As the Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to tighten its grip on our province and the government keeps gyms and bars closed, there's one thing to be thankful for - it's not 1978 and there's not much keeping us from enjoying local suds.
1978 was a dark year for beer drinkers in the province as the three major breweries in B.C. (Molson, Labatt and Carling O'Keefe) locked out their workers in June, resulting in a four-month shortage of beer. As the craft beer industry hadn't yet sprouted up, a vacuum was created.
Not the greatest summer ever, as my uncles recall it. The lockouts resulted in a shortage that sent people scrambling for the border and [gasp] U.S. beers. When there was eventually import beer available locally, a two-case limit was put into place - like the 30-litre limit the government put in gas recently but much, much worse.
I shared a number of 1978 newspaper clippings from The Province in a Twitter thread if you'd care to take a look back on a year that was even worse than 2021.
Cheers.
