Sleeman Breweries

yeah absolutely um so Yes, my last name is Sleeman.

And my great-great-grandfather started Sleeman Breweries and Spring Mill Distillery, believe it or not, in 1834 and 1836 in St. David's, just outside of St. Catharines, Ontario.

Um, industrialization of Buffalo, New York, uh, polluted the waters, um, that my great great grandfather's well and stream was pulling, um, the water out of to, uh, make and brew beer.

So the brewery business moved to, um, Guelph in the 1850s, 1855, somewhere in there.

That was a 50-year ban for making beer.

Anybody with a last name in Canada could not make any sort of alcohol for 50 years.

And then in 1988, my father started Sleeman Breweries back up from nothing here in Guelph and moved on to some great success.

And the brewery grew very quickly.

We have a big slate of guests over the next two months lined up for you.

We have John Sleeman, you know, the legend in beer.

He'll be here soon, as will the founders of Bellwoods, Mike and Luke.

ian mccouster of amsterdam he's in the schedule jody apollo bisky of charcoal group and many more the end of 2026 on this show is going to be a lot of fun and glb beer week is coming up september 25th to october 3rd beer events all throughout uh the province uh fresh glb in your hand but let's get to today's show You know the story.

Absolutely.

And Sapporo actually bought Sleeman's back in 2006 out of Guelph, Ontario.

And so Ontarians are and actually bought Mill Street as well, downtown Toronto.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Hmm

... "to the US." And keep in mind, Sapporo actually bought Sleeman's in 2006-

That's right

... based out of Guelph, Ontario-

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Very well-established microbreweries in Canada, Sleeman being one of them.

Uh, Mill Street is, is another one.

Now, the reason they're doing this is because the Japanese population is declining badly, and they need another market besides their own.

And right now, they produce much of their product here with Sleeman Breweries, so you can see here.

Who acquired Sleeman Breweries? Sleeman Breweries was acquired by Sapporo Brewery.

So Sapporo owns Sleeman, which is located in Guelph, Ontario.

See here, headquartered in Guelph, Canada.

And some of this workforce, there's actually up to 1,600 people will be moving over to America for downsize.