Our History

In 1865, John James Dunn Oland and his wife Susannah made the long trek, along with their seven children, from England to Nova Scotia. There they planned to live and work, with Susannah raising the children and John J.D. working with the Inter-colonial Railway as it stretched east into Truro, Nova Scotia. Things changed however, when Susannah began brewing a few batches of an old family recipe for “brown October ale,” a beer that had been brewed on their estate in England. The brew was so good, friends and neighbours persuaded the family to produce it on a larger scale and sell it to the public. In 1867, the Oland family opened their first brewery in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It was known as the Army and Navy Brewery, named so because of the majority of its clients, and was located on the banks of Halifax Harbour. After a few years of operation, the Army and Navy Brewery began to prosper.

Three short years later, tragedy struck the Oland family when John J.D. Oland died in a riding accident. Susannah, 52 at the time, was left to manage the brewery and raise five of the seven children still living at home. Susannah lost control of her livelihood when, in 1874, the controlling shares of the Army and Navy Brewery were turned over to a local Halifax businessman. But things began to look up for Susannah in 1877 when she received an inheritance from a family member in England. The Oland family repurchased the controlling shares in the brewery and renamed it S. Oland Sons & Company. Susannah’s son George W.C. took charge of the brewery until 1917, when the tragic Halifax Explosion once again devastated the family and the brewery was destroyed.

As the family grew and changed, so did their participation in the brewing industry. At the end of the Great War, Susannah’s son George W.C. moved to Saint John, New Brunswick with his son George B., a major in the Artillery for Canada. The Simeon Jones Brewery, a local company, was up for sale at this time, and using government compensation money from the Halifax Explosion, father and son purchased the brewery. Then, in 1928 George B. acquired and gained control of the James Ready Brewery in West Saint John. This larger brewery would eventually become Moosehead Breweries Limited.

The strength and determination of the Oland family was tested many times as they faced fires, family loss, Prohibition, the Depression, the Halifax Explosion and two World Wars. The Oland family has remained ingrained in the Canadian brewing industry for nearly 140 years. In the early 1960s Philip (P.W.) Oland, George B.’s son became the President of Moosehead Breweries and under his guidance and knowledge of the industry, Moosehead products were introduced to the United States gaining popularity there and around the world. Moosehead’s current Chairman and CEO, Derek Oland, continues to lead the organization with the same knowledge and expertise passed down from his father P.W. and his ancestors before.

Moosehead Breweries has continued expanding and is now distributed in 15 countries, and all 50 states in the U.S.A. And the strong family tradition of brewing also continues at Moosehead Breweries as two of Derek’s sons, Andrew and Patrick, have become the 6th Oland generation to work in the family business.