Les Brasseurs du Nord


Les brasseurs du Nord is a brewery just north of Montreal, in Blainville, Quebec, Canada.

History

Founded in 1987 by three students at the UQAM, who paid their way through school selling home made beer, and then decided to try their hand at establishing a commercial brewery. Thanks to a small loan, the company was established. The students loaded their first four kegs in the back of the family Subaru and went looking for their first client. They managed to convince four bars in Montreal to carry the brew, and the resulting surge in demand helped the company expand several times. The resulting company account for just over 1% of the total beer sales in the province of Quebec.
The company was named after the Aurora Borealis, and the label features a polar bear above the word Boreale. It brewed the first amber style beer in Quebec. They currently brew six ale-type beers, Boréale Rousse, Boréale Blonde, Boréale Cuivrée, Boréale Noire, Boréale Dorée and Boréale Blanche and recently a new beer, Boreal IPA. Current production is at 70 000 hL, equivalent to 850 000 cases of 24 bottles.

Products

The company produces seven main brands of beer. and a few others.

Environment

The company has recently taken a "green" approach to brewing, hiring engineers to evaluate the expansion of the plant on the surrounding forest. They also had mature trees trans-planted at the facility to help keep the environment healthy. They have incorporated several state of the art energy-saving technologies in the building. They supply bars and restaurants with glasses made from recycled plastic, and have also donated money to help study the effects of climate change on polar bears around Hudson Bay. The company recently changed its label material from metallic foil to paper.