Following similar efforts by Molson and Alexander Keith’s, Moosehead Breweries is making its own play in the burgeoning craft beer category with the launch of a new brew, Boundary Ale.
Moosehead president and CEO Andrew Oland formally introduced the new beer during a tasting event in Toronto’s Liberty Village area Thursday. Oland noted that the climate is right for introducing more flavourful, complex beers.
Moosehead president and CEO Andrew Oland (left) and CFO Patrick Oland
“I’m really thrilled with how beer is evolving, and the passion for beer which is emerging,” Oland told journalists gathered for the event. “We felt that [flagship beer] Moosehead Lager is a fabulous representation of a North American lager, so we challenged our brewing team… to come up with an ale of a comparable quality.”
The Boundary name and label is intended to evoke nature, but also reflects the willingness of Moosehead and its customers to embrace new beers, said Oland. “It talks about the extent to which we’ve pushed ourselves with this new product,” he said. “And how our consumers are pushing themselves and becoming more and more experimental and comfortable with different types of beer.”
In development for more than two years, Boundary Ale is a hybrid of U.S. and U.K. pale ales, combining two English hop varieties (East Kent Golding and UK Fuggle) with two American hops (Cascade and Chinook).
It will be available in draught in Ontario and the Maritimes during the summer, and will be sold at retail in both bottles and 473ml tall cans, beginning in September.
“We’re not a craft brewery, but we wanted to develop a product that had a more diverse and complicated flavour profile for that consumer,” said Katie Kennedy, director of marketing for Moosehead. “We feel there’s nothing else like it in the Canadian marketplace.”
The addition of Boundary Ale brings Moosehead’s product line to 12; the company also distributes several Canadian, U.S. and European brands, including Samuel Adams, Paulaner and Magners Irish Cider through its subsidiary, The Premium Beer Company
St. John, N.B.-based Moosehead is Canada’s largest independent brewer, with more than $200 million in sales throughout Canada and the United States.
Kennedy said there is no plan to support the Boundary Ale launch with traditional marketing. Instead, the company plans to grow the brand through tasting events and word-of-mouth.
“The drinker we’re going after is not as influenced by marketing,” said Kennedy. “They want to learn about beer on their own and experience it in a very natural state. Because more people are trying things on their own right now, we feel it’s unique enough that we’re going to get some natural word of mouth.”
Moosehead is among the sponsors of Toronto’s annual NXNE musical festival in June, and will be sampling Boundary during the week-long event. The beer will also be featured at the Toronto Festival of Beer in late July.
“We want to win the hearts of those who may have graduated from Moosehead Lager,” said Kennedy. “Not everyone’s going to like it, you can’t please everybody, but it’s adding some interest to our portfolio.”
Toronto-based Elevator Communications is providing PR support for the launch.
Oland and his brother Patrick – Moosehead’s chief financial officer – are the sixth generation of Olands to work at the company started by their great-great-great grandmother in 1867. There is a rule, however, that every family member must work outside the business before joining the company.
Oland, who became Moosehead president and CEO in 2008, worked as a project planner at a Halifax shipyard for three-and-a-half years before arriving at Moosehead as a foreman in the bottling department. “I used to joke with people that I would have been Laverne and Shirley’s boss,” he said. “It was just a great way to learn about the business.”
