Curated by Rod Taylor
How sustainable is your beer? How is beer made? The History of Brewing in Nelson exhibit will provide visitors the opportunity to ponder these questions and more. From labels and bottles to beer trucks and parade floats, numerous images and artifacts will be on display both from the Touchstones Nelson permanent collection and on loan from private collectors. This exhibit will feature not only information about the process brewing and samples of the ingredients, but there will also be a small batch of ale actually being brewed in the gallery!
With the first brewery dating back to 1893, brewing has a long history in Nelson. At that time, and well into the 20th century, virtually every community had their own brewery. Ymir, Sandon, Kaslo, Greenwood, Rossland, to name just a few. Prohibition, the Great Depression and World War Two were hard on breweries however. As the 20th century progressed, small breweries merged or were bought out by other brewers, or disappeared altogether. This resulted in larger companies that took advantage of improved transportation networks to distribute their beer increasingly longer distances from fewer breweries.
Although it was less of a choice in those days, many people practised localized consumption in 1894 when Robert Riesterer started brewing beer in Nelson. Over the decades, Riesterer’s brewery would change names and ownership several times, weathering two world wars and the “People’s Prohibition Association of Nelson” (circa 1916). It also acquired and merged with other small breweries over the years, its growth spurred on with the advent of a modern transportation system. In 1959, nine years after being purchased by Interior Breweries Ltd., operations were moved to a newly constructed plant in Creston, leaving Nelson without a local brewer for the first time in decades. A generation later, with “microbreweries” gaining in popularity, enter the Nelson Brewing Company, unrelated except by name and its location in the building formerly occupied by Riesterer’s brewing company.
Nearly two decades later, NBC continues to thrive primarily serving a local market, similar to brewers more than 100 years ago, an interesting echo of those earlier times. Today however, with ideas such as the “100 Mile Diet” gaining increasing public support, buying local is much more about choice than necessity. In 2005, NBC made the decision to make all of its beers certified organic, making it among the first commercial breweries in Canada to do so, and further reflecting the interests of the local market. Sustainable? Perhaps, but definitely tasty! Although microbreweries only account for a relatively small percentage of the total amount of beer sold, it’s an important benefit to consider, and an interesting echo of how brewing looked one hundred years ago.
Special thanks to Stan Sherstobitoff, local brewarianist extraordinaire, who has given generously of his time and collection. Also thanks to the Nelson Brewing Company for sponsoring the exhibit and contributing artifacts, and to Shawn Lamb for her continued support of our activities. Cheers and enjoy the exhibit!
