New York
CNN
—
Canada’s neighbors to the south are levying tariffs, threatening annexation and igniting plenty of other chaos. So Canada’s oldest brewery figures that for its people to survive the next four years, they just might require a daily beer.
Moosehead Breweries, founded in 1867, released on Friday a giant crate of 1,461 cans of lager — which, assuming about one beer a day, is “just enough to get through the full presidential term” of US President Donald Trump.
“If the start of 2025 has taught us anything, it’s that it will take determination to weather four years of political uncertainty—and what better way to make it through each day than with a truly Canadian beer,” Karen Grigg, director of marketing for the New Brunswick-based Moosehead, said in a press release.
The “Presidential Pack” is being sold only on Moosehead’s website. It’s available to residents living in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for about $3,500 CAD ($2,400 USD), including delivery.
Moosehead noted that the independent brewery was founded the same year as Canada, and both have “been through a lot” over the past 158 years. “While we can’t predict how the next four years will go, we have a feeling that this large pack will come in handy,” Grigg added.
Like other Canadian companies, Moosehead is unhappy about the impending tariffs being threatened by Trump. In an interview with Canada’s CTV News, Moosehead CEO Andrew Oland called them “such a disappointment” and said that he’s “really sad to see this relationship going in a different direction.”
In particular, Moosehead’s cost for aluminum lids will be affected by 10% tariffs that start next week, as the company can only get them from the US. What’s more, Oland said, about 20% of Moosehead’s beer is sold to the US, and those exports could also be hit with a tariff.
Booze is one of the many products caught in the crosshairs of the trade war between the two countries. Provinces across Canada have pulled American-made spirits and wine off their shelves, prompting US company Brown-Forman’s CEO Lawson Whiting to label that action being “worse than a tariff because it’s literally taking your sales away.”
But beer is different. Many of the big companies that sell in Canada, like Anheuser-Busch, manufacture American brands (Bud Light) in Canada and thus aren’t affected by tariffs.
Still, Oland believes that patriotism will win out. He said there’s a “real opportunity for brewers in Canada” to capitalize on the “Buy Canadian” movement that the tariffs have inspired.
