How the rising cost of aluminum cans affects this Orléans microbrewery

Marc Plante, co-owner of Stray Dog Brewing Company, poses with aluminum cans at the Orléans brewery on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. Rising can costs tied to U.S.-imposed tariffs add another financial pressure for the local business. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

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Twenty-eight days from grain to glass. It’s a common phrase in the homebrewing circles Marc Plante and his now business partner, Justin MacNeill, used to frequent.

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“That’s what we call it,” Marc Plante, co-owner of Stray Dog Brewing Company, says. Now, as the owners of the local Orléans microbrewery, the 28-day timeline is also used to determine how frequently the owners need to purchase aluminum cans to package and send out their homemade beers.

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Before tariffs, an empty aluminum can would cost 19 cents. Now, Plante and MacNeill pay 23.6 cents, with the cost of lids rising from four cents to six.

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“It doesn’t sound like much,” Plante said Saturday, Sept. 12, as the brewery prepared to celebrate its ninth anniversary. “But when you multiply that by the thousands, they start to add up.”

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Stray Dog goes through 3,000 to 4,000 cans every two to three weeks.

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The brewery, which opened as Orléans’ first microbrewery nine years ago, is now navigating rising costs as other local breweries disappear. Orléans Brewing Co. (OBC) closed its doors in August, citing rising costs, increased rent and mounting pressures. It was the second Ottawa brewery to close this year after Kichesippi Beer Co. shut down in March.

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“It really kind of gives you pause when you see a larger, more established microbrewery like Kichesippi Beer closing,” he said. “Like, OK, well, what did they do? And what are we doing differently, and how can we avoid that situation?”

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Marc Plante says Stray Dog Brewing Company now exclusively goes through a Canadian company to get its cans and lids. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

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Watching OBC close was “another gut punch.”

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Plante says that the brewing company, which used to go through different suppliers to get its cans and lids, now exclusively goes through a Canadian company called Elk Packaging.

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Stray Dog isn’t a big enough company to order in bulk and store a trailer full of empty cans in a storage unit. That’s why the brewery buys directly from companies like Elk Packaging, which gets its overall prices reduced by purchasing in bulk.

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According to uOttawa constitutional and international law professor Errol Mendes, the latest retaliatory tariffs from the U.S., which came into effect Tuesday, Sept. 8, and were in response to Canada’s own retaliatory tariffs, are likely to impact smaller to medium-sized businesses. Though not immediately, Mendes said.

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“The way in which the U.S. has retaliated for the retaliation focuses, to some extent, on where there would be pain for that small to medium business community,” Mendes said.

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The science of pricing

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uOttawa political science professor Charles-Étienne Beaudry says the federal government’s Innovation, Science, Economic Development Canada department should step in by developing a hotline where businesses can call a federal worker to consult on business decisions.

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Beaudry, author of new book The Return of the Enlightenment, says the federal government has an opportunity to help businesses determine new pricing for their goods, and find new suppliers within the country and across the world, as Canada continues to aim for a more diverse economy, one less reliant on the U.S.