Lowering the minimum sale price of bottled and canned beer was one of many campaign promises made by Ontario’s Doug Ford-led Progressive Conservative party.
The move would lower minimum beer prices from $1.25 to $1.00, plus tax and deposit.
Currently, most brands sell their products higher than the minimum price, although a rumoured buck-a-beer incentive program could be on tap.
So while larger breweries may take advantage of the $1.00 minimum sale price as an opportunity to beat competitors, craft breweries aren’t exactly raising their glasses.
“It’s more applicable to discount brands, it’s quantity,” said Andrew Byer, owner and brew master at Rhythm and Brews in Cambridge. “We’re small batch, things are expensive, and we simply could not create a beer for that price.”
Though the dollar beer doesn’t necessarily apply to draught beer or craft breweries, it could still sway consumers toward choosing cheaper alternatives.
Byer isn’t worried. He said that craft beer targets a different demographic, and believed it likely won’t impact the craft beer industry much.
Premier Ford is expected to make an announcement regarding buck-a-beer on August 7, and a source told CTV News that it could be a reality by Labour Day.
With reporting from Heather Senoran.
