Moosehead and Moonshine Creek Show ‘Community Spirit’ With New Whisky
SAINT JOHN — Two New Brunswick alcohol producers are hoping to show their “community spirit” in their new collaboration in support of the province’s food banks.
Moosehead Breweries and Moonshine Creek Distillery have teamed up to create “Community Spirit,” a rye lager virgin oak barrel-aged whisky inspired by the work the two New Brunswick companies did together to produce hand sanitizer at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the Covid-19 crisis started to take hold in Canada, Moonshine Creek wanted to do its part to help keep the community safe by producing hand sanitizer. However, the family-run small business didn’t have the ingredients needed to produce it in significant quantities.
Meanwhile, Moosehead wanted to do the same thing but lacked product with the high alcohol content required to make hand sanitizer. So the two companies came together and Moosehead shipped a total of 24,000 litres of beer to the distillery to be used in the production of sanitizer.
Once the sanitizer was produced, Moosehead and Moonshine Creek saw another opportunity to collaborate. They decided to craft the unique whisky by blending the workable materials, known as heads and tails, of the distilled Moosehead Lager into the second distillation run of a rye spirit, which was then blended with maple tree water.
Though the spirit itself is currently in a three-year ageing process, 500 certificates for bottles of the whisky will be made available for sale on July 15, Wednesday morning at Moonshine Creek’s website.
Certificates are $100 each, and 100 percent of proceeds from every sale will be donated to New Brunswick Food Banks – a $50,000 donation, assuming all certificates are claimed.
“As a family-owned and operated business, all of us at Moosehead are so proud to have partnered with Moonshine Creek – not only on our first-ever craft spirit collaboration but also on the project that started it all: the development and distribution of hand sanitizer for our community,” said Andrew Oland, president of Moosehead Breweries, in a release. “And we’re proud that this project will continue to give back to that same community, by supporting food banks across New Brunswick.”
Consumers from anywhere in Canada can make the purchase and will be able to redeem their individual certificate for their 750ml finished bottle in June 2023.
“This unique collaboration really demonstrates just how much we can accomplish when we come together,” said Jeremiah Clark, co-owner of Moonshine Creek. “Community Spirit was born out of a literal sense of community spirit and we hope that in three years when Canadians open and enjoy the finished whisky, they’ll remember how Canadians worked together in a time of crisis to better us all.”