Montreal Trip

@TheDoctor @socon67 @portwood I think this map explains it clearly! XD

 

Well new brunswick and Ontario both have sizeable french populations. Much like the English in Quebec. For some reason they seem to get a long better as a whole, My parent's live in Hawkesbury which is a french town in Ontario. When walking in anywhere your definitely greeted by bonjour but when your accent is heard people judge how good your speaking and plenty switch because they are serving you. If they dont you just be respectful and do your business. There is so much less tension over there that when they first moved out there I was pretty shocked at how small of a deal people made of being in such a bilingual place. There was just less tension and hopefully we'll all be there one day!

 

Steamwhistle?

 

@tbeckett In terms of volume of sales, Beau's is higher than steamwhistle. It cost them hundreds of thousands in legal fees to accomplish this, It's due to the fact that they are in every craft corner store in Quebec as well as IGA (sobeys) grocery stores here and they have expanded to sell in new york state. They are litterly the only Ontario craft brewery to cross all 3 borders with the exception of Mill St becoming available Canada wide thanks to Labatt.

 

Flying Monkeys is available in other provinces and a bunch of states (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, etc.). While not as big as either Beau's or Steam Whistle, I think it is probably the most widely distributed brewer from Ontario in terms of different jurisdictions.

Of course the beer is just as forgettable as the beer from the other two...

 

There was a news article about beaus becoming the biggest after Mill st was bought up. I enjoy Beaus beers but the truth is they have a huge rotating list and have had their fair share of duds. So far out of the 3 its my favorite, Flying monkey does noticeable label art with mediocre beers most of the time IMHO. Just my 2 cents!

 

Thought that was largest independent organic producer?

 

Oh to work at a brewery that was Beau's rich!

 

Quebec is really tough market to get into is all I'm saying, they had to license another brewery to sign off for them because they don't have a Quebec brewery license. Then they had to build a new warehouse here to use to register as a Quebec LCC to sell their products in corner stores. Without doing that they would have been considered an import by Quebec law and only allowed to sell beer at the SAQ which rarely puts canadian beer on their shelves.

They saw it as an investment into their future obviously but there is a reason no other Ontario brewer goes into the quebec market. Thats all I'm saying, I mean were the 2 biggest Canadian markets so being in both will be nothing but good for their future.

 

When it comes to alcohol its really all down to the province, they each create their own laws, for instance Quebec is the cheapest for beer but one of the hardest to get into where Alberta is much more a free market with some private liquor stores and they can import a lot easier.

Quebec Deppaneurs (Convienience stores) and grocery can sell beer but only big brewery imported beer and Quebec Licensed Microbrews (all of which are in Quebec except Beau's) any "good" imports you have to by through the SAQ or provincial liquor store and most of them are Belgians, English and a few Germans, Italians ect...

In ontario until recently they could only sell beer in the beer store ( a monopoly owned by Molson coors/ab-inbev and sapporo) or the LCBO (their equivalent of the SAQ) The LCBO sells most of Ontarios craft beer and imports from the US Europe ect... Obviously shelf space is limited. Now ontario craft brewers can sell beer in certain grocery stores but theres still a lot of red tape around that (after 1 million in sales a store pays a fee on the rest of the beer it sells for the year to the beer store).... You can use importers in ontario like keep 6 but you have to buy by the case usually.

Obviously brewerys sell their own beer at their respective breweries but the market is still fairly small as it encompases a 100 mile radius around the brewery max.

As far as the 3 tier system goes in Quebec I dont think so, My local shop owner told me he deals with agents working at the brewery who get commissions for the beer they sell for the brewery. And given Ontario's gov monopoly practices im guessing they dont either. Cheers!

 

No.

 

@socon67 Put me in on that trade, can bring some goodies from Ontario

 

As @TheDoctor said, no.

We are not forced to sell to distributors, who in turn, sell to licensees.

Every brewery has a sales team that goes out and secures accounts, shelf space in stores, etc, etc. They also only represent their own product, as opposed to a rep from a distributor who might be slinging thousands of beers.

 

Greetings all. I've been keeping an eye on these Montreal threads since I was heading up there for the first time this past weekend. Thanks for all the info and tips! A few bullet points:

1) Holy crap did I love Montreal! How the hell do you guys keep it so damn clean up there? We stayed downtown, went to a show at the Metropolis, took the subway numerous times, and walked pretty much the entire length of St. Laurent and I don't think I saw so much as a cigarette butt anywhere. Just a gorgeous city with more good food, beer, and nice outdoor spaces than we knew what to do with. And so affordable for a big city (especially with the exchange rate).

2) People were super friendly and easy everywhere. I got the sense that having my French phrase book in hand bought me some goodwill for making an effort, because nearly everyone quickly switched to English when necessary with no attitude whatsoever. A surprising number of people seemed very interested that we were from Boston and quite chatty (I guess we didn't run into any hockey fans )

3) Liked Benelux a lot and absolutely loved Vices and Versa. Very impressed with the quality and variety of beer offerings up there. Had everything from a great smoked polish lager to a tasty DIPA to one of the better Dopplebocks I've ever had. Hell, I was even digging the 5$ Molson Canadians at the club. On that note, we had an "Experimental IPA" at Vices and Versa that could absolutely have come from a hyped New England place like Treehouse or Trillium - cloudy, soft, non-bitter and fruity with an amazing nose. Our waitress didn't speak much English so we couldn't quite figure out who made it (might have been Three Musketeers?). It was on tap there on Friday but had disappeared before we got back to the hotel that night to look it up on the online menu. Anyone have a guess as to what it was?

4) Had two of the best meals of my life at Tavern Square Dominion. Brilliant charcuterie plates. I think we earned points because my friend is an adventurous eater who devoured the pig ear that our waiter seemed vaguely apologetic about. That was the one offering that was a bit too much for me though (I can handle the gelatin but the cartilage was a deal breaker).
Fantastic cocktails and the coolest Absinthe gadget I've ever seen.

Can't wait to go back since we barely scratched the surface. Will look to set up an in person trade or something next time since I have pretty easy access to some of the heavy hitters in MA and VT.

Thanks again for all the info!