Free Our Beer and The Bar Towel are hitting the road tomorrow evening to travel down to the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago.  The conference, organized by the US-based Brewers Association, is one of the largest of its kind, attracting over 2,600 industry professionals according to the web site.  It has been sold out for [...]

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From Troy Burtch, an interesting article by Craig Pinhey in the Telegraph-Journal about bringing in different kinds of beer through the system in New Brunswick.

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Nova Scotia has a provincial liquor commission that operates retail stores similar to Ontario, called the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, or NSLC.  Their stores do a fine job of providing a range of wine, spirits and beer to consumers.  For a province of about 1 million, there isn’t a huge market for specialty products, or [...]

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It’s been a little while since my last post, so it’s good to be back.  This one is about a little place you might have heard of called California.
California is the most populous state in the U.S. and home to much glamourous American culture - Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, Napa Valley, etc.  I was [...]

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Oftentimes it’s easy to believe that if something is a certain way here, it must be that way everywhere else.  But we all know this is certainly not the case with local customs and cultures.  However, sometimes we fall into this trap when it comes to alcohol in Ontario.  Today I’m writing a new article [...]

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One of the often overlooked problems with our beer system in Ontario is how the rest of our great country is generally omitted. To a casual beer drinker in Ontario, the craft beer selection consists of beers from Ontario and the rest of the world. Not, however, from the rest of Canada.
Canada has [...]

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Stephen Beaumont tipped me to the fact that Lew Bryson, the accomplished beer writer from Philadelphia, also has an online call to arms addressing the shortcomings of his state liquor system.  Entitled Why The PLCB Should Be Abolished, Lew discusses the issues with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, such as the fact that beer, wine and [...]

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