The Kootenays & The Rockies

The Secret 'Squatch: the hidden Sasquatch wasn't there on day one. In the early '90s, as market share slipped, a marketer noticed drinkers loved hunting the 'hidden rabbits' on Molson Old Style — so…

Fernie Brewing is what happens when a family barn is allowed to keep growing for twenty years. Started by the Pask family in 2003 on their own farm, moved into a purpose-built plant on Highway 3 in…

Angry Hen Brewing pours in Kaslo, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Fisher Peak Brewing pours in Cranbrook, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Independent in Revelstoke since 1996, in a mountain town of eight thousand people. That is a small base to build a brewery on.

Wild North Brewing Co pours in Creston, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Backroads Brewing Company pours in Nelson, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Certified organic since 1991, which in the Kootenays is less a marketing position than the local default. Silver King and Valhalla are the mountains above the town; Bent Pole and Joyride are what you…

Over Time Beer Works pours in Kimberley, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Radium Brewing pours in Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Oliver Allen opened in May 1891, and by 1894 the Revelstoke Museum records the brewery being described as the largest of its kind in the Kootenays — making ales, porter and lager, all three, in a…

Revystoked Brewing Company pours in Revelstoke, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Rossland Beer Company pours in Rossland, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Invermere Brewing Co pours in Invermere, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Rossland's longest-running brewery, opened in 1897 by Hugh Henderson and William Allen on Le Roi Avenue — and the only one in this town whose beers are named: Gold Seal Lager and Famous Perfection…

Nakusp Brewing Company pours in Nakusp, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Opened as a nano-brewery in June 2014 and grew into a microbrewery and lounge by May 2017 — the standard modern path, walked in three years. The owners announced a permanent closure in February 2026…

Encore Brewing Company pours in Cranbrook, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Whitetooth Brewing Co. pours in Golden, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Grist & Mash Brewery pours in Kimberley, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Rumpus Beer Co pours in Revelstoke, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

Tailout Brewing pours in Trail, British Columbia. The full profile — founding, people, beer library, travel — is still to be written.

BC Pass 57. Opened in 2012. In spring 2025 Village Brewery acquired a controlling stake and Arrowhead was rebranded/reopened as Invermere Brewing Co.; preserve Arrowhead as predecessor.

Three names across thirty-one years. SFU traces A & R in 1890 into Righton's from 1890 to 1893, and then the Kootenay Brewery from 1893 to 1918, with the line carried through Prohibition to 1921.…

Eight years in Nelson, 1897 to 1905, and SFU's dating is the entire record — no brewer, no beers, no cause. What it does establish is that Castle ran alongside the Riesterer line for the whole of its…

Five years, ending in a merger rather than a failure: SFU dates Columbia in Rossland from 1895 to 1900, and the Rossland Museum records Lion Brewing merging with it in that year. A brewery that…

Three years, 1904 to 1907, overlapping entirely with James Kerrigan and Co. — which means Cranbrook was supporting two breweries at once in the mid-1900s. SFU's date range is the whole of what is…

Forty-four years, through Prohibition and into the industrial era — SFU's continuity shows it surviving what closed most of the province's brewing companies. It is the third Cranbrook brewery in this…

Sixty years in a mountain town, straight through Prohibition. SFU dates Enterprise Brewery Ltd. from 1897 to 1957 — by a wide margin the longest continuous brewing operation in the British Columbia…

BC Pass 57. Current BC Ale Trail brewery; opened in 2020 in a former bank building with its vault retained in the taproom.

Two names on one SFU continuity row: Ice Spring from 1895 to 1900 and Rossland Spring from 1895 to 1903, overlapping in a way the source does not resolve and the archive does not tidy up on its…

One year. SFU's timeline dates the Imperial Brewery in Nelson to 1901–1902 and that is the whole of it. It needs keeping distinct from the Imperial Brewing Co. of Kamloops — a different business in a…

J.R. Myers's Trail brewery of 1898 became the Yuengling Brothers Brewing Co. in the same year, running to 1900 — the Rossland Museum dates Lion Brewing's absorption of it to 1899, which the two…

Seventeen years, ending the year before British Columbia's prohibition arrived. SFU's dating — 1899 to 1916 — is the entire record: no beers, no brewer beyond the company name, no cause. The archive…

One year, and a name three times longer than its life: SFU dates the Kootenay Brewing, Malting and Distilling Co. at Trail from 1896 to 1897, and that is the whole record — no brewer, no beers, no…

The Kootenay consolidator. The Rossland Museum documents Louis Blue's Lion Brewery absorbing the Yuengling brewery at Trail in 1899 and merging with Rossland's own Columbia Brewery in 1900, after…

One Trail brewery through several names — Milwaukee, then Fluhrer, then Union — running from 1897 to 1918, with the line carried through Prohibition to 1924. That is three years longer than the…

BC Pass 57. British Columbia's first dedicated gluten-free craft brewery. First product launched in 2022. Current first-party and BC Ale Trail pages confirm Cranbrook production; beer is distributed…

