E-Malt.com News article: Canada, BC: The beer market grows due to imports

Imports of beer helps grow the beer market in British Columbia, vancouversun.com reported on May, 29.

Beer importer Guy McClelland says the U.S. is far ahead of Canada’s craft-brewing industry.

Craft brewers in some parts of the United States have a 10- to 20-year head start on B.C.’s artisanal beer industry.

Belgium’s head start is more like 500 years, so it will be harder to catch them. While Canadians wait, we can enjoy a few brews from abroad and dream of a better future.

“When you compare the state of the Canadian craft-brewing industry with the U.S., the U.S. is far ahead,” said beer importer Guy McClelland, one of a handful of Canadians knighted by the Confederation of Belgian Brewers for his work promoting Belgian beers. “Belgium is centuries ahead of both.”

Washington, Oregon and Northern California have a slightly more developed craft-brewing culture than B.C., with craft beer market share tipping 40 per cent in Oregon compared with about 20 per cent in B.C.

The Pacific Northwest has even spawned its own distinct take on classic styles, such as Northwest IPA, American Brown Ale and Cascadian Dark Ale.

“There’s no point in coming into B.C. with styles that are common and go into competition with the locals,” said Chris Bjerrisgaard, a local representative for beer distributor Modern Malt. “What I’m trying to do is bring in some of the specialty products, something a little different that isn’t being offered here.”

Washington brewer Hilliard’s has just entered the market with a Saison in 475-ml cans, again not a common sight on store shelves.

British Columbians haven’t always had good access to artisanal draft beer — the first imported draft beer came to Canada in 1981 and to B.C. in 1986, for Expo. The first microbreweries and brew pubs sprang up around the same time.

The uneven quality of beer created by the flood of new local microbreweries that opened in the 1990s in many ways opened the door and B.C. palates to quality imports, McClelland said. By then, too, American national brands were allowed to be brewed under licence in Canada.

“But for the first time there was variety,” he said.

“Bringing great examples of beers from all over creates a little competition for our local brewers, to be as good or better than the imports,” Bjerrisgaard said.



31 May, 2013