Northern Breweries Ltd.

Northern Ontario's brewery: Sudbury Brewing and Malting (1907), Doran's, Doran's Northern Ontario Breweries (1960 or 1961), Northern Breweries Limited (1979), with plants at Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie (from 1911), Fort William (1913-1961), Timmins (1919) and Port Arthur (1948-1995). Since the Second World War it sold only north of the French River and held the exclusive right to supply draught beer to the North's hotels (Marcon) — the fact behind a viewer's memory that north of North Bay "you could only drink their draft". NO NORTH BAY PLANT was found; North Bay was the Doran and McKay families' home town. Bought by Canadian Breweries 31 August 1971; bought back by its employees 1 July 1977 (the 'first employee-owned brewery' claim rests on a 1977 magazine not yet read); sold 2004; closed 2006. Brands: Silver Foam, Northern Ale, Northern Extra Light, Europa. Edelbrau, Superior Lager, Thunder Bay Lager and Kakabeka Cream Lager were looked for and NOT found in any source. ONE RECORD FOR NOW: the five plants belong as sites of one operation and the Northern Ontario pass (research note, 22 Sept 2026) will split them; nothing here should be read as five breweries. EVIDENCE: two Sudbury.com columns by Jason Marcon (cited with his permission), the Wikipedia article and its footnotes, a Chronicle Journal feature, the successor brewery's heritage page; the primaries they cite (Sudbury Journal 1907, Weekend Magazine 1977, Sault Star, North Bay Nugget) are unread. Confidence C. Opened from SUB-06747 (@bobk.8594, 21 Sept 2026). Created INTERNAL 2026-09-24; not promoted. LABELS (collectors' catalogue, undated): Doran's Ale, Doran's Lager, Doran's 55, Brew 57, Edelbrau, Kakabeka Cream Lager, Kakabeka Fine Light Ale, Silver Foam Old Stock Ale, Silver Spray — so the Kakabeka and Edelbrau names a viewer remembered did exist; dates for each are UNKNOWN. Timmins and Fort William plant addresses: UNKNOWN. The 1960/1961 question remains open; Krista McCracken's post on the North-only market could not be reached (certificate error) and is the next thing to read.

A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.

1. 1907
   The Sudbury Brewing and Malting Company is incorporated

   Incorporated 25 February 1907 with five Toronto shareholders; J. J. Doran of North Bay, not a principal shareholder, was the driving force (Marcon, citing the Sudbury Journal of 11 April 1907). The plant at 185 Lorne Street was a three-storey brick building, 50 by 100 feet. Wikipedia says founded "by three families, the Doran family, the Mackey family and the Fee family" without a source; Marcon names Doran, John J. McKay of North Bay and the Detroit brewmaster John Clemens and no Fee. Recorded as a disagreement.

2. 1911
   Sault Ste. Marie: Soo Falls Brewing acquired

   The Sault plant was built in 1899 as the Soo Falls Brewing Co. by Casimir Kocot and Andrew J. Short (Sault Ste. Marie Public Library archives, via SooToday); the Doran group bought it in 1911. Street address: UNKNOWN.

3. 1913
   Fort William: Kakabeka Falls Brewing acquired

   The Kakabeka Falls Brewing Co. of Fort William, established 1906, joined the group in 1913 (Northern Superior); the plant closed in 1961 when the Port Arthur plant took over all production (Wikipedia). Founders and address: UNKNOWN — names that appeared only in search summaries are not recorded.

4. 1919
   Timmins: the Doran's Brewery division

   Two accounts. Wikipedia: the company established its Doran's Brewery division in Timmins in 1919. The Timmins Museum (via TimminsToday): "they started another brewery from scratch in Timmins in 1928 called the Gold Belt Brewery", built on "the Cyanide", filled land behind the railway station on the south side of the Schumacher Highway. Both kept; the museum's is the local account. Address, closing year and what stands there: UNKNOWN.

5. 1948
   Port Arthur Beverage Company acquired

   154 North Algoma Street, Port Arthur, had brewed since 1876, when Conrad Gehl founded the Superior Brewing and Malting Company there; Harry C. McMahon and Thomas Patrick Kelly renamed it the Port Arthur Beverage Company in 1919; "In 1948, J.J. Doran bought control of the business." Closed 1995; "Today, condominiums are located where the brewery once stood." (Chronicle Journal)

6. 1960
   Consolidated as Doran's Northern Ontario Breweries

   The plants were consolidated under Doran's Northern Ontario Breweries Limited in 1960 — Marcon, Wikipedia and the Sault library column ("The brewery operated under its original name until 1960") agree; the Chronicle Journal alone says 1961, which may be the Kakabeka Falls closure year rather than the consolidation — not established. The archive records 1960 with the 1961 reading kept.

7. 1971
   Bought by Canadian Breweries

   Purchased by Canadian Breweries on 31 August 1971 (Wikipedia); Marcon writes it as merged into Carling O'Keefe, then a Canadian Breweries division — the same event under the company's later name.

8. 1977
   The employees buy the brewery

   Carling O'Keefe moved to liquidate its northern breweries; the employees took over on 1 July 1977 — "creating the first ever employee-owned brewery" (Marcon); "the first employee-owned brewing cooperative in North America" (Northern Superior's heritage page; Wikipedia, citing Weekend Magazine, 24 September 1977 — not read). The purchasing group represented about two thirds of 175 permanent employees. Price paid: UNKNOWN.

9. 1979
   Northern Breweries Limited

   The new corporate name was chartered in 1979, two years after the buyout.

10. 1981
    Medals at Monde Selection

    Northern Extra Light took gold in 1981 and 1982; Europa, a non-alcoholic beer, silver in 1982.

11. 1995
    Thunder Bay plant closes

    The Lakehead operation closed in 1995 (Chronicle Journal) — eleven years before the rest, so the chain did not close all at once.

12. 2004
    Sold to an investment group

    Purchased in 2004 by a group led by Leo Schotte, who hired William Sharpe as president.

13. 2006
    Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie close

    Some $7 million in debt, production ceased in 2006 — "by December the company ceased production at the Sudbury facility" (Northern Superior) — and both remaining plants closed; the company was defunct by December.

14. 2015
    The Sault site brews again

    Northern Superior Brewing Co. began in March 2015 and revives the name; it operates at 50 Pim Street, the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre — not the old brewery. A 2019 local report (title only) describes the former Northern Brewery building being torn down. The earlier wording that the successor 'redeveloped the site' is withdrawn; whether any of the 1899 plant stands: UNKNOWN.

15. 2025
    The Sudbury building sold for a planned reopening

    The brewery complex at 185 Lorne Street: part became The Brewer Lofts (a residential conversion); in April 2025 "the owners behind Wacky Wings" bought "the old Northern Breweries building on Lorne Street to house the restaurant" (SooToday); Wikipedia gives a planned 2026 reopening. Which parts of the complex each holds: not established.