Moosehead Unveils Small-Batch Brewery Location
SAINT JOHN – Moosehead Breweries has unveiled the location of its new small-batch brewery in Saint John.
The company says the new brewery will be built on Water Street in the city’s uptown on land currently owned by Port Saint John.
Moosehead president Andrew Oland told Huddle the waterfront location is prime for what they want the new brewery to achieve.
“The waterfront location is very compelling because it’s at the centre of both where cruise ship passengers and tourists come to Saint John as well as two major entertainment districts in Saint John, which are the Trinity Royal and Market Square areas,” Oland said. “And of course it’s on the water, which is a fabulous opportunity for us to showcase Moosehead.
Announced in June, the small-batch brewery will be a 10,000 square foot space and include two small-scale brewing systems. The brewery’s open-concept design will accommodate tours and training, a tap room and a retail area for merchandise and beer sales. Moosehead’s brewers will use the small-scale brewing systems to create a new series of small batch brews that will be available for sale at the new brewery, at licensees and at retail outlets.
“We have a lovely brewery on the west side, but it’s a bigger brewery and it’s just not suited for brewing and packaging small batches or beer when we want to test things, when we want to work with innovation,” Oland said. “It’s just our batch size is too big here. That will be the first thing. We have all sorts of incredible ideas and talented brewers over here.”
Oland says the new location will also help spread the company’s story through tours, something the company hasn’t offered since the 1990’s.
“It’s a way to tell our story. We have a lovely story and an authentic story as Canada’s oldest independent brewery and consumers will be able to experience this through a rich tourist experience while also being exposed to and learning about beer.”
The company will enter a long-term lease with Port Saint John for the land.
“We have a long-term lease with the Port of Saint John and then it’s our responsibility and our cost to build a brewery on that site,” Oland said. “We’ve signed a letter of intent with the Port of Saint John and both sides are going through the appropriate due diligence which includes some environmental work and then we move towards signing a lease over the next month or so.”
Moosehead has hired Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple of Halifax as the architect for the project and FCC Construction in Saint John as the construction manager. The build is expected to get underway in Spring 2017 and the brewery will open later that year