PROJECT v.

Cascade Pale

PROJECT v.

Cascade Pale

PROJECT v.

Cascade Pale

PROJECT v.

Cascade Pale

PROJECT v.

Cascade Pale

A) HISTORY

John Williams purchased Vancouver's first brewery a year after it was founded in 1887 by J.A. Rekab. Williams renamed it Red Cross Brewery and held a contest to come up with a good name for a beer. Cascade was the name that won.

In 1902 Red Cross merged with Doering & Marstrand Brewing Co to become Vancouver Breweries. In 1912 it merged again with three other breweries to become British Columbia Breweries Ltd. In 1923, it became part of Brewers & Distillers of Vancouver and then in 1950, Western Canada Brewers Limited. During these times the Cascade brand remained the flagship product of Vancouver Breweries and the most popular beer in British Columbia. In 1953 Western Canada Brewers was acquired by Canadian Brewers Ltd. In 1973 Canadian Breweries was sold to cigarette maker Rothman’s of Pall Mall and renamed Carling O'Keefe. In 1989, Carling O’Keefe merged with Molson Breweries Canada Ltd to become Molson Companies Ltd, now Molson Coors Brewing Company.

It's difficult to say when the Cascade brand ended. My best guess is around 1953 when Western Canada Brewers was bought out by the larger East Coast consortium. While all these mergers began as an attempt to protect breweries through turbulent times (wars, prohibition, regulations) they later became purely capitalist and profit based in nature. What this resulted in was the extinction of local styles and a homogenization of national beers with the few remaining breweries producing similar-tasting pale ales, lagers and ales. The merger of Carling O’Keefe with Molson in 1989 reduced the number of big brewers in Canada to just two. It's easy to forget in today's world of craft brewing that for several decades Canada's beer selection was pitiful.

B) BRAND

What if all those mergers had never happened? What if Cascade had continued on as the crown jewel of west coast Canadian brewing? Perhaps it would have become a symbol of pride and differentiator for west coasters? Maybe a bit like how in southern Ireland everyone drinks Murphy's instead Guinness. Maybe ‘craft’ would never have been lost.

The Cascade script is classic and timeless and varys little over the four or five decades of its existence. “The Beer without a Peer” is also prevalent in most advertising including a neon sign which sat atop the Regent Hotel on East Hastings.

B) BRAND

What caught my attention was Mc &Mc's Sunset brand. I don’t know the origins but from early on the sunset illustration and name is found all over. It's very present throughout it's catalogues, signs and is even found on some products such as axes. Checkout the full 1908-1914 catalogue here. The Sunset gives a sense of moodiness and warmth, sort of odd for a wholesale hardware business. My favourite are the early illustrations.

BRAND

What caught my attention was Mc &Mc's Sunset brand. I don’t know the origins but from early on the sunset illustration and name is found all over. It's very present throughout it's catalogues, signs and is even found on some products such as axes. Checkout the full 1908-1914 catalogue here. The Sunset gives a sense of moodiness and warmth, sort of odd for a wholesale hardware business. My favourite are the early illustrations.

B) BRAND

What caught my attention was Mc &Mc's Sunset brand. I don’t know the origins but from early on the sunset illustration and name is found all over. It's very present throughout it's catalogues, signs and is even found on some products such as axes. Checkout the full 1908-1914 catalogue here. The Sunset gives a sense of moodiness and warmth, sort of odd for a wholesale hardware business. My favourite are the early illustrations.

C) REVIVAL

If things had played out differently, I imagined a vibrant brand that was proudly west coast but in a modern and progressive sort of way, yet still paying homage to its heritage and roots as a key part of Vancouver's first brewery. Perhaps this level of abstraction and colour intensity would never be accepted by a modern Canadian brewery (I don't care). Though I should credit inspiration for the somewhat wild use of colour with the work of Collins. Also the script bears some similarity to Coca-Cola so it's possible I'm channelling some of that as well.

C) REVIVAL

Mc & Mc were two partners in business, perhaps also friends, hardworking like the customers. If you flip Mc Mc on-end in looks a bit like two people. Mr McKlennan and Mr. McFeely heading off to work for the day?

Ad from 1902:

"The Beer with a Peer" makes delightful drinking.

Raise your glass and drink with us this delectable amber-colored beverage -- this king of drinks --this health-giving, sparkling liquid of crystal purity that clears the cobwebs from the brain -- sends the warm, rich blood bounding through one's veins --puts one in a kindly mood.

It chases away the cares of business,
It furnishes humor that shakes one's sides,
It warms the very cockles of one's heart and brings to life the better side of one's nature, made dormant by the exactions of this too strenuous age.

Fill up your glass again and drink with us this Canadian-made Beer---this Vancouver-made Beer---brewed right here in the City of Vancovuer, in a modern plant, owned and operated by Vancouverites employing local capital and local help, paying out many thousands of dollars annually in wages and for local materials---money which finds its way back to the pockets of our fellow townsmen.

But it is not upon the strength of loyalty to home institutions that we ask your patronage---rather upon the intrinsic worth of Cascade itself.

In a few short months, Cascade, by sheer worth, has placed itself right up at the head of the procession, until to-day its stands "The Beer without a Peer."

For sale at all first-class saloons, liquor stores and hotels.