Mom and hops taking off

“That first smell, that first sip, you don’t know what to expect,” said Campbell. “How is it going to compare to the last beer of that category you tried? What did they do different? What is that unknown factor going in? Is it rare? Is the art cool? Is it something you can share with other people?”

Beer is Canada’s most popular alcoholic beverage but Statistics Canada reports that over the past decade sales have been decreasing. However, microbreweries are on the rise. According to the Liquor Distribution Branch in British Columbia, craft beer sales have increased by 38 per cent.
Craft beer is beer that is not made or mass produced by one of the mega brewery corporations like Anheuser-Busch InBev. These brews are created in small independent microbreweries. The product is typically sold locally and now accounts for six per cent of the total beer market according to Statistics Canada.

A microbrewery produces no more than 250,000 hectolitres of beer annually as defined by the Brewers Association of Canada. Two kegs of draught beer equal the same amount as a hectolitre.
Windsor currently has two microbreweries. The current average growth rate for craft beer across all retail chains is 10 per cent according to ontariocraftbrewers.com.
While bigger breweries are mass producing common lagers and ales microbreweries are not afraid to experiment with different flavours. The flavours can range anywhere from coffee to chilli.
Mackenzie Campbell, 22, is a craft beer enthusiast who has sampled over 650 different kinds. He said he prefers to drink craft beer because the bigger breweries are not willing to experiment with new flavours. Campbell said sampling new beer is like a hobby for him.
In his four years of sampling different beer types Campbell seen a significant change in what is available in Ontario. He said when he first started he was sampling pale ale after pale ale because the variety wasn’t there. After not being able to find new beer to try he began to go across the border to Detroit to see what he could find.
“I still think we are way behind the curve,” said Campbell. “Take a ten minute trip over the border to Detroit and what you can find over there just blows us away. But I would say that we’re growing and we’re on our way.
Campbell said he uses beeradvocate.com as a tool to find out about different beer types. He uses the website’s rating system as point of reference for what he tries. He doesn’t leave the decision entirely up to ratings though, he is open-minded and realizes that someone else’s opinion may be different from his own.

He said that how rare a beer is appeals to him. Some that he encounters might never be seen again.
Some craft beers are so exclusive that you have to pre-order just to try them. As of recently Ommegang Brewery has been releasing beer inspired by the Home Box Office television show Game of Thrones. The brewery has put out a series: a blonde ale, a black stout and a red ale. The latest beer was released Oct. 1 and is a dubbel ale. All only appearing in stores for a limited time.
Craft beer is now so widely enjoyed that beer drinkers have taken matters into their own hands and are brewing at home.

“I decided to start brewing my own beer when I realized that I’ve been a beer lover my entire life and I had no idea how it was made,” said Alex Lakhoian, 22, a local home brewer.
Home brewing is so common now that you can even find brew kits at your local Chapters book store. Home brew kits can also be found on websites such as Amazon and the quality and price of these kits differ from kit to kit. These can include brewing ingredients and instructions on how to brew. People who are looking to experiment with different flavours often buy their own ingredients.

The hardest thing about brewing beer from home now is waiting through the fermentation and bottling process to drink it.