FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.


Oh, sure. They're big enough, all right. They own professional hockey and baseball teams and spend gajillions on advertising. Canada's major beer brewers sponsor all sorts of events, too: no one can ever forget that Molson Canadian Rocks. Pour any of their brands into a tall glass and they pretty much look the same. The taste varies, but it ain't no gourmet brewski.

So, under the noses of the mega-brewers are small independents, craft brewers who cook up and dispense beer that tastes like, well, like beer. They're coming up with beers that have body and taste, and are finding success in a market that's growing with every new brew introduced to it.

Canada's major breweries have driven beer consumption through images established by enormous advertising budgets and huge production capacities. Craft brewers can't compete with that, but are able to provide beers with body and flavor that consumers enjoy.

"We have to place the emphasis on the quality of our beer because the consumer who is buying a craft beer is not doing it because he saw a TV commercial and it is a funky image he can relate to. He is interested in the liquid in the glass - not the TV commercial. That makes us have to be very much product driven in the development of our beers. Marketing plays a role but it is secondary to the product," says Hancock of the Bow Valley Brewing Company.

So if beer drinkers are discovering the joys of downing brew that has a distinct taste, what's to stop them from going back to their old brands when the novelty wears off?

Hancock says keeping customers is the craft brewer's biggest challenge.

"People are motivated to try our beer and our job is to ensure our beer is good enough that they will buy it a second and third and fourth time. Quite frankly, the big breweries don't know how to react to that," he says.

Richard Cholon, a co-owner of Edmonton's Alley Kat Brewing Company, says his three-and-a-half-year-old firm and other craft brewers provide beer the major labels aren't producing.

"There is always a segment of the population that wants something distinct - something that has character, that has style - and that is what we offer. We are not like Labatt or Molson. We are different," says Cholon.

"Molson and Labatt's brew beer to the masses. They brew beers that are clean, crisp and extremely inoffensive. We can take a beer and make it distinct and different because we are not trying to brew to the masses."

They certainly aren't. Cholon and his partner, Neil Herbst, create a number of unique brews that fit in with the company's unconventional image. One of its first beers was called Buffalo Butt - the brewery dares to be different not only in taste, but also in image.

Others are doing the same. Across the province, everyone knows the name of Big Rock Brewery. The firm is probably the largest of the craft brewers and it has always stood out from the crowd in a bar. A strong supporter of the arts, Big Rock has made inroads into a market large breweries find attractive, by offering something different and coming through with corporate sponsorships that have brought it great recognition.

But what's in the bottle comes first.

"People are drinking less but they are drinking better," says Tracy Langdon, Big Rock's marketing and promotions co-ordinator. "Most of the products are au natural, without the additives and preservatives. People are making healthier choices. Beer has gone up a level where people are looking for more taste, like they are in food and wine."

She says consumers are becoming better educated about the beer they drink and appreciate the ability of small brewers to produce full-bodied beers that stand out from products brewed by major brewers.

According to Langdon, in mass-production runs major brewers cook out bacteria that provides taste, then inject artificial flavors and preservatives.

"I guess it's like having pasta: do you want something fresh or something else?"

Randy Uytterhagen, owner of Taps restaurant and brewpub in Edmonton, agrees.

"The large brewers use all kinds of additives, stabilizers, preservatives, foam enhancers... we use 100 per cent barley malt," he says. "Ours is a fresh beer and I think a lot of people are happy with that."

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