Beer campaign across Canada taps into by local movement in face of U.S. tariffs

Nova Scotia’s North Brewing Company has joined more than 40 other breweries across Canada in the Glorious and Free campaign.

The campaign has breweries from coast to coast to coast brewing their own version of Ottawa’s Dominion City Brewing Company Glorious and Free IPA using local ingredients.

“Making things better and being a positive force, you know, on a local scale,” said North Brewing Company president Peter Burbridge. “While things are huge and scary on a macro-scale, it’s sort of like, let’s look at some positive things on a micro-scale.”

He adds that North Brewing sourced its malt from a company in P.E.I. with the goal of making its batch of Glorious and Free IPA hyper-local to the region.

As for the flavour of the IPA, Burbirdge says it has a nice level of bitterness, similar to a hazy IPA with some refreshing, juicy tropical notes.

“The beautiful thing about craft beer is that every brewery has slightly different processes, different ways they work, so every beer is going to taste a little different,” he added. “So I think we definitely have a distinctive taste our customers are used to coming from us, and we think this fits the bill as well.

Fifty cents from every can sold during this campaign will go towards the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, something Burbridge says is a no-brainer given the work the centre does for the community. He adds that it’s also a way to include truth and reconciliation during this time of Canadian patriotism.

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“Especially with just the wild rhetoric and sort of the bad way that nationalism can go, this is sort of trying to be a little more thoughtful,” he continues. “We can celebrate Canada while acknowledging our true history.

The project was started by Dominion City Brewing Company in hopes that it will encourage people to buy local, take a stand against U.S. threats to Canada with tariffs, and comments on Canada becoming the 51st state.

As for how the campaign is going across Canada, Josh McJannett, Dominion City Brewing Company’s co-founder, says momentum continues to grow.

“I think we want to help people take an action, to do something good. I think we have a country that’s worth fighting for, we can do something, each of us, can do something and this is our way of trying to do it, trying to empower folks to do something,” McJannett says.

The Glorious and Free beers will be available at North Brewing locations throughout the spring.