Alberta brewers concerned about cost of beer cans amid aluminum tariff war

Lily Dupuis · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 13, 2025 3:37 PM EDT | Last Updated: 14 minutes ago

Not adjacent cracking unfastened a acold 1 is harmless from tariffs. 

As the Canada-U.S. commercialized warfare continues to predominate headlines, Alberta's brew manufacture is paying adjacent attraction to however this is impacting the terms of metallic cans.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff connected Canadian metallic products entering the United States connected Wednesday, and the Canadian authorities deed backmost with astir $30 cardinal worthy of retaliatory tariffs that came into effect connected Thursday.

Microbreweries successful and astir Calgary merchantability their products successful tall, short or skinny cans, each made of aluminum. So for Calgary brew makers, the commercialized warfare means re-examining however they get cans of brew successful the hands of thirsty consumers.

"Breweries each implicit the spot are moving hard to conscionable support their costs successful line," said Chris Carroll, co-founder of Ol' Beautiful Brewing.

In 2017, the brewery started producing take-home cans of brew successful its Inglewood taproom. Recently, the concern expanded its merchantability of retail and wholesale products into a larger, off-site accumulation facility. 

Last twelvemonth alone, Ol' Beautiful sold a cardinal cans of beer, Carroll says. 

The brewery uses short, 355-millilitre cans, which are manufactured successful Calgary. Yet adjacent the aluminum successful locally made cans crosses the Canada-U.S. borderline astatine immoderate constituent successful its beingness cycle, acknowledgment to an integrated proviso chain. That means tariffs would interaction the costs associated with canning Ol' Beautiful's beer. 

Carroll says Ol' Beautiful has stockpiled months worthy of brew cans successful response. 

"Right now, we're not feeling anything. But I'm definite erstwhile we spell to reorder, the prices volition person increased. We're proceeding numbers astir 7 per cent summation connected the terms of an aluminum can," helium said. 

Ol' Beautiful is not alone. Big Rock Brewing, Alberta's largest microbrewery, has stocked up, too.

"Typically we bring our cans successful each 2 weeks," said Brad Goddard, vice-president of concern improvement with the Calgary-based brewery.

"We're looking astatine much similar 2 months of cans connected proviso close now.

Despite the upfront cost, Goddard says Big Rock needs to mitigate the tariff hazard due to the fact that it typically uses up to 65 cardinal cans a year, depending connected demand. 

"Years ago, good conscionable astir the pandemic, we dealt with a scarcity of cans, and that drove tin outgo up," helium said. 

"Now we've got plentifulness of cans, but the tin costs are going up — which is antagonistic to what you'd usually say, 'hey, if we've got tons of cans, the terms should travel down.' But present authorities sabre-rattling is pushing the prices backmost up."

Even the menace of tariffs has driven up costs, says Goddard. 

"We person a contract, but the declaration does foresee situations similar this, tariffs coming into place, and it's besides influenced by the aluminum futures market," helium said. 

"So arsenic the marketplace gets anxious astir the impact, the marketplace goes chaotic and that influences our outgo of materials. So we've already started feeling it."

Many breweries successful Alberta usage gangly cans that travel successful 473-millilitre sizes — besides known arsenic gangly boys, holding astir a pint. Usually, this benignant of aluminum tin is sourced straight from the United States.

Tool Shed Brewing, headquartered successful northeast Calgary, is 1 of those breweries. According to laminitis Graham Sherman, the institution projects going done astir 2 cardinal gangly cans this year.

In bid to mitigate harm from tariffs, the brewery has travel up with its ain work-around for importing aluminum cans. 

Tool Shed is present getting each of its gangly cans from China alternatively of the United States — astatine a cheaper price. 

"We marque definite with this adjacent bid that the aluminum is from China, that the cans are being manufactured successful China, that erstwhile they onshore successful North America, they onshore astatine northbound of the borderline successful British Columbia and travel to america without touching the United States," said Sherman. 

Each of these Alberta microbreweries say they're hoping for a speedy extremity to the commercialized war.

For radical similar Goddard, he's disquieted that if the commercialized warfare continues, consumers volition extremity up paying the price.