Craft Beer Rescues Canadian Brewing Industries

The Belgian brewery Interbrew, now part of Anheuser-Busch InBev, bought out Canada’s Labatt Brewery in 1995. After acquiring smaller breweries like Upper Canada, Sleeman Brewery eventually sold to Japanese brewer Sapporo Breweries. Molson merged with the American brewery Coors to create Molson Coors in 2005.

With the growth of microbreweries, you can’t help but wonder whether these businesses risk being bought out by a larger brewery, which was the fate of some brewers like Upper Canada. Could Amsterdam be bought out? “I hope not,” Carefoote laughs. “As long as I’m here, I don’t think that’s going to happen. It’s not our goal, anyways. I have worked for the large brewers, and I’m happy doing what I’m doing.”

Michael Wolfson, senior advisor of the Food and Beverage Sector in Economic Development and Culture for the City of Toronto, advises that the beer industry plays a significant role in Toronto’s economy. Wolfson explains that breweries contribute to the economy not only on a production level, but also on a value chain level — especially due to their work on the development of hops in southwestern Ontario, where hops is replacing tobacco crops. Several of the grains used in beer are grown in Ontario, so we’re seeing the food-to-fork effect — “although you don’t think of eating beer with a fork, so it’s food-to-cup, or in this case field-to-cup, with beer,” amends Wolfson, chuckling.

Back at my Steam Whistle tour, a tour guide named Jasmine gestures to the crowd to gather around a large, bottle-shaped unit, exclaiming, “Come on and meet Beverley! She’s the most important on this tour. She’s a beer fridge! Come over and get a beer. Everyone gets one for the tour.” Every tour at Steam Whistle starts with a visit to Beverley. “We get a case of beer with every paycheque. We’re taken care of here,” Jasmine mentions with a smile during the tour.

Visitors can experience this sense of community at all of the Toronto craft breweries. You can walk away from the Steam Whistle Roundhouse, the Leaside Brewery where Amsterdam now resides or the Mill Street Brew Pub feeling very good about having drunk one too many beers — because at the end of the day, you’re helping the local economy!

Image provided by @CRAFTbeermarket

Curated: Jackie Marchildon recently graduated with her degree in journalism from Ryerson University. After spending a semester abroad, Jackie has avid travel plans and enjoys writing about almost everything, from human rights issues to arts and entertainment. For examples of her recent pieces visit: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jackie-marchildon/59/b84/131.
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