I’ve been on this ongoing debate for close to a year, about why American craft beer sales aren’t higher in BC. This is Canada’s fastest growing craft beer market, it makes sense – on paper, anyway – that consumers would want the best and widest selection available.
But they don’t. They want local.
I was in Kelowna recently, and stopped in at the just-opened BNA Brewing. The space is beautiful, one of the most refined and creatively decorated tasting room/lounge/restaurants/whatever-you-want-to-call-it I’ve seen in BC.
The establishment is a restaurant – as well as a brewery – that caters to locals and tourists, so the management team thought it wise to sell a selection of craft beer from across the province (Four Winds, Parallel 49, etc.) along with the core BNA lineup. According to Liam, the kid running the growler fill station, only 10 per cent of the beer they sell is from the guest taps. The remaining 90 per cent or so is BNA beer.
This is amazing, and excellent news for any new brewery. BNA, as a brewery, has not yet hit its stride in terms of the beer. This is to be expected – the brewery is less than two months old. At the same time, they sell competitor beer that is, by any objective measure, “better” beer – it’s made by breweries that have been around longer, have more refined recipes, have won more awards, etc.
Still, BNA customers are way, way more likely to purchase the BNA beer. Better beer isn’t necessarily going to sell better, which is a point I’ve seen repeated basically everywhere in the province.
Local beer is driving this business. And what’s more local in this case than the brewery itself?
So, this had me thinking about the American craft beer conundrum. Like the BNA-to-Four Winds measure, I’ll admit that American craft beer – for the most part – is “better” than BC craft: It’s been around longer, their recipes are more refined and it wins more international beer awards. All that.
And yet, some of the craft beer heavies, including Stone Brewing and New Belgium, have had a very difficult time gaining traction here. Some, like Anchor Steam and Green Flash, are basically ghosts on the import shelves.
A lot of this has to do with price: American beer is set at a higher price point, to accommodate importing fees, tariffs set by the Liquor Distribution Branch, etc. It’s possible that if import craft beer were cheaper and more widely available, it would sell better.
But price, it seems, has very little to do with it. I spoke with several local liquor retailers that specialize in selling American craft beer, and most of them said that local craft made up the overwhelming bulk of sales – and that price wasn’t the issue.
“We’re still British Columbian and we’ll always sell local first,” says Daryl Lamb, brand manager for Legacy Liquor. “We want to support local stuff first. Look at the farmers’ markets. People pay $12 for beets – but they’re BC beets!”
Legacy is the largest beer import store in BC, with a wide and varied selection of West Coast American beer. It’s the second largest segment of beer sales, behind BC craft (domestic macro is third). Lamb says that, even if imported craft beer were to drop to a more competitive price, customers would still spring for the local brewery.
“There’s a lot of overlap stylistically, that the West Coast beers mimic each other,” Lamb says. “You’re not going to get much different in an Imperial IPA from Portland than you’ll get from an Imperial IPA in North Vancouver.”
Import brands win out when they offer variety that local breweries don’t have. Lamb says he’s noticed an uptick in sales of Mill St. Organic and Steamwhistle, two Ontario brands that specialize in easy-drinking lager – a style (and business opportunity) that hasn’t yet been seized on in BC.
Of the liquor retailers I spoke to, only Firefly Fine Wines & Ales on Cambie Street claimed craft beer sales were split evenly between BC and American craft. For the rest, the question remains the same – if all that Stone or New Belgium or whoever are bringing in are more hoppy ales, why would the customer support the American brand when a local business produces the same variety?
Taste, fascinatingly, seems to have very little to do with it. Local buying habits seem based on a perceived idea of community, and of freshness. The promise of locally cultivated drunkenness is a powerful sales tool for local breweries, and every indicator shows that this is what’s driving the boom BC beer is experiencing.
So it’s no surprise then that BNA can’t make enough beer. Customers don’t give a hoot what other great beers are on tap. It’s irrelevant. Homegrown beer will win out every time.
