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Brasserie Bénélux in Verdun, located in the former Bank of Montréal building
Photo: 2015 © Gilles Lepage
The Growth of Micro-breweries in Québec
For the past few years, a seemingly endless wave of breweries has been rolling into Québec. In 2015, the industry recorded 140 beer producers, compared to 31 in 2002. It was the Québec government's intervention in 1996 that gave this industry the boost it needed by reducing the specific tax on alcohol.
Authorization to sell on the premises where the beer was brewed also encouraged the establishment of micro-breweries. Before the mid-nineties, a brewer had to sell his bottles on the markets—far too costly an undertaking for small-scale brewers. It was thanks to these amendments to the law that today, all regions in the province of Québec, except for Northern Québec, have at least one micro-brewery.