Ghosts of Canada's disappearing beer industry haunt N.B.-based Moosehead: Knowledge Driven Revolution

The old brick headquarters of Moosehead Brewery in downtown Saint John is said to be haunted by the restless spirit of a long-dead brewmaster.

The apparition has been spotted in the damp cellars of the Victorian-era building, hovering over the huge copper vats where the Oland family has brewed its beer for generations.

But patriarch Derek Oland, 66, Moosehead's chairman, is haunted by ghosts of a different sort these days.

In his office, where his ancestors toiled to create what is now the largest Canadian-owned brewery, Oland lives with the fading memory of a once-great industry that was populated by some of the most colourful characters from Canada's corporate past.

With the impending sale of yet another major brewery to foreign interests - this time Ontario-based Sleeman Breweries (TSX:ALE) to Sapporo of Japan - the Canadian brewing industry is all but dead.

Oland is not celebrating the disappearance of his Canadian competitors.

"I'm kind of disappointed," Oland said in an interview.

"I grew up in an industry, and my father did, where you had all the players around the table for industry issues. While it was extremely competitive, for the issues that weren't competitive like government legislation, alcohol abuse, all the social issues to do with alcohol . . . there was a collegiality. There isn't the same collegiality now because the people in Toronto are reporting to places like Belgium, Brazil and Colorado."

If the Sapporo deal is completed, Canada's three biggest national brewers - Molson Coors, Labatt and Sleeman - will be owned by foreign companies, although smaller regional beer producers such as Big Rock (TSX:BR.UN) of Calgary are still in Canadian hands.

Moosehead, which accounts for about 5.5 per cent of national beer sales, now moves to the top of the heap as the largest Canadian-owned brewery.

The brewery, which has been in existence since 1867 and owned by the Oland family since 1928, is held privately. That makes it much less vulnerable to foreign overtures.

Oland's sons, Andrew and Patrick, are the sixth generation to work in the family business, and his grandsons will be the seventh generation.

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