Sons of Kent Brewing Co. of Chatham, Ont., took silver for Mammoth, while Smithers Brewing Company of Smithers, B.C., earned bronze for Let’s Get Ready to Crumble. The competition also recognized producers across beer, cider and packaging categories, showcasing entries from across the country.

Among the beer category winners, Niagara College Teaching Brewery earned gold in English Bitter and Pale Ale for NC Craft Bitter, while Persephone Brewing Company of Gibsons, B.C., won gold in Non-Alcoholic (NA) Beer for its NA Dry Irish Stout. In Saskatchewan, Pile O’ Bones Brewing of Regina took gold in German and American Wheat Beer for White IPA, and Rebellion Brewing Co., also in Regina, won gold in Specialty IPA for Zilla Black IPA.

Cider producers were recognized across five categories. Sea Cider of Saanichton, B.C., won Best in Show for its Pomona, while Wooden Gate Cider of Pilot Mound, Man., earned bronze for Three Spirits.

The Canada Beer Cup is a national competition celebrating independently owned and operated breweries across Canada. The Canadian Craft Brewers Association organizes the competition, which recognizes quality and innovation in the country’s craft beer industry. Explore the complete list of winners: 2026 Canada Beer Cup Results.

However, despite the differences in strategy and product, they all share a similar question: who holds the kegs? For years, the answer was either buy kegs – tying up capital in depreciating steel – or rent them from a standalone lessor, one contract at a time. North Keg, an Ontario company founded in 2017, offered a better solution. And in April 2026, that solution got significantly bigger.

North Keg joined Evaaro’s international keg-pooling platform alongside ekeg (U.K. and Ireland) and Keg Logistics (U.S.), creating a unified multi-country network spanning five markets and nearly 3,000 brewers worldwide. For Canadian brewers, the practical effect is simple to describe but hard to replicate: the keg you need is now part of a system, not a contract or a standalone asset.

The origin: two friends, one problem

North Keg was founded in 2017 by two recent college graduates who regularly frequented a beloved craft beer bar in Halifax, N.S., and shared a fascination for the world of craft beer. After exploring the idea of starting their own brewery, they ran into the same wall that stops many first-time producers before they pour a single pint: steel.

Traditionally, brewers purchase a fleet of kegs. But owning kegs is both expensive and risky. Industry data shows that craft brewers typically lose five to 10 per cent of their float each year to theft, misplacement, account closures and other supply chain issues. For some brewers, that can add up to tens of thousands of dollars annually in lost assets that need to be replaced to maintain and grow the business.

“Because kegs are considered revolving assets, constantly moving through the distribution loop, they’re seen as risky. We figured there had to be a better way for brewers to do business,” said North Keg CEO Matt Wowchuk. “Looking at how keg management was being done in the U.S., we approached a few local brewers to see if they would lease some kegs from us, and we received a unanimous ‘YES’ in response. Within six months, we did our first deal, and it’s been steady growth ever since.”

Why pooling beats ownership

The distinction between leasing and pooling isn’t a technicality. Similar to ownership, in a leasing model, a specific keg is matched to a specific customer on a specific contract. The brewer is responsible for tracking the keg and collecting it back from the market. When demand shifts, the brewer has limited options. If demand shifts up, they can lease more kegs, often triggering a new contract. If demand shifts downward, they often have to sit on empty kegs until the contract ends and they can return them.

Pooling works differently. The brewer orders the amount they need from a shared pool of kegs. They don’t have to worry about tracking or collecting it back from the market. When demand shifts up or down, pooling is flexible. The brewer simply orders what they need. “Our pooling model works because we already have strong keg density in each market. We can pull kegs out of distributors much faster and immediately reposition them to a nearby brewery that needs them,” said Wowchuk.

Distributors benefit from pooling as well, and Canada’s geography makes this difference especially meaningful. A keg shipped from Toronto to northern Ontario is a 12-hour trip. A national shipment takes longer still. Under a traditional ownership model, empties sit at distribution centres until there are enough to justify a truck back to the brewery, leaving idle inventory that takes up space and generates no revenue, while freight costs continue to rise.

In North Keg’s pooling model, when an empty keg is collected from the market back to a distributor in Toronto, it doesn’t wait to accumulate into a full truck before heading home to a single brewery. The keg goes back into the pool, available to whichever brewer in the network needs it next. “Our pooling program eliminates those burdens,” said Wowchuk. “Rather than a keg being shipped out full and then making a long trip back empty, it stays in circulation.”

Size flexibility is another key part of North Keg’s adaptive pooling operation. Breweries that started on 50-litre kegs and now need 20-litre or 30-litre kegs can swap formats without writing off a capital purchase. The pool holds multiple formats; the brewer draws what the season requires.

