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Belgium takeover of Mill Street Brewery

Admiral Beez

Admiral Beez

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Anheuser-Busch InBev has taken over Mill Street Brewery http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...buy-craft-brewer-mill-street/article26735689/

Now that Mill Street is struck from the list, which are your favourite independent brewers available outside of their in-house brew pubs?

Sapporo owns Sleemans, Molson Coors owns Creemore and Upper Canada. What's left for the retail shopper of independent craft beers? I suppose Steamwhistle is the best pick?
 
urbandreamer said:
Mill Street sucks anyways. I like Neustadt, Hockley Valley, Wellington, and many many more small breweries across Ontario. There's no need to buy mediocre beer!
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Neustadt, is one my fave craft beers. I also like Stone Hammer, Amsterdam, Hoggetowne, Silversmith.

There is some fantastic craft beers from all over Canada, especially in Quebec. Unfortunately a lot of Canadian brands aren't available in Ontario, because of the Beer Store and LCBO cartel's. I usually buy my Canadian craft beers from the states.

Here is a list of craft beers from Ontario.

http://www.ontariocraftbrewers.com/breweriesList.php
 
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gabe said:
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There is some fantastic craft beers from all over Canada, especially in Quebec. Unfortunately a lot of Canadian brands aren't available in Ontario, because of the Beer Store and LCBO cartel's. I usually buy my Canadian craft beers from the states.

...
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So true. The illegal Ontario monopoly into beer (and all alcohol, for that matter) sales should be investigated by the federal government, whoever they will be.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Now that Mill Street is struck from the list, which are your favourite independent brewers available outside of their in-house brew pubs?

Sapporo owns Sleemans, Molson Coors owns Creemore and Upper Canada. What's left for the retail shopper of independent craft beers? I suppose Steamwhistle is the best pick?
Click to expand...
Mill Street may have at one time made good beer, but in the craft beer world it's been considered not a real microbrewery for a long time. It's beers are aimed to appeal to broad tastes as opposed to doing anything interesting. They've had capacity issues, so there's been persistent rumors in the industry that they were rushing batches leading to much lower quality and not enough time in the tanks.

Interesting to compare it to say Goose Island or some of the other recent InBev purchases. While Goose Island had a few more macro brands, they had some very sought after craft brands ranging from the high-quality ones in the LCBO (Sophie and Matilda) to much rarer barrel aged varieties like Bourbon County Stout. Mill Street had no craft cred at all at this point.

Oh, and I have to politely disagree with Steamwhistle. They only make one beer and they do a rather poor job of it, including not putting it in a dark bottle to prevent skunking.

On the craft side in Canada Nickelbrook and Sawdust City are both available in the LCBO and really on an upswing in terms of breadth and quality of craft offerings.

Of course, Bellwoods is doing the best beer in Ontario, but they don't sell outside of their bottle shop sadly.
 
W. K. Lis said:
So true. The illegal Ontario monopoly into beer (and all alcohol, for that matter) sales should be investigated by the federal government, whoever they will be.
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Just 'cause you don't like it doesn't mean it's illegal.

I was very happy to discover the Amsterdam late-night cold beer shop down on Queen's Quay earlier this year. Definitely need more of those... hey, I've got an idea! Let's get those corner stores that stay open late to sell beer, too. What do you think?
 
From an investment perspective, BUD (the US tracking stock of ABI) is in my portfolio due to the 3-4% yield. (Variable, though, due to the currency translation.)

And from a 'who really runs the place' perspective, it's reportedly really been an internal takeover by the Brazilians, who impressed the board at some point with a much more aggressive growth strategy that has culminated in the 'Megabrew' takeover bid for SABMiller.
 
On a side note, are you folks finding your beer consumption is declining? I'm 44 years old, so my days of hammering down a case of Ex, Blue, 50 or Golden are 25 years ago or more. Today I drink perhaps two to three dozen beer(s) a year, and rarely have any in the fridge unless expecting guests. I find I drink more red wine and martinis (real ones, with gin) nowadays and whisky on the rocks.
 
Admiral Beez, in the last 5-10 years Ontario has had a exponential surge of craft beer and cider culture.Toronto alone has, in my opinion, at least ten brewers who are better than Mill St/Steamwhistle/Amsterdam. Those being ; Indie Ale House, Bellwoods Brewery, Left Field Brewery, Great Lakes Brewery, Liberty Village Brewer, Kensington Brewery, Lansdowne , Black Oak , Duggans and Granite Brewery.
I would recommend Indie, Bellwoods and GLB as Toronto's best and that you should go out to try as many of them as you can. If you can't make it to the brewer, there are bars who specialize... just a few off the top; The Only Cafe, Bar Volo, Bar Hop, Beer Bistro, Tequila Bookworm and Tall Boys.
Overall, there has been a trend of beer sales declining (It peaked in the mid-late 80's) and wine/hard liquor has taken over. However, in the past 15-20 years, craft beer has had a louder voice. Ontario has over 250 craft brewers alone. in the U.S. they have over 3000 micro breweries, and last year collectively outsold Budweiser for the first time in history.
Big Beer has seen this as a threat and is slowly buying up some breweries who are looking to make a quick buck or retiring soon.i doubt however that they could buy them all out, especially as they keep multiplying year over year.
Ex, Blue and 50 have very similar taste, mainly because they are all mass produced lagers. Most craft beer is based on Ale Yeast, which is a top fermenting strain and takes less time to make (4-6 weeks) as opposed to bottom fermenting lagers (2-4 months.) Also Ales have been around forever...Lagers only since refrigeration (300ish years)
I would highly recommend going out to a pub near you who specializes in craft, start off with something basic but good (Beau's Lugtread) and before you know it, you'll be relishing in wine barrel aged beers, blackberry/strawberry IPA's or super smokey coffee stouts.
I would argue beer is the most flexible of any alcohol, just depends on where your imagination leads you!

Cheers.
 
Sooooo many options. Great Lakes, Left field, Muskoka, Beau's, Sawdust City, Amsterdam, Side Launch, Steamwhistle, Black Oak, Nicklebrook, etc, etc.

If anything, there's a hell of a lot more options now then there was ten years ago. Anything from generic lager to a smoked bourbon barrel aged stout.
Just go to the Sumerhill or Queens Quay LCBO and feast on the selection or brews.
 
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