beerflight(By Mike Hellinger and Mike Lloyd) The market for craft beer has exploded, and there’s some great news for the industry this week, as smaller craft breweries are now allowed to sell directly to the six closest government liquor stores, meaning their product will be more widely available. Nathan Griffiths with Old Abbey Ales in Abbotsford says they have been expecting liquor law changes for a while, but they just heard the details about this on Friday, and they’re thrilled.  He says up till now you had to have a certain amount of sales before the BC Liquor Stores would even look at you…and most small craft breweries don’t fall into that category. He says this is going to be a huge boost.

“It’s fantastic.  It means we’ll be able to be listed in BC Liquor Stores and our products will be available to consumers through channels that it hasn’t been before….For Old Abbey Ales, it means we’ll have to up our production, and continue to hire new staff and brewers.  It’s looking very optimistic.”

Ken Beattie, executive director of the BC Craft Brewers Guild, says it’s great news, and hopes that some day soon, BC craft beer will be recognized the same way BC VQA wines are.

“When you go into a liquor store, you see Spanish wines and South African wines. But you just see ‘craft beer’ and you don’t know if it’s local or not. With access to our smaller members, we’re hoping it also gives access to all our members in terms of visibility inside stores. Really, the goal would be to get a BC craft beer section.”