Millstream / Nanaimo Brewery lineage

The beginning of brewing in a coal town. SFU traces the Millstream Brewery of 1864–66 into the Nanaimo Brewery that ran until 1879 — one continuity under two names, fifteen years in total. Nanaimo in the 1860s was a Hudson's Bay coal settlement hardening into a company town, and a brewery arrives early in places like that. The archive holds the two names as one business because the source does.

1. 1864
   Millstream Brewery

   The earliest brewing recorded in Nanaimo.

2. 1867
   Becomes Nanaimo Brewery

   Same continuity, new name, per SFU's BC Beer History Archive.

3. 1879
   Line ends

   The Mahrer lineage takes up the Nanaimo Brewery name the same year.

Sources

1. recordProbable

   Brewery record taken from Tally's British Columbia master, Pass 57, which cited https://www.sfu.ca/archives/archives-program/research/bc-beer-history-archive/bc-beer-history-archive-resources/timeline-pre-prohibition.html for this entry. The cited page has not been opened by the archive.

   Tally's British Columbia master, Pass 57 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026

   CommercialMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-19Reviewed 2026-08-19
2. historyProbable

   Continuity dates as recorded in BC Pass 57: 1864, 1867, 1879.

   Tally's British Columbia master, Pass 57 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026

   CommercialMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-19Reviewed 2026-08-19

Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.