Craft beer market share

The internationally owned and operated beer giants — Labatt Brewing Company and Molson Coors Brewing Company — are still 1-2 atop the leader board for those who are keeping score. But craft beer has never been more popular among drinkers in Ontario and across Canada than it is now.

Going by a variety of statistics from a number of sources, craft beer sales reportedly now account for close to 25 per cent of the Canadian market. And that percentage stake is more than double than it was for the craft beer industry just a few years ago.

Being Canada’s largest province, Ontario is the leader atop the nation’s craft beer sales standings. And in northern Ontario, including Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Manitoulin and Timmins, the number of craft breweries is rather impressive.

To be sure, the craft beer market is making major headway as it cuts into the profit margins of Labatt and Molson Coors. In fact, Molson Coors recently announced that it was making a change at its chief executive officer level in the wake of declining sales.

As someone who likes — if not loves — beer, I never thought I would stray from favourite national and international brands that include Alexander Keith’s India Pale Ale, Bud Light, Miller Lite and Mill St. Organic.

But here I am, about 55 years since I drank my first beer (yes, my old neighbourhood friend Jim Pastushak and I first sipped on “samples” from our respective parents basements when I was 11 and he was 10) and the craft brands are now among my favourites.

As Labatt-owned Mill St. Organic remains my no. 1 choice of beers, Split Shot of Sault Ste. Marie craft beer producer OutSpoken Brewing is right up there among my favourites.

And tied with Split Shot on my personal favourite list are a pair of Kingsville Brewery products — Czech Style Lager and Hefeweizen. I am still waiting for the availability of Kingsville Light, which I am told will soon be among my favourites.

Kingsville Brewery, by the way, has a Sault Ste. Marie flavour to it.

As noted in a previous column, retired National Hockey League goalie Marty Turco is part owner of Kingsville Brewery and fellow Sault native Paul Sguigna is its president. In fact, Sguigna recently left an upper management level position with Molson Coors (after 22 years with the company) to take over as Kingsville Brewery president.

Kingsville products are now available in the local Beer Store outlets as well as a number of Sault bars and restaurants.

Meanwhile, OutSpoken Brewing products have become very popular in the Sault and are available in several local establishments. Locally-owned OutSpoken also operates its own dispensary in the downtown area on Queen St. and is open Wednesday through Sunday, complete with indoor seating and an outdoor patio bar.

Northern Breweries is another locally-owned craft beer outlet. It operates out of a facility on Bay St. and its various products are also available in a number of Sault establishments.

It used to be that beer was more of a guy’s drink. But more and more women have taken to drinking beer — especially craft beer, or so it seems.

As noted earlier, I never thought I would become a craft beer snob.

My son, Bobby, tried to introduce me to craft beer several years ago during one of my baseball or football trips to Detroit. But I would have none of it, telling him that it would be Bud Light or Miller Lite for me and that’s all there was to it.

Now, it’s pretty much craft beer for me, though I still like Mill St. Organic a lot and I doubt that I would turn down an opportunity or an offer to drink Alexander Keith’s, Bud Light or Miller Lite.

Back to the local craft beers, I do know that OutSpoken products were available at Ontario Hockey League home games of the Soo Greyhounds at GFL Memorial Gardens during the 2018-2019 season.

At any rate, like a hockey, baseball, or football team on the rise, so too is the craft beer industry. And I for one, like being a part of the craft beer league.

The going is good.