18 BCBusiness JUNE 2016
Drink Up
T h e M a t r i x
For those seeking a sip of something crafty, there's a new
brew in town
by Jacob Parry
B
rewers in B.C. need only look over yonder at Washington State and Oregon to spot
the next big thing in brewing—and it has nothing to do with beer. While still in the
shadow of B.C.'s $73-million craft beer industry, B.C.'s nascent cider sector—an
estimated $2-million industry—is on a streak. In 2012, Sea Cider was the only cidery
to use B.C. apples that was up and running in the province, but by 2016 there were seven
operating and another dozen in the process of starting up, according to the Northwest Cider
Association. But local cidermakers are hampered by a regulatory scheme that treats craft
cider like wine (with much higher markups per bottle than beer) and a consumer that has
trouble di‰erentiating craft cider from the mass-market coolers, like Okanagan Cider and
Grower's, which mix in sugar, water, apple concentrate and grain spirits.
WHAT YOU NEED
WHAT YOU'LL PAY
WHAT THE BC LIQUOR
DISTRIBUTION BOARD
TAKES
SIZE OF CRAFT
MARKET IN B.C.
NUMBER OF SELF-
IDENTIFIED CRAFT
PRODUCERS IN B.C.
130
7
The Need for Mead
One of the oldest beverages known
to mankind, mead is a sweet and
almost milky beer-like drink made
of honey—and like cider it's staging
a revival, if a more modest one
TOP-SELLING MEAD: Meadow Vista
Honey Wine Ostara from Kelowna,
selling for $21.49 a bottle
CRAFT BEER
Grain, hops, yeast
B.C. Tree Fruits Broken
Ladder cider: $10.99 for a
four-pack
Gypsy Tears Ruby
Ale: $11.49 for a
six-pack
$4.71
or a 74 to 78 per cent markup
< 2%
of all cider and cooler sales
$1.32
or a 12 to 14 per cent markup
22%
of all beer sales
6
meaderies
in B.C.
Grain, hops, yeast Grain, hops, yeast Whole apples,
fermented–no
sugar, grain
spirits or juice
concentrate
added
CRAFT CIDER
