Canadian beer
Canadian beer is more than the big pale lagers that dominate the market. The craft scene has grown strongly, with Québec as the source of Belgian-style beers and a growing love of hops. At Hoptimaal you'll mostly find IPA, stout and saison from breweries like Brasserie du Bas-Canada and Messorem.
- In stock now54 beers
- Breweries17
Breweries from Canada 17
Brasserie du Bas-CanadaGatineau · 11 in stock
Third Moon Brewing CompanyMilton · 5 in stock
Fine Balance BrewingKingston · 5 in stock
Nano CincoQuébec · 4 in stock
Counterpart BrewingNiagara Falls · 4 in stock
Badlands Brewing CompanyCaledon · 4 in stock
MessoremMontreal · 3 in stock
BreWskeyMontreal · 3 in stock
Temporal Artisan AlesVancouver · 2 in stock
Microbrasserie JackalhopPlessisville · 2 in stock
Le KetchSainte-Flavie · 2 in stock
Blood Brothers BrewingToronto · 2 in stock
Bad BonesDunham · 2 in stock
WILLSMontréal · 1 in stock
Rouge River Brewing CompanyMarkham · 1 in stock
Brett & SauvageSainte-Thérèse-de-Gaspé · 1 in stock
All My Friends Beer Co.Prince Edward · 1 in stock
All beers in stock 54
Limited 1 PP
How the Canadian beer scene began
The first known brewer in Canada was the Jesuit brother Ambroise, who started brewing in New France in 1646. In 1688 Jean Talon opened the first commercial brewery in Québec, which ran for only five years. John Molson started in Montréal in 1786, followed by Alexander Keith (1829), John Sleeman (1836) and the Labatt family (1847). During Prohibition, which lasted into the 1920s, many breweries closed or switched to alcohol-free drinks.
The first modern craft brewery was Horseshoe Bay Brewing, founded in 1982 in Vancouver. The early microbreweries mostly made English ales. Around 2000 the country had some 160 breweries, but a truly hoppy local ale was still hard to find in Ontario. Between 2000 and 2010 the number of breweries roughly doubled. In the decade after that it almost quadrupled, to 1,210 in 2020.
Québec, hops and experiments
Canadian craft beers were long mostly British and German in style, with a stronger Belgian influence in Québec. That province is still known for strong Belgian ales, IPAs and saisons. In 1994 Unibroue released La Fin du Monde, a tripel that was new to Canada. Dieu du Ciel! brews Péché Mortel, an imperial stout with espresso.
In Ontario, the opening of Bellwoods Brewery in Toronto in 2012 changed a lot. Their Mash Pipe, a smoked Berliner Weisse, showed that there was a market for offbeat beers. After that, unusual ingredients and barrel ageing became almost a given. In the west, British Columbia is known for fruity sours and wild ales, while Alberta focuses mainly on hoppy beers.
Canadian beer at Hoptimaal
At Hoptimaal you'll find Canadian craft beers from, among others, Brasserie du Bas-Canada, Fine Balance Brewing, Third Moon Brewing Company, Badlands Brewing Company, Counterpart Brewing and Messorem. The focus is on IPA and stout, supplemented with barleywine and saison.
Every brewery has its own page in our shop. There you can see that brewery's full Canadian range.
Frequently asked questions
What is typical Canadian beer?
The best-selling Canadian beers are mass-market pale lagers. Among craft brewers you mostly see Belgian-style ales, IPAs and saisons from Québec, and sours and wild ales from British Columbia.
Which Canadian breweries are well known?
Historic names are Molson, Labatt, Sleeman and Alexander Keith. In craft, Dieu du Ciel!, Unibroue and Bellwoods Brewery are well-known examples.
How many breweries does Canada have?
In 2020 Canada had 1,210 breweries, almost four times as many as ten years earlier. Per head of population that is about three breweries per 100,000 inhabitants, against 2.6 in the United States.
Beer from other countries
- Dutch beer 175
- American beer 71
- Belgian beer 68
- German beer 37
- English beer 37
- Spanish beer 21
- Romanian beer 17
- French beer 16
- Swedish beer 15
- Norwegian beer 14
- Estonian beer 17
- Polish beer 11
- Irish beer 8
- Finnish beer 9
- Hungarian beer 7
- Latvian beer 8
- Croatian beer 8
- Danish beer 8
- Portuguese beer 4
- Welsh beer 5
- Scottish beer 4
- Brazilian beer 3
- Ukrainian beer 2
- Greek beer 3
- Slovenian beer 3
- Czech beer 3
