Refined palates, Canucks playoff run helping local beer industry heat up otherwise cool spring
By Andrew A. Duffy, Times Colonist May 14, 2011
It’s nearly mid May, yet the skies are dull and threaten rain, there’s tougher rules in place against drinking and driving and the harmonized sales tax has eaten into the hospitality budgets of most households.
These are tough hurdles to navigate for anyone selling beer. So there’s plenty of reason to question just why Victoria craft beer brewers and brewpubs are smiling.
At this time of year beerdrinking season should have kicked off, patios should be filled with lagerswilling sun worshippers and back yards should be beer-and-burger territory.
That isn’t really happening. However, a playoff run from the Vancouver Canucks seems to be making up for some of the bad weather and driving beer sales, while the more-cultured palate of the Victoria beer drinker seems to be the biggest reason for the sunny dispositions of these brewers.
“People are making conscious decisions with their dollars. It’s a great market here. People understand the quality of a craft beer and people are trading up,” said Rob Ringma, sales and marketing manager with Vancouver Island Brewery. “It’s the ‘big guys’ [Molson and Labatt] who are seeing their volumes decline, while I think you’ll find the local guys are doing pretty good.
“People may be drinking less overall, but they are drinking better.”
The most recent market report from the Liquor Distribution Branch showed draft sales of the large brewers were down 17 per cent compared with the first quarter in 2010 while their packaged sales were down 13 per cent.
On the flip side, small brewers saw a 7.5 per cent increase in draft sales in the first quarter of 2011 and a 29 per cent jump in their packaged wares.
Jim Dodds, general manager of Vancouver Island Brewery, said everyone in the industry got hurt with the new tougher drinking and driving regulations, but brewers like him made up for it with packaged sales for people to enjoy at home.
“With that and the hockey we are exceeding our numbers from this time last year,” he said, noting craft brewers are now probably creeping toward grabbing between 15-to-20 per cent of the beer drinking market in the province.
“Beer sales overall may be down but it’s the big guys that are getting pounded,” said Dodds.
“We see it as an opportunity to grow.”
According to LDB figures total beer sales in the first quarter were down nine per cent to $223 million, with domestic beer sales down 10 per cent and imports down four per cent.
Large producers saw a 14 per cent drop in sales in the first quarter to $154 million compared with the first quarter in 2010, while the small brewers realized a 24 per cent increase in sales to $25 million.
It’s a sign people want quality beer, said craftbrew pioneer Paul Hadfield, owner of Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub. “The craft market is very strong, this is perhaps the most exciting time that I have seen in all my time of being involved,” he said. “I think we are on the cusp of an enormous breakthrough that is really going to change the way we think about beer in North America.”
Hadfield said the palate is now more welcome to new and interesting tastes and brewers are being given freedom to try new things and new ingredients.
Hadfield introduces new beers throughout the year and is once again launching new brews for the summer.
He has two low-alcohol offerings (3.8-3.9 per cent alcohol by volume) this year as he hopes to fill a void created by the new drinking-driving laws.
First up and already on tap at his pub is Discovery Ale (3.8 per cent), patterned on the beer he brewed for the crew of the space shuttle Discovery 19 years ago -with the shuttle program now retired Hadfield wanted to pay tribute with what he calls a “low-gravity ale” that is reminiscent of a lighter bitter and served cold and more carbonated.
Hadfield said that beer is here for the long-haul.
He also has a seasonal low-alcohol offering with Ryder Hesjedal Tour de Victoria Summer Ale (3.9 per cent) with part proceeds going to the Tour de Victoria.
And he’s not alone, as usual Phillips Brewing Company will be releasing its raspberry wheat beer next week along with its hefeweizen and five-litre mini kegs for the summer.
“I’m still waiting for the summer we didn’t get last year,” said owner Matt Phillips, who anticipates the real kick-off of beer-drinking season after the May long weekend. “There’s definitely a season -in my mind there’s only one season, that’s drinking season -but in the real world it’s summer and it runs until end of September.”
Vancouver Island Brewery has already released its summer offering, the Double Decker Ale, though Dodds said they intend to keep it around long-term.
They will also be going back to its small cask program, which allows its brewers to experiment with new flavours and styles -last year it included a rhubarb wheat beer -which will be on show at various pubs around the city.
“We have some of the most educated beer drinkers in our backyard so we put out [the casks] and hope to get feedback so we can keep giving customers what they want,” said Ringma.
On a list of the top 10 pubs in terms of total litre sales in 2010 of premium beer (import, high-end and craft) there are three Victoria establishments. The Irish Times ranked fifth with 107,700 litres, the Strathcona Hotel (Sticky Wicket et al) was ninth at 83,500 litres and the Bard and Banker was 10th at 80,000 litres.
Matt MacNeil, owner of the Irish Times and Bard, said he’s expecting to see more strong sales this summer as the brewers and publicans alike have been waiting for the sun.
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