After many years of pushing, Yukon Brewing will be allowed to send its beer directly to the Atlin music festival this year.
In previous years, the Whitehorse brewery has had to ship its beer on a long road trip, all the way to Vancouver and then back up to Atlin.
“We put 5,000 km on this beer and a whole bunch of costs on our part and their part, just so the beers can do the two hour trip to Atlin,” said president Bob Baxter.
“It’s just so impractical, and impractical stuff drives us crazy.”
A special arrangement between Yukon Brewing and the B.C. liquor corporation will allow the company to ship its beer directly to the festival this year. But this is only a one-off arrangement, and Baxter would like to see more permanent changes made.
“What we’d really like to do is make it really more practical to sell beers to northern B.C. that doesn’t have to travel to Vancouver first.
“What we’ve always advocated for 18 years now, although we don’t make a full time job of it, is that the rules for B.C. brewers apply for B.C. and Yukon brewers.”
It’s even worse for draft beer said Baxter, as B.C. liquor doesn’t even pay for the transportation back from Vancouver to the final destination in British Columbia.
“It just doesn’t make sense.”
He said Yukon Brewing had to pass on a sponsorship opportunity with the Dawson Creek hockey team because it was too expensive to ship the beer there.
However, there are some encouraging signs. Since April 1, due to a regulation change, Yukon Brewing can sell all of its beers in both government-run and private liquor stores in B.C. said Baxter