Industry Overview: Craft Breweries & Microbreweries
Craft breweries and microbreweries produce beer in limited quantities when compared to large breweries (generally under 10,000 barrels per year) and usually distribute their beer within a limited geographic region.
Craft breweries often specialize in specific styles of beer, and focus on providing customers a superior product, using traditional brewing techniques. Certain craft breweries sell beer directly on their premises, and are called brewpubs. Craft breweries are known to develop clever marketing strategies with limited budgets in order to connect with their target markets. Industry Overview
BC
In 2009, 209 breweries were identified by Statistics Canada and 49 of those establishments were located in British Columbia. However, an article by The Province estimates that by the end of 2013 there will be more than 60 independent breweries (this number includes microbreweries, nanobreweries and brew pubs). This increase in breweries is mirrored by an increase of 6.4% of microbrewery beer sales in British Columbia in March 2007 to 12.7% in March 2011. In the last two years, this number have only grown. In an article published July 3, 2013, The Province asserts that craft beer is almost at 20% of the market share for beer in British Columbia, while BC Business cites the Craft Brewers Association of British Columbia in stating that the market share is currently around 15% but that many brewers are experiencing sales growth between 15 and 20% per year.

Canada
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in their report, The Canadian Brewery Industry, approximately 10 million Canadians drink beer and the sales of goods manufactured by the Canadian brewery industry in 2009 were worth $4,671.2 million. The Brewers Association of Canada states that beer brewed in Canada accounts for 1.2% of Canada’s GDP,