S. beer that's easily available. The rest is all the mass market stuff.

I'll give a plug here for Creemore Springs Ale...one of the best brews out of Ontario. I vaguely remember hearing that one of the "big boys" bought them out recently...hope they don't wreck a perfectly good brew.

I understand the wine industry did quite well out of free trade as well...at least here in Ontario...not sure about British Columbia.

The wine industry could no longer compete in the cheapie garbage wine market...so they went "upscale" and are doing quite alright. Some of the best ice wines in the world come out of the Niagara region.

Mind you I had a Chardonnay from a small winery out of the Finger Lakes region of New York state about 25 years ago that absolutely blew me away.

I guess when it comes to beer and wine...small is beautiful...and large scale production tends to produce crap.

I still would rather drink Sleeman's honey lager than any US beer though. So would these guys:

Chilly Beach