“You might start with mostly 50-litre kegs, then realize you need 20- or 30-litre formats,” said Korey Nyp, director of sales at North Keg. “If you buy your kegs outright, you’re locked into those sizes. But with North Keg’s pooling model, you can return the 50s and switch to the sizes you need, when you need them.”

The network advantage: What joining Evaaro changes

A pooling network becomes more valuable as it grows. More kegs in more locations means faster fulfilment, more redundancy and the ability to absorb shocks that a bilateral leasing arrangement simply cannot handle.

“Joining this global platform allows us to further solidify North Keg as the benchmark leasing and pooling option for all Canadian customers,” said Wowchuk. “With enhanced access to growth capital, we are doubling down on our commitment to the Canadian market, offering world-class resources combined with the dedicated local expertise our customers trust.”

We know the business of kegs inside and out, which allows our customers to focus on what they do best: brewing their beer.

Korey Nyp, North Keg

The pooling’s practical implications are immediately apparent. Because North Keg’s keg pool has density across multiple Canadian markets, it can retrieve empties from distributors much faster than a brewer managing its own fleet could. That faster turn translates directly into fewer kegs needed to cover the same production volume, with lower costs and less capital at risk.

“We know the business of kegs inside and out, which allows our customers to focus on what they do best: brewing their beer,” said Nyp. “Our pooling model provides a much deeper and more collaborative relationship with our brewers. We succeed only when our customers do as well.”

What the brewer is actually buying

The financial side of pooling might be the biggest benefit: no capital tied up in steel, no idle fleet sitting on a balance sheet through the quiet months and costs that flex with demand rather than running ahead of it. “Cash is king in any business, and there are many other productive uses for cash rather than buying and storing steel kegs,” said Wowchuk.

Moreover, what brewers are buying is not a keg at all. It’s the certainty of supply – the assurance that the right format will be available when the season demands it, without a renegotiation, without waiting for a truckload of empties to justify a return run, and without the logistics headaches that have historically consumed so much of a small brewery’s operating bandwidth. For smaller craft producers, access to a professionally managed fleet removes the most capital-intensive barrier to entering the draught channel. For larger breweries, it turns a logistics burden into a managed service – one that scales up for peak season and down again without a single renegotiation.

Rooted in the Canadian brewing community

North Keg’s growth has always been tied to its involvement in the industry it serves. The company is a proud sponsor of the Canadian Craft Brewers Association’s Canada Beer Cup, a national competition celebrating independently owned and operated breweries across the country. North Keg’s Québec and Eastern Canada sales representative served as the emcee for the Canada Beer Cup Awards Gala in 2025 and is proudly returning in 2026.

The team also maintains active relationships with local guilds and provincial craft brewer associations, attends trade shows and participates in the Master Brewers Association of the Americas (Canada chapter). “Beyond that, I’m regularly in touch with various trade boards and industry groups to understand how we can continue improving the landscape for brewers,” said Wowchuk.

Looking ahead

North Keg is in the middle of a strategic rebrand, which will be reflected in the coming months. The rebrand positions the company around four core pillars: keg servicing, tracking, leasing and pooling.

“If you look at our long-term vision, we’re not trying to be a five-year company; we’re aiming to be a 50-year company,” said Wowchuk. “This rebrand is designed to clearly show what we do best: our ability to fully service a keg from top to bottom, track it throughout its lifecycle, lease it to producers and integrate it into a broader pooling network. That’s how we will continue to ease the burden for our customers for years to come.”

For Canadian brewers navigating a competitive market, a tight labour environment and the persistent capital demands of a steel-intensive supply chain, the question is less about pooling and more about who to pool with. North Keg’s answer – now backed by an international platform and the density that comes with it – is increasingly hard to ignore.

This article was sponsored by North Keg.

In that spirit, the Honourable Jill McKnight, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, took part in an event at Barnside Brewing in Delta, B.C., marking the announcement of a two-year extension of alcohol excise duty relief to protect brewers, distillers and winemakers during a period of global uncertainty. By renewing these measures, the federal government is providing relief to Canadian businesses, particularly local craft breweries, that contribute to jobs and local economies.

Canadian craft brewers are vital to local economies, creating jobs and bringing people together in communities across the country. By supporting craft breweries – including right here in Delta –  our government is ensuring these small and medium-sized businesses have the stability they need to grow, innovate and continue contributing to Canada’s economy.

The Honourable Jill McKnight, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence

Effective April 1, the government’s combined measures are offsetting rising costs for an additional two years in two ways: 

• First, the government is capping inflationary increases: The annual inflation adjustment on beer, wine and spirits excise duties will remain capped at two per cent.
• Second, the government is providing targeted relief to craft brewers: The excise duty rate on the first 15,000 hectolitres of beer brewed in Canada will remain halved.

