Craft Beer Brewhaha

In early January of this year, the Ontario Government cut its $8 million Ontario Craft Brewers Opportunity Fund as budget-cut matter. Though it offered relatively few dollars, the fund went a considerable way to helping create jobs, invigorating sales and competing, even a little bit, with the monolithic The Beer Store. Guest contributor, beer aficionado and local advocate Christopher Donaldson shares his view of the issue. –Ed.

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I am disheartened to hear that the Ontario government has cut the $8 million grant for Ontario craft brewers. Money is tight these days and beer is certainly not a priority over hospital beds or education, but supporting local industry and creating new jobs is in everyone’s best interest. Read on and you might end up agreeing with me that craft beer can help.

But first, some terminology and some history.

Craft: the concept has been applied broadly to many disciplines. The word evokes images of hard work creating unique products with attention to quality rather than quantity.

Beer: some people look down on it, some people merely enjoy it and an ever growing group love it. With a wide range of styles and flavors, there are a lot of options for every palate.

Craft beer: a lot of skill and dedication is poured into creating a consistent, flavorful quality brew. Subtle nuances and complex flavors are painstakingly layered to create a finely crafted and delicious product.

A stout Beau's stout at an Uptown 21 brewmaster's dinner.

My first few beers outside of stolen sips and house parties were at an independent bar with 20 taps in my hometown. Sadly it’s gone, but my experiences sampling a large range of styles has stuck with me. I really didn’t get actively into beer until I started visiting breweries and trying to learn more about where the beers I enjoyed came from.

I had the pleasure of visiting Creemore Springs Brewery in 1997 and it was love. I really enjoyed their beer, but seeing them bottle on a 1950′s Coca-Cola bottling-line, meeting the handful of drivers and the hard working brewers created a connection. I was hooked when I could touch the hops, the grains and experience the simple basic building blocks of beer.

The beer world has since surged forward with a plethora of breweries popping up across Ontario. Who need’s them? People who enjoy variety, new flavors and quality products. That’s who.

While the beer world has grown up and there are many more brands on the shelves and in bars, from a beer lover’s point of view many are not unique and the popular brews are subtle variations of other popular brews.

A big ol' keg at a Charcoal Steak House-Mill St. Brewery brewmaster's dinner.

What it has come down to is the course of history and the fact that beer is a business, one where the costs of grains and transport have risen sharply. The large brewers have adjusted their ingredients to include more corn, rice, fillers and preservatives known as adjuncts. The largest shifts occurred during the World Wars when the traditional–and few–beer ingredients (barley, yeast, sugar) were being rationed: thirsty troops came home to lighter, clearer, “easy drinking” beers.

So where are we today?

Until the last few years, the larger breweries were still very much in control. They own–literally–”The Beer Store” and have deep pockets to buy prime real estate at the LCBO. However, quietly, slowly, painfully, the craft brew industry had started to grow. Smaller breweries had begun to create richer artisanal versions of classic beer styles. These “one-offs” became destination beers drawing food lovers and beer enthusiasts to new bars, restaurants and cities soaked in a new beer culture.

The beer movement created dozens of new breweries and fuelled a drive for unique and interesting brews such as those produced by Toronto’s Mill St. Brewery, Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co. of Vankleek Hill, Ontario, and Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery of Barrie. This, of course, has also created hundreds of new jobs, as well as a few misses and a lot of hits when it comes to quality.

A deep rich glass of Mill St. Brewery dark served at a brewmaster's dinner at Puddicombe House in New Hamburg.

Where were the larger “macro-breweries” such as Molson, Labatt, Sleeman, and so on? They were caught with their brewmaster’s pants down. They quickly turned to bolstering their import lines and that was easy since they were now multinational conglomerates with conflated names like abINBev and Molson-Coors with hundreds of interconnected brands. These premium import brands are often brewed not overseas, but in Toronto right next to the gargantuan tanks brewing your “grandfather’s beer.”

But, alas, the people wanted craft. And the craft market took a big chunk–a surprising chunk–out of the macro-breweries’ market; so much so, in fact, that the macro-breweries began to buy the micro and craft breweries or, worse, simply invented craft-sounding brands. To be fair, some brands have flourished with minimal impact on quality (Creemore, for instance) while others are just macro-brews with fancy advertising.

A Kitchener hop grower and home-brewer steeps his lager with Cascade (species Iupulus) hops.

And so we return to where we started: why is the cancellation of the Ontario government’s craft brew fund a bad idea?

As much impact as the craft brews have had, they haven’t touched five percent of the revenues of the micro-breweries and the market shares for craft have gone up, but it hasn’t caused any layoffs at the macro-breweries. Instead, it has created jobs, brought healthy competition to a stagnant “Big Three” industry, and most importantly perhaps it has excited people to travel locally within Ontario to explore breweries and helped launch dozens of restaurants and beer pubs.

There are more high-quality beers commonly available because of the Government’s craft brew grants. Queen’s Park has been quite happy to promote Ontario brews making a range available for their venues. Sadly, beer lovers might have less choice in 2012.

Really good beer is a hard sell with very poor margins: it takes hard work, long hours and a great deal of talent. So I ask you to ask yourself: do you want to support large-scale production of the Same Old-Same Old? Or do you prefer community building and small scale unique products crafted with heart and soul?

Most craft brewers struggle riding the line between selling out with mass marke- appeal brands or creating truly unique and inspired brews. They support the grant that gave the small brewer a chance to create and advocate change. Taking that support away will make it harder for the small brewers at the same time it–deleteriously to good taste–positions the macro-breweries to be able to capitalize on the current taste “trends.” And that’s no small beer.

So write the Premier and your MPP. Buy local and ask bars and restaurants you frequent what craft beer they offer. Promote it, enjoy it responsibly and support Made-in-Ontario. In doing so, you bolster your economy rather than the agenda of multinational conglomerates.

Best of all you can enjoy a fantastic brew.

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Guest contributor Christopher Donaldson is a local amateur beer and food enthusiast. He has had the opportunity to explore his interests in food, drink, photography and travel throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Happily expecting his first child with his best friend Lindsay, Donaldson also enjoys his technical role at RIM supporting the executive team. His opinions are solely his own.