Let's talk about the Top Rated Beers in Canada

Where are the Beau's beers on this list ? They have great beers and all Organic!

 

I think you are bang on about the list.

I think there are a number of issues that come into play here:

First, the vast size of Canada compared to the population.We are spread out over thousands of kilometres and it is not common for people to go to all regions of the country for beer and even vacation.

Second, government regulations. Every province and territory sets different rules around brewing. The most prominent of these issue is the distribution restrictions and captive markets. For example, in many provinces beer coming from another province is strictly limited, until recently Quebec beer stores couldn't sell craft beer from outside Quebec. I believe this is changing, but it shows the issues faced in distribution and market access.

Another example is an ongoing pissing contest between BC and Ontario that is primarily about wine. Ontario puts limits on what BC product is and isn't allowed to be sold in Ontario.

Finally, the domination and anti-competetive nature of the big brewers. Let's face it, the big three don't want to lose market to craft and they will work with provinces to make it as hard as possible for craft brewers to access the market. In New Brunswick, thanks greatly to Moosehead, a craft brewer cannot access the provincial stores until they have sales over a certain threshold of volume and cash.

I think there is some good representation of craft on the Canada list, but a lot of what is there is driven by market access. Looking at the current list there are fewer than 10 beers that come from outside Canada's three most populous provinces, Ontario, Quebec and BC. There are many of those on the list that are big enough to have US access, which gives them a huge advantage.

There are some outstanding brewers in every region of the country, but until they can get wider distributio they won't meet the thesholds for the list.

I am not sure what can be done, relatively small population and limited distribution will keep many of us from having great beers from other provinces and thus their meeting the threshold for the list.

 

OK I will start the ball rolling on the topic 'who's your favourite Canadian Brewer'? I'm going to throw out a few names that are personal favourites:
Unibroue (Quebec) - great tasting beers, such as Maudite and Fin de Monde. Been around for years.
Dageraad (BC) - based in Burnaby BC, they come up with some very nice Belgian-style beers
Red Collar (BC) - from the BC Interior (Kamloops). Some great beers, especially IPA's.
Driftwood (BC) - Vancouver Island brewers - some fantastic products, with some great names like Naughty Hildegard, Old Cellar Dweller and Singularity. I've had some great imperial stouts and barley wines from them.

Anyone else out there?

 

Hi glad to be part of this thread. 3 great breweries I love in Toronto. Bellwoods, Left Field and Rorscach. And lastly, a little brewery in Thunder Bay, my hometown, Onetime. All 4 make great stouts, which is my favorite style.

Sean

 

Lastly another point is I feel that so many breweries these days are just brewing one offs. At least in Toronto, so few are regular year round or rotating seasonals. Definitely makes it harder to get enough reviews to make it in on a list.

 

Well, I really try to represent when up there, but I don't live in Canada anymore.

I have been lucky to travel and see the beer scene absolutely explode all over the country, or at least in places I went beer hunting such as Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and where I grew up in Winnipeg.

There isn't a lot of Canadian contributed content here, so that's reflected. I think in some of the major markets like Toronto Montreal for example they kind of lead the way, and everything else with some exceptions is bread-crumbs.

Where I grew up, there's new things, but you wouldn't know it looking at the number of reviews, let alone "tick" ratings that are on BA for Winnipeg/Manitoba beers. However, I do love going out and trying them when I am in the neighborhood, and certainly letting my thoughts known here.

There has been some solid great finds which makes it even more impressive. I do wish more could be said from others.

However, it's not just a phenomenon related to Canada. There's little contribution from other US states like Arkansas, West Virginia, etc... so it's all relative. Heck, a brewery in my neighborhood in Maryland has made exceptional beers from time to time, but nobody reviews them it seems except me! heh heh

Yup would love to see more Canadian beers, and I certainly look for those or keep a mental note in my head when visiting to go look for them.

 

This is bang on.

It's hard for those smaller brewers in smaller towns to make a dent. There are more breweries per capita in New Brunswick than in Quebec. New Brunswick is small, and it's population is spread out over a wide area. Trailway, in Fredericton, makes some of the best IPAs I have had in Canada, but they don't make a dent based on low numbers of reviews. I'd venture there aren't many people west of New Brunswick who know that Trailway even exists.

