Happy 141st Birthday Canada!

Happy Birthday Canada. Wow, 141 years young.  As a proud Canadian I plan on drinking a bunch of Canadian craft beer to celebrate our national birthday.

Will it be one of the beers that Canadians pride themselves with?  No.  It's sad that people still believe that Molson Canadian, Labatt Blue, Sleeman's etc..... are still Canadian.  Molson is co-owned by Coors in Colorado, Labatt is owned by Inbev (a Brazilian and Belgian giant) and Sleeman is owned by Sapporo of Japan. Together, the three brewery conglomerates own and run the Beer Stores across Ontario, make up close to 90% of all beer sales in Canada and do it on the backs of sexy marketing and not the quality of the beer in the bottle.  The brewers of these beers are talented people, yet the accountants and marketing suits primarily dictate the direction of the breweries.  So, as sentimental as these national icons are, they will not be consumed by me today.

Anyway, back to Canada's birthday.  I plan on celebrating with a bottle of Garrsion Weizenbock during the afternoon and ending the night with a Swan's Buckerfields Extra IPA.  Both excellent beers, one from Canada's west coast and one from the east coast.  

Hope all you beer geeks out there in Canada have a great day and enjoy some celebrated independent beers from your local region.

Cheers!