OPINION: You Want Canadian? We’ve Got Canadian!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock of late, you’ll know that Canada is presently locked in a trade war with the United States. And if you’re a patriotic Canadian drinker or a sympathetic American one, you might wonder about your Canadian-made options.
I’m here to tell you that they are plentiful, available, and ofttimes excellent!
Regular visitors to Beaumont Drinks will know that I’ve been reviewing a great many Canadian-made spirits over the past year or two, but what you don’t know is that for every one I’ve reviewed here, there have probably been eight or ten others I’ve tried and enjoyed.
For instance, I do not believe I have ever made mention of Two Brewers Whisky in the Yukon, definitely one of the country’s finest makers of single malt whisky. The problem is that their releases are few, small, and scattered in availability, so while I can heartily recommend buying almost anything you find adorned with a Two Brewers label, by the time I got a review posted there is a distinct likelihood that it would be sold out.
Similarly, I have yet to mention Loon Vodka from the Rheault Distillery because, well, I just haven’t gotten around to it. But when Christine Sismondo and I were writing Canadian Spirits, Loon stood out as not just a great vodka, but one of the best we have ever tasted!
Have I written lately about Sons of Vancouver? A quick check of the files shows that it’s been two years, during which time they have emerged as possibly the most purely creative distiller of rye whisky in the country, and certainly one of the best. And speaking of rye, did I mention the King of the North Rye Whisky from Alberta’s Wild Life Distillery? I did not, only because it was long sold out by the time I got my hands on a bottle, but that doesn’t make this 2026 Canadian Rye Whisky of the Year any less of a national treasure.
Since we’re talking trade wars and tariffs, how about some able substitutes for absent bourbon whiskeys? One thing I love about the way Canadian distillers are addressing the bourbon style is that so many are putting their personal mark on it, be that the absolutely compelling mix of 54% corn and 46% malted barley in Okanagan’s BRBN – made all the more interesting when the barley is chocolate malt in the BLK BRBN – the unusually high 36% rye content in the John Sleeman & Sons High Rye Straight Whisky, or the varietal corn, wheat, and barley in Bridgeland’s Taber Corn Whisky. For a more pure take, however, there is always the spot-on St. Laurent 3 Grains from Québec.
Gins we have aplenty, from Sheringham Seaside and Woods Cascadian in BC to Newfoundland Seaweed and Compass Gin Wild in Atlantic Canada. Québec has made gin distilling a bit of a thing and so has more impressive examples than you can shake the proverbial stick at, but I’ve loved the Distillerie du Fjord’s Gin KM12, Seventh Heaven’s Canadian London Dry Gin, and Cirka’s Gin Sauvage, among many others. Across Ontario and the Prairies there’s Blacks, Reid’s, Laneway, Bandits, and Last Best, among numerous others.
Rums? We’ve got those, especially on the east coast, where rum traditions run deep and you have to be good if you want to compete. Flavoured moonshine? If that’s your thing – and here I have to admit that I’ve tried some fairly compelling ones, even though the style would never be my go-to – there are loads on the Prairies. And limoncello, of all things, seems to have found a home in the west. For the Scandinavian-inclined, we even have a fair number of impressive akvavits, including ones from Spirit of York, Long Table, and Compass.
As for beer, well, where do I begin? Contrary to popular opinion, craft beer is not dead, in Canada or anywhere else, and impressive options exist in pretty much every part of the country. With some 1,300 breweries scattered coast to coast to coast, it would be pointless here to start listing the best, so allow me to offer up a small handful of personal faves nation-wide, heading west to east: Spinnakers, Île Sauvage, Hoyne, Small Gods, Dageraad, Four Winds, Persephone, Storm, Bomber, Mt. Begbie, Blind Enthusiasm, Troubled Monk, The Establishment, Last Best, Cabin, 9 Mile Legacy, Shelter, Black Bridge, Sookrams, Low Life Barrel House, Trestle, Sawdust City, Wellington, Godspeed, Henderson, True History, Granite, Aurum, Tooth & Nail, Beyond the Pale, Les Trois Mousquetaires, Dieu di Ciel, McAuslan, Avant-Garde, Temps d’une Pinte, Charlevoix, Pit Caribou, Petit-Sault, Big Spruce, Boxing Rock, Unfiltered, Propeller, Tatamagouche, Copper Bottom, Yellowbelly, Storm, and Dildo.
I know that I’ve omitted in the above a great many very fine breweries and distilleries, including some that I personally love, but for some reason or other just aren’t coming to mind at present. Still, I’ve got to leave some work for you lot to do.
