MOOSEHEAD ANNOUNCES ADDITION OF SMALL-BATCH BREWERY TO HISTORIC MAIN STREET BREWHOUSE
Development will include tap room and a 20-barrel system for brewing innovation
Moosehead Breweries announced today a new small-batch brewery and tap room to be built at the company’s historic West Side brewery at 89 Main Street West in Saint John. Construction on the new addition gets underway next week, with opening scheduled for May 2018.
The new small-batch brewery will feature a 20-barrel brewing system and a 3-barrel pilot system, allowing Moosehead to create new beers in smaller quantities for offer at retail, on-site in the tap room or at bars and restaurants. The Moosehead brewery currently has a 450-barrel brewing system.
“As a company, we’re excited to have the flexibility to experiment in ways that can be difficult within our primary brewhouse,” said Andrew Oland, President and CEO, Moosehead Breweries. “We have a talented team ready to bring incredible new innovations to life and I can’t wait to introduce these new beers to Saint John and to Canada.”
More than simply a place to brew beer, the new small-batch brewery will provide a complete Moosehead experience. The brewery will feature a retail store, growler fill station and a selection of Moosehead merchandise for sale. An on-site tap room will give consumers the opportunity to enjoy fresh beer on the floor of the new brewery, and the small-batch brewery will serve as the beginning and end point for Moosehead Brewery Tours, which the company started offering in June of this year. To date, more than 1,000 visitors have taken part in the Tours experience.
The brewery confirmed that they expect to make a number of new hires in the lead-up for the 2018 opening.
This announcement follows a decision by Moosehead earlier this year to move away from a plan for a small-batch brewery on the Saint John waterfront.
“The entire team at Moosehead has worked incredibly hard to bring our small-batch vision to life in a way that I know is going to delight both new and existing Moosehead fans,” explains Karen Cousins, Director of Brewery Experiences. “Housing the new small-batch brewery within our historic brewery allows us to uniquely bring together our past and our future as one of Canada’s leading brewers, and reaffirms our commitment to our Saint John home.”
Moosehead is Canada’s oldest and largest independent brewery. This year, the company is celebrating its 150th anniversary of operation.
