First, some good news: The Growler Vol. 2 Issue 1 is out March 1. Go grab yourself a copy!

But not before reading “the bad news.” Yes, the day has come that some of you have been expecting, and that some of you (I like to imagine) have been fearing since the halcyon days of our first issue.

That’s right, we’re charging for The Growler. Is that booing I hear, or the generic sound of apathy?

Either way, the price at breweries, private liquor stores and other independent retailers will be $2.

We’re also selling them at Chapters, Overwaitea and Save On grocery stores, London Drugs, Shoppers Drug Mart and all BC Ferries for $4.99. We’re not trying to gouge anyone shopping at these locations. That’s the minimum price publishers need to sell their products for to get them in these locations.

Would we’ve liked to keep The Growler free? Yes, but the media landscape in 2016 makes it next to impossible to rely solely on print advertising. If we don’t do this, The Growler probably won’t exist in a year and a half. And we’d like to stick around, if you’ll have us.

And I think that $2 is a fair price to pay for up-to-date and relevant information, some (I think) interesting articles and some very pretty pictures. It’ll also help fund the creation of even more interesting articles and even prettier pictures, so that we can grow and be better, covering other stuff beyond just the beer world.

But hey, if you don’t want to pay, I get it. I’ll hold it against you, but I get it…

Subscriptions for The Growler Volume 2 are available now at The Growler Store.