April showers bring May flowers, but trade wars bring out people鈥檚 love for local, including beer.
As plans pivot away from international travel to staycations and keeping it Canadian, it鈥檚 important to remember there are varying levels of Canadian when it comes to beer.
Similar to the fact that there are people who still think Lucky Lager is brewed on Vancouver Island (It hasn鈥檛 been since 1982), many people still see large brands like Molson and Labatt鈥檚 as Canadian. Molson is a part of MolsonCoors, a multinational with heavy roots in the U.S. with ties to the Coors family.
Labatt鈥檚, along with Kokanee, and the Lucky mentioned above, are owned by AB InBev, a Belgian Multinational that grew to the largest beer manufacturing company in the world with the purchase of Anheuser-Busch in 2008. Even Okanagan Springs is owned by Sapporo out of Japan, along with Sleeman鈥檚 and Unibroue from Quebec.
So, what does that mean for you as a beer drinker? Well, it means that to keep it Canadian, you have to look a little harder. The largest Canadian-owned brewery is Moosehead from Nova Scotia, but an easy way to find the beer that keeps it as local and Canadian as possible is to seek the seal.
The Canadian Craft Brewers Association rolled out the in 2019, allowing member brewers to indicate the independent and Canadian status of their beers. Easily noticed on many labels nowadays, it鈥檚 an indicator that the money spent on that beer is staying within these borders, boosting our economy, and keeping people here working through what could be an unpredictable next few years.
Not every can will have the seal, as it is a choice by each brewer to include the design on their labels, but it does make it a bit easier to identify those smaller breweries that could use the support at this time.
If you want to make those dollars have even more of an impact, bypass the cans (aluminum tariffs will definitely be impacting the price of beers) and swing by a taproom. The effect of having a fresh beer from the source is not only a more enjoyable glass in a welcoming and comfortable space but also lower costs for the brewery.
Matthew Poirier writes about beer for Monday Magazine.
