Sixth-generation owners of Moosehead celebrate a company as old as Canada itself

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This article was published 16/05/2017 (3056 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s oldest independent brewery is hoping beer drinkers from coast to coast will raise a glass for their big birthday this year.

Like the country in which it is owned and operated, the Saint John, N.B.-based Moosehead Breweries is celebrating 150 years of crafting lagers and ales and is rolling out new, repackaged and new-to-Manitoba products over the next few months.

Originally established in Halifax in 1867, the brewery was twice ravaged by fire before being destroyed in the 1917 Halifax explosion. Shortly thereafter the Olands, now in their sixth generation of ownership of the brewery, moved to Saint John and set up shop, where they’ve operated in the same facility for more than eight decades.

In addition to being the oldest Canadian brewery, Moosehead is also the largest — while Molson, Labatt and Sleeman are all bigger and older, they’re all also foreign-owned. (In Canada, Moosehead also markets Boston-based Samuel Adams and Spain’s Estrella Damm, and in 2004 purchased Brampton, Ont.-based craft brewery Hop City.)

In honour of Moosehead’s 150th birthday, president and CEO Andrew Oland is in town today to help promote a pair of new products to the Manitoba market. It’s also a chance to celebrate 25 years of Moosehead in the province; the brewer entered the Manitoba market a quarter-century ago as regulations surrounding interprovincial shipments began to change.

The first of two new-to-Manitoba products is the Moosehead Pale Ale, which has long been available in Eastern Canada and is now being rolled out across the Prairies in a 12 x 341-ml bottle case. “The brewery we purchased in Saint John in 1928 had this trademark moose’s head. This was way before branding,” says Oland by phone from Saint John. “Our first beer became Moosehead Pale Ale, and [in 1947] the brewery became Moosehead.”

Another product Oland is helping roll out across the country is the Anniversary Ale, a beer available in 473-ml cans made with ingredients sourced from across Canada: hops from B.C., Ontario and New Brunswick as well as two kinds of malt from Ontario and the Prairies. “One of the best parts of my job is working with my team. We had an idea for what type of beer we wanted to brew. We talked it through, sampled competitive brands and figured out what components of these other beers we liked,” Oland explains. “We tried to make an ale that represents that style, but that has a sessionability to it, with a balance between the hops and the malt.”

And while craft beer continues to grow in popularity across the country, including the rapidly growing number of breweries and brew pubs in Manitoba over the last two years, Oland doesn’t find cause for concern. “We have such admiration for all these folks who are putting their capital and their blood, sweat and tears into brewing beer. A lot of them are making really good beer, and should feel good about that,” he says.

In today’s crowded beer market, Oland figures it would be much more difficult for a brewery to grow to Moosehead’s size, but suggests budding brewers look beyond the short term. “When I speak to small brewers, I encourage them to think about the long term and make calculated risks from an investment perspective.”

Despite the brewery’s size, Moosehead still very much remains a family affair. “My father Derek [Moosehead’s executive chairman] is 78 years old. He’s our principal shareholder; we’re in the process of transferring ownership from the fifth generation to the sixth generation,” Oland explains.

Which isn’t to say the elder Oland is stepping away from the business. “My father has a great saying: nose in, hands out,” laughs Oland. “There are areas where I know I have complete authority, areas where I know I need to give him a heads-up, and areas where I actively seek his counsel. It works well.”

And while the family still fields the occasional offer to buy the brewery, Oland says it’s not in the plans. “That’s a tremendous compliment to us, but it’s something we don’t spend any time talking about.”

ben.macphee-sigurdson@freepress.mb.ca