WHAT’S BREWING NOW?
It’s available in grocery stores now, but what else can beer drinkers yearn for this coming year? Turns out, quite a bit,
Local brew scene could use more creativity on shelves and less in the breweries
While there’s plenty for Ontario beer drinkers to be happy about, there’s always room for improvement in this province’s beer scene. A new beginning: As grocery stores get into the beer-retailing business, it would be tempting for them to only have the biggest sellers on their shelves. After all, they’ve got to do something to recoup the thousands of dollars they paid to secure the sales rights.
But rather than just stocking the top-selling, well-known brands from mega brewers, it would behoove a forward-thinking grocer to stock things which would pair well with their food. They might even — gasp — make more money in the process.
Picture, for example, a nice fresh chevre at the top of the cheese fridge, with a suggestion that it might go nicely with a bottle of Blanche de Chambly from aisle 6. Or, say, that nice rack of lamb at the butcher’s counter could be paired with a strong, dark Trappist ale such as Chimay Blue, which can conveniently be found a few aisles over.
Or — here’s another crazy thought — there could be a “what’s fresh from Ontario” section that features not only locally grown produce, but the latest seasonal offerings from Ontario’s craft brewers. Less paranoia, please: Every single time a craft brewery gets taken over by a major brewing conglomerate, fans fret that the beer quality will suffer. Others turn up their noses at the thought of drinking something controlled by one of the big guys, no matter how good it is.
But you know what? It’s not a bad thing to have access to a solid IPA in the type of bar that a few short years ago would only have had bland, watery light brews on offer. Thanks to Anheuser-Busch InBev’s takeover of Chicago-based Goose Island a few years ago, Goose IPA is now available in bars, LCBOs and the Beer Store locations across Ontario. Ditto for Creemore Springs, which was taken over by Molson Coors in 2006.
In fact, Creemore’s range — both in geography and product variety — has increased since the takeover. Their quality hasn’t suffered. Neither, hopefully, will Toronto’s own Mill Street Brewery now that it’s in the hands of AB InBev, which sells one out of every three pints on the planet. Less virtual, more actual: You’ve opened a brewery? Er, no, actually. You’re probably nothing more than a marketing company using somebody else’s production facilities.
That’s my reaction to about 90 per cent of the press releases flaunting new brewers. Look, I understand that it’s a way to get your beer out there before you’ve got the money to start up your own facility. But for every good “virtual” brewery like Spearhead, there are about a dozen mediocre ones that care more about their image than the beer itself. More solid, less silly: I love a smoked, imperial, sour raspberry wheat with locally sourced, handforaged herbs as much as the next guy (OK, I made that one up). But some brewers focus on one-offs to the detriment of their core offerings. Stop it. Just. Stop it.