“Opening up interprovincial trade of alcohol would have a very detrimental effect on the breweries that are here in Newfoundland and Labrador,” Mr. Farrell said in an interview Friday. “There’s no upside. You’d flood the market with trucked-in beer.”
The industry is small, and getting things off the island is expensive. Medium sized brewers from Ontario and Quebec will eat their lunch.
Wouldn’t that mean that getting things onto the island is also expensive?
Also notice that this article only mentions the giant multi-national brewers Labatt and Molson. Small craft brewers will be fine, they’re already more expensive (and better) than the mass-produced stuff.
This certainly sucks for the 110 or so workers that work for Labatt and Molson. I guess it’s possible that the interprovincial trade rules could be modified so that only small companies are allowed free trade, preventing Molson and Labatt from pulling out, but still allowing people to buy craft beers from across the country. Not sure how easy it would be to define “small” though.
Yes, getting things onto the island will be expensive, but if you have a war chest, a distribution network, and the facilities to produce at scale, you can enter the market just fine. And if a bunch of others do as well, the lot of them can squeeze out the local brewers.
Weirdly enough, the amount of money you have today directly impacts how much you can fuck over someone smaller than you tomorrow.
But isn’t shipping thins in the island also expensive? Why would medium sized brewers be at an advantage?
They’re coming from larger markets, so already have a larger sales base, large income flow, and reduced costs from producing at a larger scale.
Y’all come from large provinces, don’t ya? Because none of you are talking like you’ve ever seen a bigger neighbour wipe out your local industry. Or paidnany attention while Walmart and Amazon decimated things.
Shouldn’t be too hard to compete with Ontario brewers. We seem to only be able to make the same 3 or 4 craft beers in different packaging.
We’ve been sheltered from interprovincial competition, and our products have suffered for it.
Edit: I think I misread your comment! Sorry in advance, I thought you were saying Ontario didn’t have good beer.
Original content:
That’s not true at all, you probably don’t even have to go very far to find a good brewery near you, in every major town and city in the province.
Just to name fantastic breweries I’ve personally been to: Bicycle, Muskoka Brewery, Small Pony, Whiskeyjack, Gateway City, Tooth and Nail, Whitewater.
Yeah, IPAs were super popular during the start of the microbrew days, but these days there is so much diversity in Ontario beer.
If you want something lighter have a Creemore pilsner, Mill St Organic, a Farmers Daughter wheat beer, a small pony sour, or a Whisjeyjack Cold Front. Want something heavier, go for a Beaus or a Calabogie brown cow. Want an IPA pick up Muskoka Detour or a Flying Monkey.
Seriously we have a ton of good beer that’s worth trying.
Nah, you read me right. I’m absolutely ragging on Ontario beer, but ESPECIALLY so on LCBO.
You’re right, there are a few nice beers here and there. The pony sours are very nice. Left-field has some great stuff. Tooth and nail has had some fantastic colab beers, and their standard lineup is quite passable. But where are our Belgian style ales? Our west-coast style IPAs? Where are the Baltic porters and imperial stouts? I want a full bodied malty IPA. I want a double IPA with some seriously lacto funky notes, not just “this baby can fit so much hops”.
We’re just SO unadventurous, and I think a lot of it has to do with LCBO. I used to be able to get all that stuff, but selection has shrunk and shrunk.
Make Ontario craft work for their spot on the shelf. Too much protectionism is bad for consumers.