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Executive Summary
Craft beer is specialty beer produced in small quantities in many different tastes and varieties. With no added preservatives and brewed using natural ingredients, quality is the main differing factor from mass-market beer brewed in large quantities.
In BC, the craft beer industry has seen incredible growth in the past five years. Sales revenues have doubled, market share has more than doubled, new breweries are opening up all over the Province and established breweries are expanding and upgrading facilities. Restaurants are adopting the trend and switching out import or mass-market beers in favor of locally brewed craft. Several restaurants dedicated to craft beer are now doing brisk business. Beer festivals, specifically the Great Canadian Beer Festival in Victoria are seeing increased interest. Tickets for the event sold in record time in 2012. Other festivals like HopScotch and Vancouver Craft Beer Week were also major hits in 2012.
While the industry is burgeoning within BC, the Province has failed to establish itself as a craft beer destination. With the help of Tourism BC, the industry can be more effectively promoted abroad.
Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Background 3 Methodology 4 Findings 5 Conclusion & Recommendations 6 Works Cited 7
Background
The term “craft beer” was originally coined as a marketing term, stemming from the word “microbrew” carried no formal definition until it was recently defined and included in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary reading – a specialty beer produced in limited quantities. Typically, craft beer is made in microbreweries, which produce less than 15,000 hectolitres annually (1 hectolitre = 100 litres); however, regional breweries which produce more than 15,000 hectolitres and nanobreweries (brewed in small
Cited: About/History. (2012). Retrieved from CAMRABC: http://camravancouver.ca/about/ Green, M. E. (2012, June 20). Beer Festival Turns 20 With Spotlight on Canadian Brew. Retrieved from Monday Mag: http://www.mondaymag.com/entertainment/159777735.html Sherlock, T. (2012, August 24). Consumers ' Thirst for Craft Beers Grows Rapidly. Retrieved November 27, 2012, from Vancouver Sun: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Consumers+thirst+craft+beers+growing+rapidly/7142192/story.html Shore, R. (2012, October 15). Craft Beer Mega-Plex Planned for Historic Salt Building. Retrieved from Vancouver Sun: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Craft+beer+mega+plex+planned+historic+Salt+Building/7393748/story.html Wiebe, J. (2011). Boom Times For Craft Beer in BC. Retrieved November 28, 2012, from BC Business Online: http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/profiles-and-spotlights/industries/tourism-and-hospitality/boom-time-for-craft-beer-bc Wiebe, J. (2011). Navigating B.C. 's Ale Trail. Retrieved November 29, 2012, from BC Business Online: http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/food-and-drink/navigating-bcs-ale-trail?#featurelist