Together, these two measures are expected to provide more than $30 million in total relief through to 2028. For a craft brewery, reducing the excise duty rate by half on the first 15,000 hectolitres represents up to about $90,000 in additional tax savings in the 2026-27 fiscal year alone.

As warmer weather approaches and the FIFA World Cup inches nearer to Canada’s doorstep, today’s extensions will at once better support our world class brewers, distillers, and wine makers, protect Canadian jobs, help mitigate cost pressures, and ensure Canadians and tourists alike can enjoy the best Canada has to offer with limited tax increases.

This year, Saskatchewan-based brewery Pile O’ Bones Brewing took the trophy home for their Quark, Strangeness, Charm, entered in the Witbier style category. Co-founder Josh Morrison discusses the Pile O’ Bones team’s reaction to their big win, the steps that led to their success and what’s next for the brewery.

Poured Canada: Congratulations on your win at the 2024 Canada Beer Cup! How did it feel to hear Pile O’ Bones called out as a winner?

Josh Morrison: The fellas were really excited. We knew we had made some great beers lately and we had been piling up the awards over the last few years, but we always wanted to win the big one. The Canada Beer Cup is like our Super Bowl, Stanley Cup and Fall Classic all rolled into one for us brewers!

PC: How has collaboration within the Pile O’ Bones Brewing team and with other breweries impacted your success?

JM: We [the Pile O’ Bones Brewing team] all started as homebrewers competing against one another to see who could make the best beer possible. We teamed up to form Pile O’ Bones in 2016, and then joined forces with Nokomis Craft Ales in 2023, because we always believed we would be even better if we worked together. The proof is in the pudding – we just made the best beer in Canada for 2024!

PC: Can you tell us about the beer that won? What inspired its creation, and what makes it unique?

JM: Jeff Alport, president of Nokomis Craft Ales, and Nathan Kary, head brewer at Pile O’ Bones, were inspired by another Canadian-made Witbier (Blanche du Chambly) that is no longer readily available in our area; a beer we really loved to drink, A lack of fresh, quality beer is what got all of us into homebrewing and is why we exist as brewers today. This beer is unique in that it’s a great example of a style that is difficult to find locally.

PC: How do you prepare for competitions like the Canada Beer Cup? Is there a particular strategy or mindset you keep?

JM: Other than tasting beer and pouring over style guidelines to make sure your beer is properly categorized, not much preparation goes into competitions. We just try to make the best beer we can and send in the freshest samples available.

PC: What was the biggest challenge in perfecting the winning beer, and how did you overcome it?

JM: Producing quality beer is relatively easy. Getting that beer packaged in a manner that maintains quality and freshness is the challenging part. There’s no point in making beer if you destroy it with oxygen or contamination before it gets into package. We have an eye for detail and invest in quality equipment and training for our packaging folks.

PC: In your opinion, what sets the Canada Beer Cup apart from other competitions?

JM: This is a not-for-profit competition ran by the Canadian Craft Brewers Association, a voice of Canadian craft beer. It’s the competition for the real beer nerds to strut their stuff.

PC: How has the reception of this award been among your regular customers and local community?

JM: It’s been over-the-top positive. We sold out by the Tuesday after the 2024 Canada Beer Cup and had to get another batch bubbling right away. People may not have had a Belgian-wit beer in a while, but I think this beer is reminding people how tasty they can be.

PC: What advice would you give to other breweries aspiring to win national competitions?

JM: Keep dialing in those recipes and pay attention to your packaging processes. Even the best beer in the world won’t win anything if it is packaged poorly.

PC: Looking back on Pile O’ Bones’ journey, what have been the biggest lessons or surprises?

JM: When we were building out our existing brewery, or even just investing in our production equipment, we learned that everything costs double what you planned and takes twice as long. In terms of surprises, I think a lot of people believe beer is just marketing, but we were surprised that when we make super high-end products that might not be the most popular styles, they still fly off the shelves. Quality stands the test of time.

PC: How do you see this achievement influencing Pile O’ Bones’ goals for the future?

JM: The goal has always been to make one of the best beers possible, and this year, we did! We celebrated for a few days, but now we’re getting back to work and trying to win another one in 2025.

PC: Are there any individuals or teams you’d like to acknowledge or thank for their role in this win?

JM: In addition to Pile O’ Bones Brewing’s head brewer, Nathan Kary, and Nokomis Craft Ales’ head brewer, Jeff Alport, we want to thank our dedicated production staff: Mike Chowns, Tarun Panchal and Travis Mushanski. Each of us also want to thank our spouses, who have always supported our weird hobby!