Hand me a Six Pack - Tinny Beer

[OpenMike]

Canadian sales of canned beer still bubbling


The Canadian Press

More and more Canadians are choosing to reach for a cold one in a can, despite long-standing complaints that such brews taste tinny, a sales trend that beer vendors and industry observers say isn't about to go flat any time soon.

Nationwide, sales of canned beer are up 10 per cent over last year, and a whopping 27 per cent in Ontario alone, according to a recent report from the Brewers Association of Canada.

Meanwhile, bottled beer sales are down six per cent in Ontario. The rest of the country has seen the movement of suds in a bottle drop four per cent.

The rise of cans has been blamed for at least one plant closure in Edmonton — the Molson brewery there could only produce bottles.

The much-maligned can of beer, it seems, has undergone an image makeover.



Plastic lining prevents tinny taste

Today's cans are made with a thin plastic lining to protect the taste of the beer, challenging the notion that canned beer tastes tinny.

The taste factor is definitely helping to level the playing field, said Stephen Beaumont, author of The Great Canadian Beer Guide.

"I think that the old view was that canned beer had a tinny taste and, like all of this beer mythology, it is slowly going by the wayside," he said.

In Ontario, beer is sold at The Beer Store, a chain of outlets owned by three major breweries, and provincially operated Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores.

Although beer sales at the LCBO account for only 15 per cent of provincial sales, spokesman Chris Layton said they are definitely seeing an echo of the national trend.

"Obviously cans are sometimes seen as being more convenient, they're sometimes easier to transport, a little bit on the lighter side," he said, noting that sales of canned beer in six-packs or in 500-millilitre tall cans are allowing consumers to mix and match their beverages.

LCBO numbers from this year show canned beer makes up almost 40 per cent of its beer sales, up from 29 per cent two years ago.

The beer industry is already feeling the effect of the shift, he said.

A Molson Canada brewery in Edmonton is slated to close at the end of August, affecting more than 130 employees. The brewer said the industry shift from bottles to cans was a key factor in its decision, as the facility could only produce bottled beer.

[Glen Livingstone]

I won't drink beer out of a can.

I only drink Sleeman's and if they stop putting in out in bottles then I'll have to look for an alternative.

Maybe they'll have an option where you can just go to a liquor store and lie down under a giant glass barrel while they turn on the tap.

I guess that would be okay.

[jon]

A Molson Canada brewery in Edmonton is slated to close at the end of August, affecting more than 130 employees. The brewer said the industry shift from bottles to cans was a key factor in its decision, as the facility could only produce bottled beer.

The current strike (since May) didn't help either. Molson's also recently lost their contract to brew Foster's after demand for Foster's dropped by one-third in the U.S.

But I think what bothers me most is that they will very likely be able to bulldoze one of the oldest buildings in Edmonton, a castle-like brick building from the turn of the last century, which housed part of the brewery.

[Mike Cleaver]

Ah yes!
Remember the days of independent breweries such as Sick's Lethbridge Brewery?
It was an integral part of media culture in the city in the late '60's when I was working at CJOC radio and TV.
Jack Lakie, who ran the place, would invite the media every Friday afternoon for a beef, beans and beer bash that ran into the late evening.
All free, a huge hip of beef and never ending beer!
It was bought out by one of the biggies, either Labatts or Molson and I think they bludgeoned it years ago.
And when we sent my little brother under the floor of CJOC main control back then to pull wires, (he was the only one small enough to fit into the crawl space) he found over a thousand empty beer bottles going back years, mostly from the Lethbridge brewery.
Seems the jocks were drinking on the job and dropping the empties through a hole in the floor under the turntables!

[jon]

Yes, Sick's built the building I was referring to here in Edmonton. Molson bought Sick's a couple of decades ago.