Beer in Canada

Beer in Canada was introduced by European settlers in the seventeenth century, and a number of commercial brewers thrived until Prohibition in Canada. Though short-lived, very few brewers survived, and it was only in the late twentieth century that new breweries opened up. The Canadian Beer industry now plays an important role in Canadian identity, though globalization of the brewing industry has seen the major players in Canada acquired by or merged with foreign companies, notably its three largest beer producers, Labatt, Molson and Sleeman. The result is that Moosehead has become the largest fully Canadian-owned brewer.

Popularity

Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in Canada, in terms of both volume and dollar value. In 2009 beer claimed 46% of the dollar value of alcoholic beverages sold in Canada. This compares to 29% for wine. Statistics Canada figures show that liquor sales in Canada amounted to $19.4 billion worth of alcoholic beverages, up 3.3 per cent from the year before. Beer sales totalled $8.8 billion, wine $5.7 billion and spirits $4.9 billion. 2.3 billion litres of beer were sold in 2009, a 0.9 per cent increase from the previous year. Per-capita beer sales have dropped 28 per cent from their peak of 115.2 litres in 1976 to 83.5 litres in 2009. By volume, imported beer has more than doubled its market share in the last decade. In 2009, imported beer had captured 13% of the beer market in Canada, up from six per cent in 1999. The top selling style of beer in Canada, by far, is the pale lager.

Molson Canadian

Molson Canadian is a brand of 5% abv pale lager (4% in Ireland) brewed by Molson, the Canadian division of Molson Coors Brewing Company. The beer was introduced in 1959.

Awards

Molson Canadian has won several beer industry awards, including:

Mega Keg

The "Molson Canadian Mega Keg" is the world’s largest monument to a keg of Molson Canadian. The monument measures 11 metres (36.5 feet) by five metres (16.5 feet), or roughly the height of a three story building.

The monument was revealed to winners of a contest themed around the Mega Keg in September 2008. Were it a real keg, the Mega Keg monument would be large enough to hold the equivalent volume of over 500,000 cans of Molson Canadian.

Molson Canadian contracted Mississauga, Ontario-based Kubik to design and construct the massive monument.

Molson Brewery

The Molson Brewery was formed in Montreal in 1786. In 2005 Molson merged with US-based Coors to form Molson Coors Brewing Company, the world's seventh-largest brewing company at that time. The Canadian division of the Molson Coors Brewing Company is Molson-Coors Canada Inc.. Molson's first brewery was located on the St. Lawrence River in Montreal where the Molson family continues to maintain its operations today.

History

Founded in Montreal in 1786, the Molson Brewery is the oldest brewery in North America and continues to produce beer on the site of the original brewery. The company brews and markets a number of the most popular brands of beer in Canada. Domestic labels include Molson Canadian, Molson M, Molson Export, Molson Dry, Molson Exel De-Alcoholized beer, Old Style Pilsner, Rickard’s, Creemore Springs and Granville Island Brewing. Through partnerships with other major brewers, Molson Coors Canada also offers a diverse portfolio of beer brands, including Coors Light, Corona, Miller Genuine Draft (ending in 2015), Heineken, Foster's Lager and Tiger. Molson employs 3,000 people in Canada and operates five breweries in locations across the country (Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Moncton and St. John's), as well as the Creemore micro-brewery in Ontario and Granville Island Brewing in British Columbia. Molson Coors Canada is part of the Molson Coors Brewing Company.

Trousers

Trousers (pants in North America) are an item of clothing worn from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending across both legs as in robes, skirts, and dresses).

In the UK the word "pants" generally means underwear and not trousers.Shorts are similar to trousers, but with legs that come down only to around the area of the knee, higher or lower depending on the style of the garment. To distinguish them from shorts, trousers may be called "long trousers" in certain contexts such as school uniform, where tailored shorts may be called "short trousers", especially in the UK.

In most of the Western world, trousers have been worn since ancient times and throughout the Medieval period, becoming the most common form of lower-body clothing for adult males in the modern world, although shorts are also widely worn, and kilts and other garments may be worn in various regions and cultures. Breeches were worn instead of trousers in early modern Europe by some men in higher classes of society. Since the mid-20th century, trousers have increasingly been worn by women as well. Jeans, made of denim, are a form of trousers for casual wear, now widely worn all over the world by both sexes. Shorts are often preferred in hot weather or for some sports and also often by children and teenagers. Trousers are worn on the hips or waist and may be held up by their own fastenings, a belt or suspenders (braces). Leggings are form-fitting trousers, of a clingy material, often knitted cotton and spandex (elastane).

Molson Coors Brewing Company

The Molson Coors Brewing Company is a North American brewing company, formed in 2005 by the merger of Molson of Canada, and Coors of the United States. It is the world's seventh largest brewer by volume.

While the company is incorporated in the United States, it is traded on stock exchanges in both the United States and Canada, and control is equally shared between the Molson and Coors families. The company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and in Montreal, Quebec.

History

On October 9, 2007, SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company announced a joint venture to be known as MillerCoors for their U.S. operations that will market all of their products.

On February 2, 2011, the company purchased Sharp's Brewery of Cornwall in England for around £20 million.

On May 26, 2011, seventh-generation family member Andrew Molson succeeded Pete Coors as acting Chairman of the company.

In early 2012 the company expanded into the Central and Eastern Europe markets by acquiring the region's market-leading brewery StarBev from CVC Capital Partners.