Grand River Brewing has been founded on the idea that brewing traditionally has been a craft industry that serviced a local area. The brewery was in a local community and provided a constant, fresh product that met the taste profile of the local residents. Economies of scale has allowed the modern brewing industry to supply major geographic areas from a handful of locations. Some beer drinkers find this type of beer very bland, as it was developed to offend the least amount of people.
Craft brewing began resurgence in North America during the 1970’s with home brewing masters such as Charlie Papazian and Stephen Snyder. Great Britain also experienced the Real Ale movement about the same time. The reason for this movement, on both sides of the Atlantic, was the homogenization of flavours of the commercial brands. Some beer drinkers were looking for more variety and different flavours.
During this period several regional breweries managed to operate successful breweries in the shadows of the major breweries. Everyone has heard of Rolling Rock and the local Ontario brewery, Formosa Springs. The microbreweries developed out of this movement too. They began as an out growth of the home brewing stores but were usually started by people with professional brewing experience who, like the home brewers, wanted to produce a new and unique product.
Beginning in pockets in the USA as diverse as Seattle, Washington; Portland, Maine and Austin, Texas; the microbreweries reintroduced the American beer drinker to American Ale, Bock, wheat beer, Porter and even Stout. This movement began at about the same time as the renaissance in the North American wine industry. Consumers were looking for new tastes in both wine and beer as they became better educated in these products. Not only did the micros fill a niche, they could usually charge a premium. Microbreweries also returned to the local communities. Ales and lagers that varied from each brewery and region and were developed to meet the taste preferences of local residents.
In Canada, the beer drinkers of Vancouver and Calgary have loved their micros for several years. A number of products from several Quebec microbreweries have been in the Ontario LCBO. In Ontario, Brick Brewing, Sleemans and Wellington County Brewery are probably the longest running breweries that began as microbreweries. Sleeman still calls itself a microbrewery although it has surpassed the 150,000 hectoliter threshold. The Brick has grown into a regional sized operation although Wellington County has refocused on two popular brands and has remained a micro with a loyal following. Eastern Ontario has several very popular micros in the Ottawa and Kingston areas. Toronto has several very popular microbreweries that have opened in the past 3 years.
There are now 25 microbreweries registered with Ontario Craft Brewers Association and more are joining annually. According to president John Hays, microbreweries now have 4% of the retail market share and will increase this to 12% by 2014. Microbreweries have 17% of the current LCBO premium beer market. The Ontario Government has also injected $ 5 million for advertising and marketing for the microbreweries.
