Local beer - did you know?

I was at the beer store today and found out some interesting info that I wanted to share.

First, my new favorite beer is WIT by Mill St. brewery. If you like Hogarden you'll love WIT! This is just an aside, rather than the story!

We're having some friends over Friday night and I know one of them is a big fan of Stella, so I asked the guy at the cash what a good local replacement would be. He said that any local beer is better than any imported beer because of the perservatives and additives that imported beers have to have in them in order to be able to stay stable on the shelf for a year!  Who knew?!

He also talked about how he used to drink Stella but found out that they use anti-inflamatories in their beer! OMG! He has switched to Old Milwakee in the tall boy cans. Oh I know what you're gonna say, not very local! Not so, apparently beer is one of those products that looks like it's not local when it is, and visa versa. Old Milwaukee is brewed by Sleeman in Guelph. Because Dave is a good friend I am introducing him to Old Milwaukee Tall Boys, I hope he likes it!

So without getting into too much detail, apparently the laws governing Canadian brewed beers are much tougher than that of imported beers so it is more healthy over all to drink local beer! I knew it, it's always better if it's local!

Here's another interesting fact that I didn't know. The Beer Store is owned by breweries! Did you know that? I'm probably the only person who didn't know, it happens! I thought it was like the liquor store and owned by the government!
Anyways forty-nine percent of the company is owned by the Labatt arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev of Belgium; forty-nine percent is owned by Molson Coors Brewing Company which has headquarters in both the United States and Canada; and the remaining two percent is owned by Sleeman Breweries, an arm of Sapporo of Japan.- (I got that last bit from wikipedia, I know I couldn't reference it on a college paper but I figure if I'm quoting the guy at the beer store I should be safe with wikipedia!) The guy at The Beer Store mentioned this, the ownership thing because they are apparently not supposed to recommend different brands, which is totally annoying as far as I'm concerned, aren't they supposed to be the experts!


I will be sharing all this information at our dinner party on Friday evening, I urge you to, too!
Shirley