Vive Brador!

For What Ales You

Brador was a premium beer brewed by Molson Breweries of Canada, now Molson-Coors Beverage Company.

The company today is jointly-owned – Canadian-American – and publicly traded in both countries. Both Canadians and Americans are on the board including Molson scion Geoffrey Molson.

Reports when the merger was formed indicated each Coors and Molson family has 1/3rd voting control. Effectively, this is joint control of the business.

The head office is in Chicago now, but with breweries in five Canadian provinces and thousands employed here, the Canadian brewery is still sizeable.

The Canadian Molson has long been and remains is the oldest continuing brewer in North America.

Before the craft beer era, Brador was one of the few Molson brands with cachet. It was first released in 1972 according to a report prepared for the 1975 Inquiry on Corporate Concentration, but actually came out in 1971, according to information I discuss below.

Brador finally departed the market 12-15 years ago. At the end was it was an undistinguished beer with a generic, mass-market taste.

I remember it differently in its prime, meaning 1970s-1980s. I drank it on occasion but it was a strong beer, 6.2% abv (6% in the last years) and I preferred 5% beer in general.

The taste was good, although not impactful like a British pale ale or a German lager. Beer writer Michael Jackson thought well of Brador in the 1982 The Pocket Guide to Beer, describing it as a top-fermenting ale even as the label read “malt liquor”.

Canadian beer writer Steve Beaumont, in his 1994 Great Canadian Beer Guide, stated thus:

Pale gold-coloured with a sweet, roasted and faintly smoky nose. The soft and malty start gives way to floral body with hints of raw sugar before a slightly bitter caramel finish with sweet-and-sour notes.

This is how I remember the taste. I never knew the beer when the label did not state “malt liquor” but I recalled the lore that Brador “used to be an ale”, and “was better then”.

It turns out it was an ale earlier, as at one time the label stated this.

Consider a Brador ad (p. 18) in October 1971 in Le Nouvelliste in Quebec.The label reads “Bière/Ale”. There is no reference to malt liquor.

 

 

But check any vintage label online, say at Ebay, and it states “Bière/Malt Liquor”. Few examples must survive of the original label, which I believe was changed in 1972.

The reason had to be a new federal law that same year, as explained in this story in another Quebec newspaper, in December 1971. The strength, 6.2% abv, was in a category henceforth to be labeled malt liquor.

From the story:

 

 

There was possibly an error for the French terms given for “beer” and “ale”. And where is lager? But the part about malt liquor is clear enough.

This legislative category, hence Brador, surely had nothing to do with American malt liquor, the high-dextrose, low-hopped, high-ABV style sold since the 1960s (at least). Colt 45 is well-known, or Olde English 800.

But after Brador’s label was changed to read malt liquor some people thought the recipe  changed. That is unlikely, at least at that time and for some years.

The alcohol did finally drop from 6.2% to 6% abv, unless that was a tolerance-driven change. Maybe by then Brador was just a stronger version of Molson Export Ale, or the not dissimilar Molson Stock Ale, or even a lager.

In 1985 Paul Roy of La Presse wrote a mini-history (see p. 19) of the Quebec beer market, starting in the mid-1960s. He did a service for beer historical studies by listing each release during that period from the three major brewers, Molson, O’Keefe, and Labatt.

He listed many names I had forgotten, like Kébec, Rallye, Ti-Bec, Cervoise. He included Brador amongst the success stories, adding brewers are never quite certain why a brand will take off.

An analyst from a stock brokerage told Roy that all brands, contrary to Roy’s initial impression, did not taste the same but other factors weighed in the balance, brand image for example.

Brador was an odd name, as noted by Michael Jackson – he said it was a contraction for Brassée d’Or.* The extra jolt of alcohol perhaps ensured its success. The advertising was good, too. Examples are easily found on YouTube.

The brand did cost more but just pennies a bottle.

The analyst prepping Roy the industry well, noting 20% of the population drank 80% of the beer. The proliferation of brands was really meant, he said, a) to attract the 80% who drank no or little beer, b) ward off competitors, c) retain customers who might otherwise stray.

Consumption of beer had fallen per capita since the 1960s, due mostly to the increase in wine drinking.

It has been thus ever since, with craft beer a partial exception as it took market share from mass-market, declining brands.

Brador was a good beer but no Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, say. Few if any in big breweries in the 1980s could intuit craft beer’s importance.

They would play catch-up years later, mainly by buying craft breweries, when they could have issued similar products at the creation so to speak. Brador could have been a step on the way. They didn’t want to know.

N.B. The December 1971 story also describes Le Gobelet, the first “brasserie” so-termed in Montreal. This was formerly a male-only tavern that modified its premises in order to admit women.

Note re images: images are used for educational and research purposes. All intellectual property therein belongs solely to the lawful owner. The source of the news ad discussed is identified and linked in the text (via Quebec Provincial archives). All feedback welcomed.

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*See a reader’s Comment on the name aspect.