fredthecat
The original homebrewer™.
Having lived in Canada for about 95% of my life and trying to drink/learn about beer as much as I can, I feel that I can now generalize and Canadian Microbrewers piss me off. Frankly, I think they're getting better, but there are 3 things that make me actively choose non-canadian brews every time.
1. Why are the majority of them much, much, MUCH more expensive than brews from micros of comparable size from other countries. This is what started me off with this thread, just saw a 750ml barley wine with lukewarm reviews going for 13 dollars at the lcbo. This is standard practice, I would consistently see 650-750ml bottles of beer by canadian micros from 8 to 12 dollars. (currently looking at a 4 pack from "Beau's" going for 24 dollars. A 4 PACK) Next point follows...
2. When you actually shell out this money the product quality is often massively disappointing. Waterloo, Grand River are big ones I dislike for having mediocre stuff. As much as this will be unpopular I especially hate the little guys, Railway City brewing makes a ton of crap rather than try to sit down and make one good beer. Endless list of utterly mediocre nanobreweries: Double Trouble, Hop Town, Hogsback, lake of bays. recently there's been more copying of american "extreme end" microbrews like imperial stouts, high IBU/ABV, but they're half assed. My favourite microbrewery to hate on is Trafalgar, the worst most WTF commercial beers I've ever bought have all been from them, yet the canadian government continues to stock this crap. (read the reviews on ratebeer, they're hilarious.) if the beers they make aren't shameless attempts to ride on trendy american micros, the rest are massively boring "organic golden lager" or "summer blonde ale" crap. also quality control is more of a problem than any foreign beers i've had, have had many infected canadian beers. (trafalgar, creemore)
3. terrible advertising/product style. though i can imagine other places have this as well, i just personally haven't seen it to the same degree. here are some examples:
http://bryehn.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/hopnouveau2011.jpg
http://res.cloudinary.com/ratebeer/image/upload/w_250,c_limit,q_85,d_beer_def.gif/beer_6829.jpg
(they literally have a series of 3 beers labeled with three different "girl's faces". who thought that up???)
http://craft-works.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/New-cans-family-shot-web2.jpg - ugly pseudo 50's style artwork abounds for some stupid reason. making beer = an ironic 1950s in canada
http://bryehn.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/conductorscraftale.jpg
Exceptions to this are millstreet, Wellington (minus the crap packaging), mcauslan and most Quebec brewers who all make a lot of great and undisputably mature beers. This rant has come from a long time of having idiotic microbreweries come forth and get guaranteed product placement from the government so that they continue to survive when they should have died long ago. Just because it's "local" and "independent" doesn't make it good. Compared to the US, or even Quebec it's just embarassing and I don't know why it happens.
1. Why are the majority of them much, much, MUCH more expensive than brews from micros of comparable size from other countries. This is what started me off with this thread, just saw a 750ml barley wine with lukewarm reviews going for 13 dollars at the lcbo. This is standard practice, I would consistently see 650-750ml bottles of beer by canadian micros from 8 to 12 dollars. (currently looking at a 4 pack from "Beau's" going for 24 dollars. A 4 PACK) Next point follows...
2. When you actually shell out this money the product quality is often massively disappointing. Waterloo, Grand River are big ones I dislike for having mediocre stuff. As much as this will be unpopular I especially hate the little guys, Railway City brewing makes a ton of crap rather than try to sit down and make one good beer. Endless list of utterly mediocre nanobreweries: Double Trouble, Hop Town, Hogsback, lake of bays. recently there's been more copying of american "extreme end" microbrews like imperial stouts, high IBU/ABV, but they're half assed. My favourite microbrewery to hate on is Trafalgar, the worst most WTF commercial beers I've ever bought have all been from them, yet the canadian government continues to stock this crap. (read the reviews on ratebeer, they're hilarious.) if the beers they make aren't shameless attempts to ride on trendy american micros, the rest are massively boring "organic golden lager" or "summer blonde ale" crap. also quality control is more of a problem than any foreign beers i've had, have had many infected canadian beers. (trafalgar, creemore)
3. terrible advertising/product style. though i can imagine other places have this as well, i just personally haven't seen it to the same degree. here are some examples:
http://bryehn.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/hopnouveau2011.jpg
http://res.cloudinary.com/ratebeer/image/upload/w_250,c_limit,q_85,d_beer_def.gif/beer_6829.jpg
(they literally have a series of 3 beers labeled with three different "girl's faces". who thought that up???)
http://craft-works.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/New-cans-family-shot-web2.jpg - ugly pseudo 50's style artwork abounds for some stupid reason. making beer = an ironic 1950s in canada
http://bryehn.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/conductorscraftale.jpg
Exceptions to this are millstreet, Wellington (minus the crap packaging), mcauslan and most Quebec brewers who all make a lot of great and undisputably mature beers. This rant has come from a long time of having idiotic microbreweries come forth and get guaranteed product placement from the government so that they continue to survive when they should have died long ago. Just because it's "local" and "independent" doesn't make it good. Compared to the US, or even Quebec it's just embarassing and I don't know why it happens.