Moosehead
| Moosehead Breweries Ltd. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | Saint John, New Brunswick Canada |
| Active beers | |
| Alpine Lager | Macro lager |
| Alpine Light | Light lager |
| Clancy's Amber Ale | Amber Ale |
| Moosehead Dry Ice | Macro lager |
| Moosehead Lager | All-malt lager |
| Moosehead Light | Light lager |
| Moosehead Pale Ale | Pale ale |
| Moosehead Premium Dry | Macro lager |
| Ten Penny Old Stock Ale | Pale ale |
| Cold Filtered Light | Light Lager |
Moosehead Breweries Limited, located in Saint John, New Brunswick, is Canada's oldest independent brewery.
The brewery was founded in 1867 by Susannah Oland and is still operated by the Oland family, now in the sixth generation of ownership, under Derek Oland.
The Moosehead roster of beer consists of Moosehead Lager, Moosehead Light, Alpine Lager, Alpine Light, Alpine Summit, Moosehead Pale Ale, Clancy's Amber Ale, Moosehead Premium Dry and Moosehead Dry Ice, Ten-Penny Old Stock Ale, and Cold Filtered Light by Moosehead. Moosehead also produces under contract a number of international brands on behalf of four of the world's largest brewers. All brands of Moosehead have "Union Made" proudly displayed on their labels, and in some cases, directly on the bottle.
Moosehead sells its beer throughout Canada, the United States, and in 15 countries around the world. Once a popular premium import beer in the United States, Moosehead lost vast market share in the 1980s when it lowered its price in an attempt to compete with larger US brewers on price instead of quality & prestige.
Moosehead USA has recently become its own importer, replacing its importing partner Gambrinus. Glenn McDonald, President of Moosehead USA, recently announced the opening of a new head office in Boulder, Colorado. Among other goals, he commented that he is "looking to expand other brands into the US market."
Moosehead has purchased other manufacturing facilities including a 50% stake in the McAuslan brewery in Quebec and wholly owns the Niagara Falls Brewing Company in Ontario.
As Canada's two largest brewers (Labatt & Molson) are now foreign-owned, Moosehead is now Canada's largest 100% Canadian brewery.
The Stolen Batch
In August 2004 a truck driver transporting 60,000 cans of Moosehead beer to Mexico for a Mexican supermarket chain disappeared with the beer, leaving the nearly empty transport truck abandoned in a parking lot located in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. Easily identified by the Spanish writing on the labels (which is not common in an English/French speaking country of Canada) the beer was slowly tracked.
The first signs of the missing beer showed up in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with two empty cans; another report of two cans were reported later in northern New Brunswick. Police working on a tip eventually found the truck driver, Wade Haines, in Ontario; earlier in the same week, police discovered nearly 8,000 cans of the stolen suds in a trailer that went off the road near Woodstock, New Brunswick.
With most of the beer recovered and the driver in custody, the police in the New Brunswick area began to look in wooded areas for the remaining beer. Knowing the area in which the police were looking, many civilians took up the search as well. Because of the media attention on the story almost all of the beer was quickly found by different civilians and police, and returned to Moosehead Breweries.
The final piece of the story occurred in October 2004 when 200 cans of the stolen beer were found at a marijuana growing operation in the forest near Doaktown, New Brunswick about 100 kilometres northwest of Fredericton. "Six of the cans were discovered with bite marks in them indicating a bear had, at one point, been into the beer," the RCMP said in a news release. The release said there was no sign of either the animal or the people who had stashed the beer.
The unique and quirky nature of this crime story made international headlines and resulted in publicity for Moosehead; it has also been the basis of a book.
The Second Stolen Batch
In September 2007, two tractor trailers carrying 77,000 cans and 44,000 bottles with a reported retail value of $200,000 were stolen from a transport company in Mississauga, Ontario. Peel Region police arrested Pullara Calogero, of Vaughan, Ontario during the first week of October 2007 and charged him with possession of stolen property. Police believe he is responsible for the theft and of selling the beer to bars and after-hours clubs and that he may not have worked alone.
See also
External links
- http://www.alpinelager.com/
- http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/08/24/beer_nb040824.html
- http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/08/31/stolen_beer040831.html
- http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/10/21/moosehead_bear041021.html
- http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070919/K09199AU.html
- http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/071004/K100408AU.html
Rocky Mountain News
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