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BCBUSINESS.CA 30 BCBusiness JUNE 2014 The logical next step was to start brew- ing his own beer, so after four years of planning and saving, he and his business partner, brewmaster Conrad Gmoser, opened Brassneck last October. Springthorpe's timing was perfect: Brassneck opened just as the market for anything not just local but artisanal (crafted by hand and with care) was hit- ting full stride. The trend is evident in a resurgence of farmers markets and online exchanges like Etsy serving a neo arts-and-crafts movement, but nowhere has the rebellion against corporate blandness found more traction than in the beer market. In B.C., the numbers are telling: after generations of unchallenged mar- ket dominance, multinational beer conglomerates have ceded a big chunk of the market to smaller independent brewers. Five years ago giant brewers reporting to foreign shareholders com- manded 90 per cent of the B.C. beer market. In the past fi ve years, the mar- ket share for the big brewers (includ- ing Labatt Brewing Co., a division of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, and Molson Canada, a division of Denver-based Mol- son Coors Brewing Co.) has dropped 10 percentage points: they now account for 80 per cent of beer sales in B.C., com- pared to 20 per cent for locally owned brewers. That's a loss of $126 million in annual B.C. sales for the multinationals, while the locally owned brewers gained $90 million. (A four-per-cent shrinkage of the overall beer market accounts for the remaining $36 million in lost sales.) And it's not just the tiny neighbour- hood breweries that are rising with the anti-corporate tide: a handful of mid- sized B.C. brewers with big aspirations, some of which started out as neighbour- hood microbrewers, are capitalizing on the demand for local beer. Northam Brewery in Kamloops (brewer of Whis- tler and Bowen Island beers), Paci�ic Western Brewing in Prince George and Fireweed Brewing in Kelowna (brewing under the Tree brand) have all seen sales grow in tandem with the drop in big-beer sales. Pacifi c Western, for example, has seen its B.C. sales double in the past fi ve years, to $37 million in 2013. Fireweed, Northam and Vancouver Island Brewing have seen similar growth. It's the smaller craft brewers, how- ever, that have really taken off . In that same fi ve-year period, Phillips Brew- ing Co. Ltd. on Vancouver Island and Howe Sound Brewing Co. Ltd. in Squa- mish have seen B.C. sales triple (to $14.5 million and $8.6 million, respectively), while Central City Brewing Co. Ltd. in Surrey has seen B.C. sales jump nearly Size Doesn't Matter: Craft Is All About Quality *This inclusion is a little more contentious, but even those who would exclude it from the "craft" family typi- cally refer to taste, rather than volume. PHiLLiPs BReWinG CO., VICTORIA, B.C. BiG ROCK BReWeRY inC., CALGARY, AB DesCHuTes BReWeRY, PORTLAND, OR sieRRA neVADA BReWinG CO., CHICO, CA BOsTOn BeeR CO., BOSTON, MA 50,000 hl/yr 200,000 hl/yr 526,500 hl/yr 1,130,220 hl/yr 3,200,000 hl/yr DEFINITIONS ARE ELUSIVE and whether a beer can be classifi ed as "craft" ultimately comes down to opinion. Most defi nitions, however, agree on two characteristics: independent ownership and reliance on traditional ingredients, primarily malted barley. The B.C. Craft Brew- ers Guild has no offi cial stance on defi nitions, but Matt Phillips, brewer and founder of Phillips Brewing Co., offers a pretty good summary of the prevailing consensus: "If you're owned by Molson or Labatt, even if you're making craft beer you're probably not within the spirit of craft. And even if you're small, if you're making beer that has rice or corn in it, if you're not making real malt beers, it doesn't count in my mind." Another point where most defi nitions concur is that "craft" is not synonymous with "small." As long as it's independently owned and its fl agship beers rely primarily on traditional ingredients, a brewer merits the designation "craft." Here's a sampling of brands widely recognized as "craft," with their estimated annual production (in hectolitres): It's the smaller craft brewers that have really taken o . In that same ve-year period, Phillips Brewing Co. Ltd. on Vancouver Island and Howe Sound Brewing Co. Ltd. in Squamish have seen B.C. sales triple to $14.5 million and $8.6 million, respectively p28-35-Beer_june.indd 30 2014-05-01 1:29 PM