Dortmunder Export Lager The city of Dortmund is located in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. Its rich brewing history dates back to at least 1266, with the first written mention of local brewers producing a gruit ale. Prior to the mid 1800s, beers were generally dark, murky, top-fermented ales, which often contained wheat. The...

A Sweet Secret Deal – 2000 Framework Agreement (The third and final instalment of the history of The Beer Store – to date) In 2014, Martin Regg Cohn, a political columnist for the Toronto Star, revealed the secret sweetheart deal reached between privately-owned The Beer Store (TBS) and the crown-operated LCBO. The once-clandestine deal signed...

Rise of the “Big Three” (Part two of the history of The Beer Store) Brewers Retail’s three largest shareholders (Canadian Brewers Ltd, Labatt, and Molson), were not only able to gain a stronghold on the Ontario’s beer industry, but came to dominate the national market as well. There were several key factors at play that...