At first, I thought this fact was pretty interesting if reliable. I suppose my beer purchasing habits are defined by other things than weather like availability of something interesting and the ability - a corollary of the first point - at any given time to get out of the local area and out on to the road. That, however, is not how stories floating around this month say Canadians gauge their beer spending habits. They are not craft beer explorers like me so much as backyard meteorologists - and the weather here before August was cold and a bit damp:

According to Environment Canada’s precipitation data, however, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Charlottetown and St. John’s in Newfoundland have experienced rainfall in excess of their historical averages for May and, in some cases, in June.... Sales at The Beer Store, Ontario’s main retail beer supplier, were flat for the 29 weeks ending July 19. However, Beer Store shipments to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which runs the province’s wine and spirit outlets and sells beer as well, rose 2.9 per cent. In recent years, beer sales have gone horizontal as younger drinkers turn to wine and other alcoholic drinks.

I don't know if I buy the effect of weather over, say, the economy. Canada's recession 2007-09 is just now turning out to have been a short sharp shock and things are starting to look like things are turning around. In western British Columbia, for example, beer sales dropped 5.2 per cent overall, but due mainly to declining import sales. Weather wouldn't drive you from an import - cost would. And if that was the case, why are Canadian craft beer sales up almost 5%? Are craft beer fans driving to drink by cold weather where macro drinkers shut it down? That doesn't seem to make much sense.