It seems a long way from Alberta's basement breweries to the
halls of the Court of Appeal. But that line was connected in a long
running dispute known as Steam Whistle Brewing Inc. v AGLC. With
enough reading to make any constitutional scholar thirsty, a
decision was handed down in December, 2019, regarding the legal
fate of the Small Brewers Development Program and Alberta's
beer mark-ups.
We last did a beer run with our
Case of Beer in the summer of 2018.
We have to go back to 2016 when the Alberta government of the
day launched the Alberta Small Brewers Development (SBDP) Program,
which provided eligible small brewers with grant funding. According
to government releases, the program contributed to hundreds of jobs
in the craft brewing industry and the addition of over 500 new beer
products made in Alberta. Now here's a role for government
that's worth getting excited about: the creation of hundreds of
new types of beer. Just think of all the stouts, sours,