Oliver Allen resurrecting his own brewery name. The Revelstoke Museum documents him reviving the Revelstoke Brewery with William Johnson in 1903, three years after the first one ended, and this…

Nelson's main brewing line, and thirty-five years of it: Riesterer & Co. from 1893, Nelson Brewery from 1897, Nelson Brewing & Ice Co. from 1899, and Nelson Brewing Co. from 1904 to 1928, with…

A modern Trail brewery with no founding year established here. The Tailout owners purchased it in 2024, and the Trail Beer Refinery operation closed as Tailout moved into the space in 2025. The…

Four years and two names in a Kootenay mining town at its loudest. SFU's continuity row dates Walter & Smith 1892–93 and Wills Brewer 1893–96, and keeps the whole thing separate from the Riesterer…

Museum gives Aug.–Oct. 1890 partnership. SFU's timeline summarizes the BRW-72 1890 segment at broader temporal resolution. Legal entity: A & R Brewery. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION…

Original Backroads site. Osoyoos remains a separate brewery-site record already in the master. Legal entity: Backroads Brewing Company. Production evidence: CURRENT PRODUCTION VERIFIED — current…

Started in the Pask family barn in 2003; moved to purpose-built current brewery in 2007. Legal entity: Fernie Brewing Company. Production evidence: CURRENT PRODUCTION VERIFIED — current first-party…

Produced Gold Seal Lager and Famous Perfection Beer; closed October 1917 with Prohibition. Legal entity: Le Roi Brewing Company. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED — museum and SFU…

Absorbed Yuengling Brewery in Trail in 1899 and merged with Rossland Columbia Brewery in 1900. Legal entity: Lion Brewing Company. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED — museum…

Ice production and underground/creek-cooled cellar are part of the site's historical engineering story. Legal entity: Nelson Brewing and Ice Co.. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED —…

Separate later operation from Allen's 1891–1900 north-bank brewery; similar name is not merged across physical sites. Legal entity: Revelstoke Brewery. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION…

Distinct physical brewery from Allen's later 1903 operation. Museum reports ales/porter and a lager brewery with 150-ton ice house by 1894. Legal entity: Revelstoke Brewery. Production evidence:…

First named segment of SFU BRW-78 historical Nelson lineage. Legal entity: Riesterer and Co.. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED — SFU BRW-78.. Ownership as recorded: HISTORICAL…

Museum calls this Rossland's first brewery; SFU BRW-81 also records an Ice Spring Brewery name on same row, so exact naming/corporate relationship is HELD. Legal entity: Rossland Spring Brewery /…

Physical-site history preserved separately from current Trail brewery. Legal entity: Tailout Brewing. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED — Tailout opened late 2019 and brewed in…

Current Tailout main base occupies the former Trail Beer Refinery brewery. Same company previously brewed in Castlegar. Legal entity: Tailout Brewing. Production evidence: CURRENT PRODUCTION VERIFIED…

Same physical industrial site lineage as Interior Breweries Creston. Labatt acquired Columbia in 1974/75; current federal facility record identifies Labatt as company/operator. Legal entity: Columbia…

Major Fernie industrial brewery; cooling system, bottling plant and regional distribution documented. Not merged with modern Fernie Brewing Company. Legal entity: Fernie-Fort Steele Brewing Company.…

Created from consolidation of four Kootenay breweries; current Columbia brewery represents the later same-site/name lineage. Legal entity: Interior Breweries Ltd.. Production evidence: HISTORICAL…

Same-row successor name after Riesterer and Co.; exact legal continuity not assumed. Legal entity: Nelson Brewery. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED — SFU BRW-78.. Status as…

Distinct from modern 1991 Nelson Brewing Company despite reuse of the building and name. Legal entity: Nelson Brewing Co.. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED — SFU BRW-78 through…

Relationship to J.R. Myers Brewery on same SFU row remains unresolved; Lion absorption is independently museum-sourced. Legal entity: Yuengling Brothers Brewing Co.. Production evidence: HISTORICAL…

Separate Nelson brewery from BRW-78 lineage. Legal entity: Castle Brewery. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED — SFU BRW-91.. Status as recorded: CLOSED.

Distinct contemporaneous brewery from Fernie-Fort Steele; no unsupported owner/site merge. Legal entity: Fernie Brewery. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED — SFU BRW-119.. Status as…

BC Pass 57. SFU pre-Prohibition timeline lists a distinct Fernie Brewery operating 1903-1905; kept separate from Fort Steele Brewing Co. and modern Fernie Brewing.

BC Pass 57. SFU dates Kaslo Brewery 1897-1902.

No production is inferred during BC Prohibition. Exact legal/site succession from Righton's is unresolved. Legal entity: Kootenay Brewery. Production evidence: HISTORICAL PRODUCTION VERIFIED — SFU…

SFU places A&R, Righton's and Kootenay Brewery on one continuity row; SFU explicitly says same-row continuity may mean a company name change OR a new company at the same brewery site. Legal entity:…