Oh Ottawa, Beer in 1986

Canada’s capital is Ottawa, the National Capital Region as more grandly termed. It comprises now Ottawa in Ontario and a slice of Gatineau in western Quebec.

I know Ottawa fairly well, or did at one time. I spent a summer working there in the admittedly pre-historic 1970s, and visited regularly in subsequent decades due to family connections.

This meant I was able to keep up on the beer scene, yes starting in the 1970s before the small brewery revival. At that time and in Ontario generally, three brewers dominated the offerings: Molson Breweries, Labatt Breweries, and Carling-O’Keefe. Carling-O’Keefe later merged into Molson, in 1989. So beer meant their beer, dozens of brands but most in a similar style. These were retailed through the still extant Beer Store, a state-sanctioned industry monopoly, then called Brewers’ Retail.

There was also a trickle of British and Irish draught beers, sold in the emerging English and Irish pubs. The Mayflower in Ottawa – was it on Somerset Street? – was notable, it lasted until relatively recently.  The Liquor Control Board of Ontario sold a few imports in Ottawa outlets, as in Toronto, and that completed the beer scene ca. 1970s here.

In 1986, this was still mostly the case. Glimmerings of Ontario craft brewing by then existed, but distant from Ottawa. Brick Brewery had begun in 1984 in Kitchener-Waterloo,  later renamed Waterloo Brewery and recently bought out by Carlsberg Group. Brick Lager was not available in Ottawa in 1986. Beer from Upper Canada Brewery was, founded in Toronto in 1985, albeit not earning special comment in the article cited below.*

Craft brewing finally arrived in Ottawa in 1991 via the intrepid Lorne Hart. His Amber and Dragon’s Breath ales are malty legends among the elder faithful here.

Journalist Daniel Drolet sketched the 1986 scene well in his article “True to a Brew”, published September 2 that year in the Ottawa Citizen.

 

 

He drew a sharp picture, writing in “plain citizen” language replete with facts and figures, enlivened by a subtle humour. The piece quoted brewery representatives, employees of Brewers’ Retail, bar owners, and tasters.

He also included that staple of beer journalism then, the “internal tasting”, meaning rounding up co-workers from cubicles and the coffee room to size-up brews for an article. Hardly an imposition on one’s fellow workers, or it wasn’t then! Drolet reported their musings in short bursts, e.g., for Labatt 50 Ale, an economical “tangy”. (Not tangy today, imo).

For Molson-brewed Coors he wrote it “tastes like brewed inside a soccer ball”. Maybe you had to play or watch soccer a lot to get the notion, the air emitting from a deflating ball. Stablemate Coors Light did much better: “not bubbly but flavourful”. Less is more, eh?

An industry figure complained there were too many brands, an evergreen observation in the beer industry since the 1970s, today applied to the craft world. The new Labatt Twist Shandy was mentioned as offering another path. (Linked is a 1985 tv spot for the francophone market, touting “la nouvelle boisson“. Truth to tell such drinks, also Mike’s Hard Lemonade, presaged the modern craft taste, based as it is on yellow fruit flavours).

Drolet mentioned older-style Canadian beers such as Labatt Cream Porter and India Pale Ale, but in connection with bottle shape not taste. These long in the tooth brands were still sold in “stubby” bottles, familiar to Canadians since the 1960s, but like more with-it beers would soon appear in fashionable “tall bottles”.

Drolet showed retail practices largely had dictated the buying pattern. A Brewers’ Retail employee stated that until recent changes, consumers could not see the brands available. They ordered from a clerk who had the beer sent from the rear on a conveyer. But once brand names were displayed in the front, people could see there was, say, an India Pale Ale. He noted such brands sold more as a result.

This meant (I am saying) that buying habits were largely dictated by mass advertising.

Rounding out the picture, Drolet discussed why people were drinking less. More stringent drink and driving laws were one reason. A bar owner told him people now drank two, three, four, beers, when once it was double that. I recall this myself, but it was more typical of habitués of the classic Canadian “beverage room”, whose oceanic beer volumes today can only be imagined.

A last word on some imports in that internal tasting. Beck’s of Bremen, Germany was thought distinctively bitter yet still “boring”, not a word I would associate with Beck’s, but the condition of imports then was not always guaranteed. Britain’s Newcastle Brown Ale was thought bland, here I cannot dissent. Ireland’s Smithwick’s Ale, meaning the 5% export version, was termed sweet and malty. It still is, but today (at any rate) comes with a fine English hop edge, the Golding-Fuggle dynamic duo. (Don’t underestimate it, or over chill it).

1986, then. ‘Twas was the best of times and the worst of times, for the beer savant. The best of times, because distinctive taste was there, in the interstices, you had to find it, if need be across the St. Lawrence or Lake Ontario. The worst of times, because we had a state monopoly liquor board dictate what could be sold on Ontario shelves, vs. the open market available in most of the free world.

The beer market in Ontario has evolved since those days, with commensurate changes at the LCBO and Beer Store, but writ large many would say, in Canada’s other official language, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. With the shining and single exception of Ontario craft beer, and thank you Lorne Hart and the thousands of others who made it possible, advised consumers no less. And beer writers.

Note re image: original source of image and accompanying story are linked in text. All intellectual property therein belongs solely to the lawful owner, as applicable. Used for educational and research purposes. All feedback welcomed.

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*An earlier version of this post stated Upper Canada beer was not available in Ottawa in 1986. A thank you to Ontario beer writer and videographer Cass Enright for pointing out today on X formerly Twitter Drolet did mention it, and I adjusted the text accordingly.

 

 

 

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