A passionate narrative of individual power, colourful characters, family rivalries, and foreign ownership of Canadas brewing industry.

Winner of the 2002 North American Guild of Beer Writers’ Quill & Tankard Annual Writing Award The Canadian brewing industry predates Confederation by two hundred years; Canada boasts the oldest, continuously operating brewery in North America. Canadian brewers have survived the persecution of the Temperance Movement and Prohibition, the Great Depression, two World Wars and the challenge of Free Trade. Today, brewing in Canada is a 10 billion dollar business whose one constant is change. From its colonial past to the microbrewery renaissance, Brewed in Canada is a passionate narrative of individual power, colourful characters, family rivalries and foreign ownership. Individual stories tell of personal success and failure, bankruptcies, takeovers, consolidation and rationalization. As men of influence, these brewers made significant contributions to their local communities and the country. Beyond the day-to-day operation of their brewing business, some would make their mark in politics, while others built churches, hospitals and helped establish universities. A commitment to community service - and to brewing excellence - continues today.

Winner of the 2002 North American Guild of Beer Writers' Quill & Tankard Annual Writing Award The Canadian brewing industry predates Confederation by two hundred years; Canada boasts the oldest, continuously operating brewery in North America. Canadian brewers have survived the persecution of the Temperance Movement and Prohibition, the Great Depression, two World Wars and the challenge of Free Trade. Today, brewing in Canada is a 10 billion dollar business whose one constant is change. From its colonial past to the microbrewery renaissance, Brewed in Canada is a passionate narrative of individual power, colourful characters, family rivalries and foreign ownership. Individual stories tell of personal success and failure, bankruptcies, takeovers, consolidation and rationalization. As men of influence, these brewers made significant contributions to their local communities and the country. Beyond the day-to-day operation of their brewing business, some would make their mark in politics, while others built churches, hospitals and helped establish universities. A commitment to community service - and to brewing excellence - continues today.

A passionate narrative of individual power, colourful characters, family rivalries, and foreign ownership of Canadas brewing industry.

For decades, the name Labatt was synonymous with beer in Canada, but no longer. Brewed in the North traces the birth, growth, and demise of one of the nation's oldest and most successful breweries. Opening a window into Canada's complicated relationship with beer, Matthew Bellamy examines the strategic decisions taken by a long line of Labatt family members and professional managers from the 1840s, when John Kinder Labatt entered the business of brewing in the Upper Canadian town of London, to the globalization of the industry in the 1990s. Spotlighting the challenges involved as Labatt executives adjusted to external shocks – the advent of the railway, Prohibition, war, the Great Depression, new forms of competition, and free trade – Bellamy offers a case study of success and failure in business. Through Labatt's lively history from 1847 to 1995, this book explores the wider spirit of Canadian capitalism, the interplay between the state's moral economy and enterprise, and the difficulties of creating popular beer brands in a country that is regionally, linguistically, and culturally diverse. A comprehensive look at one of the industry's most iconic firms, Brewed in the North sheds light on what it takes to succeed in the business of Canadian brewing.

Brew North tells the delightful story of Canada's national beverage. Lively and informative, Brew North puts beer lovers front and centre. From cowboys quaffing India pale ale in a western saloon to modern-day beer snobs sipping pints of cask-brewed bitter and commenting on its “chocolate and cigar box bass notes,” this is the story of the men—and women—who brewed, served and drank the intoxicating malted beverage. Charming illustrations reveal rustic taverns, Victorian photographs give us that era’s opulent saloons, and modern colour shots help us understand the brewing process. The book also illustrates how brewers have long been conscious of marketing and advertising, creating unique bottles and ads, giveaway trays and signs.

Beer historians and writers Alan McLeod and Jordan St. John have tapped the cask of Ontario brewing to bring the complete story to light, from foam to dregs. Ontario boasts a potent mix of brewing traditions. Wherever Europeans explored, battled, and settled, beer was not far behind, which brought the simple magic of brewing to Ontario in the 1670s. Early Hudson's Bay Company traders brewed in Canada's Arctic, and Loyalist refugees brought the craft north in the 1780s. Early 1900s temperance activists drove the industry largely underground but couldn't dry up the quest to quench Ontarians' thirst. The heavy regulation that replaced prohibition centralized surviving breweries. Today, independent breweries are booming and writing their own chapters in the Ontario beer story.