Well, if one wants to follow the history thing through the years, I
don't think prohibition hurt Canadian breweries at all <grin>.
Prohibition did in many US breweries. Then the great depression of the
1930's did in most of those without deep pockets, and thus the big
breweries started to dominate the market. Since WWII the biggies have
systemetically bought out smaller breweries and as you said put their
names on generic beer. They did so well at this that eventually there
was a hole in the market that the micro-breweries stepped in to fill. In
fact they did it to the point where AB bought the NA rights to the Swiss
Lowenbrau brand and made it a generic at high prices which is about the
ultimate insult to people who actually like beer.
The problem is that huge conglomerate corporations make so much untaxed
money and have virtually unlimited credit so they can absorb just about
anything that comes on the market making them even bigger.
graywolf
http://www.graywolfphoto.com
"Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof"
-----------------------------------
frank theriault wrote:
On 12/12/05, graywolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Actually, prohibition hurt the big breweries worse. Most of the small
breweries were producing bootleg beer during prohibition and simply went
legit in 1933. The big breweries were monitored much more closely. BTW,
prior to 1920 there were literally thousands of breweries in the US.
Almost every town of any size had a local brewery. Prior to
pasteurization and refrigeration most beer did not travel well, India
Pale Ale being the noted exception. I do not believe there were any
national breweries prior to prohibition.
Tom,
There used to be lots of smaller local breweries up here, too. I
don't think the prohibition killed them off, I think they got killed
off by the "Big Three" (now the Big Two, Molson and Labatts, since
Molson bought out Carling-O'Keefe some 10 years ago).
Either the little guys just couldn't compete with the marketing of the
big guys, or they were bought out. Typically, the little local
brewery would continue under the big guy's name for several years,
only to be eventually closed down due to "ineffeciencies". Often the
big guy only wanted to buy the brand (not the beer, just the brand).
Once the local brewery was closed, they big guy continued to market
the small brand, urban myth stating that they simply diverted bottles
of beer of one of their big lines and re-labelled them.
It was long rumoured that Labatt Blue and "cult" beer Labatt Crystal
was all the same beer with different labels. Same thing with Molson
Canadian some other beer that I forget the brand of (was it Molson
Club?).
As in the US, so-called microbreweries started to pop up in the 80's
and 90's, typically brewing something other than the same-tasting
homogeneous beers from the big guys. There was one called Rickerts
(they're still around), who make a barely okay tasting red ale called
Rickerts Red. It was a poorly-kept secret for many years that
Rickerts is 100% owned by Molson (although it is nowhere stated as
such on the bottles or in the ads), and that they were just Molson's
attempt to regain or not lose their market share to micros.
Anyway, that's probably more than anyone needs to know about Canadian breweries.
cheers,
frank
--
"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