There is no easy solution. As mentioned this is not exclusive to Canada, and poses issues elsewhere. Perhaps a weighted system based on population access might be possible. I'm poor at maths, so I'm just spitballing.

 

Speaking from the Hamilton Ontario perspective

This is an incredibly good point. Heck, there is a brewery in Hamilton called Grain & Grit in Hamilton as far as I know, it has no core lineup. Everything is either seasonal (but not always every year) or a one off, but I get it. Part of the reason many got into craft beer was to always been trying new things besides Lager. I think for a while Stonehooker in Mississauga was doing that as well.

There's far too many one off's being brewed, or yearly one off "Series Brews" that while great, can't ever break in on their own. Stuff like Fairweather - Wishing Well, Sawdust City's - Limberlost & Blood/Revenge of Cthulhu, Wellington - UVB 76 and even Collective Arts - Origin of Darkness

That's a possible consideration, making some kind of "Series Beer" rank but I don't know how well or easy that could be to implement. The problem is those "Series Beers" are all individually different beers, so what real benefit is that? I guess consistency on one branded product? Doesn't strike me as something that belongs in a top list.

You also have to consider the monopoly the LCBO and Beer Store in Ontario have in terms of distribution, simply destroys the footprint of a lot of brewers. The Beer Store is just...bad. Honestly if it wasn't for my yearly summer cases of Sleeman and empties, I'd never step into the place again and while the LCBO has improved over the years, I think we've reached a point where there are so many Ontario brewers, that they seem obligated to give everyone one, maybe two beers, unless you are one of the larger craft breweries (Wellington, Collective Arts, Muskoka..etc) and everyone leads with their best seller (usually an IPA or a Stout) and one other thing if they get it, so many great beers just never break out beyond a small regional circle.

That said, it has to be that way. Yes, there's always going to be lost gold in the works, but you certainly don't want beers that no one has access to, to show up.

I don't know, I think about the only thing you can do is implement some kind of bounty system, where higher rated, non-one off, but not making enough reviews results in some kind of reward to encourage people to try to get their hands on it and add reviews, but there's really no way to make those determinations and some places simply won't ever see a high degree of activity. Canada is a big country, but most of our population is clustered in Greater Vancouver and the Windsor-Quebec City Corridor. Everyone else is always going to struggle with exposure.

 

You poor bastard.

Wildcat is incredibly bad and dangerous. My friends and I used to play "pass the Wildcat" with an old can that was put in every trade.

You should visit again, the beer scene is incredible now. Not just in Quebec, but across the country.

Venir en Acadie! It's beautiful!

 

Sweet!

Checked my brewery profile today, and it shows 5 beers "active", 2 "new", and 65 "inactive" (13 of which I've had available in the last year).

Todd, you don't have a numbers problem, because you could merge the data with Untappd and have some real time data. You have a user problem from presenting a platform with incomplete data. The data is outdated, user numbers too low, so your sample size is too small to have meaningful numbers. The Canadian numbers show this disparity.

 

We need an effort to attract Canadian reviewers, or should I say away or within the associated platform, to contribute. There are a good 25 breweries now in Canada, approaching 39 million people, that are on par with the superior breweries' output of 5-10 years ago in the USA . I needn't name them but could.

 

Yeah I agree with a lot of what I have read here.....size of the country vs population......access of most of the Canadian product in the US (most will never even hear/sample what we make up here!) I'm in Alberta....there are several dozen breweries in the province now, including 3 in my hometown (Hell's Basement, Medicine Hat Brew Co, Travois). In my opinion, Calgary in particular has an amazing beer scene (Wild Rose, Elite, Eighty-Eight, Born Colorado, Legend 7....just to name a few). A lot of these breweries' product will not hit the required amount of reviews, or only will get a fresh review every 2 years say, which leads to them struggling to stay relevant in the long run and become 'retired'. I look forward to 'activating' as many of these again and help keep the listings as current as possible, in hopes that more people will discover them!