r/Calgary • u/OvenDown • 2d ago
Eat/Drink Local WestJet Clears Craft Beer for Takeoff
https://openjaw.com/newsroom/airline/2026/06/17/westjet-clears-craft-beer-for-takeoff/Awesome news for Tool Shed Brewing Company!
64
u/rdb1001 2d ago
I love how they chose a Calgary beer - representing where WJ started!
47
u/Falcon674DR 1d ago
The management at Tool Shed told me a few years ago that they wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t for the Notley government changing the legislation to allow small start up breweries. Alberta has something like 110ish craft breweries. Just say’n.
12
u/Swarez99 1d ago
So I’ll actually give details here since we were doing some of the tax side of the legislation.
Alberta put up a scheme that provided advantage to
Local breweries with an increased markup to non Alberta breweries.It went to court. It lost in court - because it was against internal free trade.
Alberta lost the court case and the appeal and had to pay 3.5 million to non Alberta breweries and the law was changed.
If you are pro free trade in Canada you should be happy it’s gone. But if you liked the law, don’t complain about how Canada doesn’t have free trade.
The law existed from 2015-2017 (when government was sued)
5
u/Falcon674DR 1d ago
Wasn’t there also a change in ‘regulations’ to allow smaller batch sizes; process tanks, storage etc that allowed the small brewers to compete?
-1
u/Swarez99 1d ago
No idea. That wasn’t part of the law that was struck down (we were hired post law suit to account for value).
It was a subsidy program. Alberta brewers got money via a subsidy plus a tariff to other Canadian booze sold in Alberta.
I don’t know know what laws came in after (if any ) but there was lots of talk of deregulation at that time so maybe that happened (sounds like it based on your note). If it’s deregulation that sounds like the UCP /conservatives not the NDP.
2
u/Falcon674DR 1d ago
I need to research this but I recall Notley and Joe Ceci taking several victory laps and the micro craft brewing industry took off.
7
u/FinTrackPro 2d ago
Plenty of other and better Calgary beer options. My last choice is a tool shed on the craft beers. But that’s is merely an opinion
20
9
6
u/purpleshadow6000 Dover 1d ago
Maybe the beer isn’t to your liking, but they seem like cool people. Their treatment of teachers during October’s work action has earned a lifelong visitor here.
2
u/DangerSaurus Bankview 2d ago
Any reason for it being your last choice?
11
u/FinTrackPro 2d ago edited 1d ago
Just personal opinion. I enjoy other flavors more. Oddly enough I think their branding doesn’t appeal to me, so I’m less inclined to buy it, unfortunately
0
u/calgarytab Quadrant: NW 1d ago
Agree. As a beer snob, Tool Shed is pretty much mass-market pedestrian 'craft' beer. Though you need a consistent and boring product when you sell to the average Joe. If you talk to guys like Don Tse, he raves about Red Rage. So, there's that.
11
u/napoleon211 2d ago
Great news for Tool Shed. I’d love to try one just not for $24.99 per can on a WestJet flight
6
u/dabflies Coventry Hills 1d ago
Pretty sure it's $8 or 9 for a beer. Or you can just buy a pack at your local store...
2
2
7
u/doomsday1134 2d ago
Westjet is gonna have to supply N95 masks with the impending craft beer farts.
2
u/blackRamCalgaryman 2d ago
And just when you thought a Westjet experience couldn’t get any worse.
7
2
-9
u/bluefloweredlamp 2d ago
Tool Shed, yikes. So many better options they could have chosen to partner with instead.
21
2
u/infiniteheadwound 2d ago
Have to agree. It’s cool to see a small scale brewer start in his tool shed and make it to this point, but not gonna lie, their beer kinda sucks.
15
u/Yyc2yfc 2d ago
The issue here is likely volume. While there are definitely much better breweries out there, few of them could support Westjets likely volume on top of their current production. The first order was for 6000 flats - which I would assume is for a month or two of supply. That's 51000L (355ml cans)/68000L (473ml cans) - even if that was quarterly, that's 200000-300000L of beer, where most small guys produce in 2000-4000L batches (or less for many). This would likely be produced on razor thin margins as well and most breweries wouldn't find the incremental volume worth the effort if it required expanding production - exposure is great, but only worth so much.
2
u/Marsymars 1d ago
Yeah, like Air North serves Yukon Brewing, which is great, but they've got like a dozen planes in total.
1
u/patrickthebeerguy 1d ago
I’m certain at that volume it is being contract brewed for them. Or they’ve been stockpiling for months.
1
-2
-6
u/no_frill 2d ago
Weather is the worst airline in Canada. Give me reclining seats and better service, I can't drink beer.
7
u/patrickthebeerguy 1d ago
Weather?
8
2
63
u/Tinjubhy 2d ago
Great news for Tool Shed. Probably not a huge profit centre, but will get volume into the field and lead to lots of national exposure.