agr

He didn't mention profitability. He was talking about the ways in which control is exercised over what gets onto the shelves of liquor stores, including interprovincial trade. Also the relationships between large suppliers, chain restaurants, and franchisees.

MikeUK

The shelves of the liquor board is a cost to list, everybody pays the fee, same as putting product on a super market shelf
Yes the government charges when you move beer between provinces, same thing everybody pays (some my refer to it as a back door tax)
It a cost of doing business, its a cost many startup's don't factor in..
Restaurant and suppliers, yes size counts, largely because you can be relied on to honor your contracts (or suck up small margins)
Small breweries are like any other small business growing a customer base, the problem is many small breweries don’t understand that

bgpz

If you're out west, Russell Brewmaster Series is well worth checking out.

Good luck trying to find it in Ontario, though....

meowsalot

Hello, not sure if this is where I should be posting this
but I am looking to meet/ make friends with a cute british girl living in Canada or moving to Canada.. :P

JimboV6

LOL. Joking I hope?

Back to beer: I buy a lot of Wellington and Neustadt. Picaroon was good (NB) and the Pumphouse in Moncton was a great little find on a trip last year. I like Barking squirrel from Hop City too.

I always aim for the cask conditioned stuff when available.

Just used a U-Brew type place to make a Wellington Arkell style ESB. How does $2.60 per litre sound?

MikeUK

I hate to rain on your parade, but you’ll find very little cask conditioned beer in North America, what you might get is brewery conditioned beer being put un-filtered into a Keg at the end of its fermentation cycle and being called cask conditioned because they left it un-filtered....
Properly cask conditioned ale is...............
..snip...
you should know the difference............

So unless you see it coming out of the cask (and they're rare enough they'll make the effort to put it on display)
or if they’re all stood up on end in the cellar and have a twist in coupling it ain’t cask beer here

Atlantic Xpat

That's entirely correct IMHO. Cask ale can be found through asidious research - I once booked a business hotel in Montreal on the strength of being just round the corner from a bar that served cask conditioned ale - but it is, alas a rarity. Different varieties of keg beer, some of which are quite quaffable abound, but they are keg not cask.

JimboV6

They certainly sell it as cask conditioned...I'll be sure to quiz them next time.

Partially discharged

Guilty as charged as I did the same. The place I went to was L'amere a boire. Their lamb burger was excellent as well.

Oink

There's a lot of posh people on this forum what with all this real ale talk. It must be because David Cameron and his okay-yah toffy mates have come to power. Whatever next? Wine bars and prawn vol au vents?

Atlantic Xpat

That's the very place. The beer was good and so was the food.

wolstie

If anyone ventures to this place again, the rabbit is amazing.

Londonuck

Do you mean the large eared, fluffy kind or you're originally from Canning Town and the conversation was quite pleasant?

Aberdeen_Loon

I'm not sure about "real ales" (we don't use that term much over here) but some of my favourite Canadian microbrewery beers are as follows:

Unibroue Trois Pistoles
Unibroue La Fin du Monde
Unibroue Maudite
Muskoka Mad Tom IPA
Muskoka Summerweisse
Muskoka Winterbeard
Muskoka Spring Oddity
Denison's Weissbier
Mill Street Tankhouse Ale
Mill Street Coffee Porter
Amsterdam Pomegranate Wheat Beer
Amsterdam Oranjweisse
Creemore Springs Kellerbier (OK, it's owned by Molson Coors, but this particular beer, which I believe is seasonal is very good)
Granville Island Brewery Robson Street Hefeweizen
Great Lakes Brewery Winter Ale

People probably won't find these all across the country, but I think they are all worth a try.

Partially discharged

Can't say enough about this beer....excellent. Especially on draught.

Other ones to try include products from Beau's Brewery and Flying Monkeys Brewery (Hoptical Illusion).