The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company’s History

While Grizzly Paw owner Niall Fraser was living in Sydney, Australia he got the idea of opening a brewing company during his frequent visits to “The Rocks” in Sydney for a pint of beer. The Rocks was a fantastic brewery/pub set up on the old granite rock piles of Sydney’s inner harbour in the historic old town quarter, nestled between the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House.

When Niall arrived home in 1992 he started looking for a suitable place to build his own brewpub. During a mini vacation to the Bow Valley Niall found the place where his brewery was to be located, Canmore.

In late 1994 The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company was born, and after a few challenges getting things off the ground, such as raising capital and securing a long term lease for the new brewpub, in November 1995 The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company broke ground on Main Street.

April 29th, 1996 saw The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company open its doors to the Bow Valley’s beer drinkers.

In 1996 the brewery used a partial mash, brewing 200 litres from scratch and had a company based in England make wort. Once Niall could dedicate more time for brewing instead of running the day to day operations of the business he decided to buy a mash tun, and in 1998 The Grizzly Paw became a full mash brewery.

The Grizzly Paw was the first brewpub in Canada and the second in North America to can its beers, then a bottling line was added. Although we no longer can our beers our three flagship beers; Powder Hound Pilsner, Grumpy Bear Honey Wheat and Rutting Elk Red are all available in bottles as well as our Beaver Tail Raspberry which made its bottle debut in June 2009.

2004 heralded a major milestone when we changed our license from a brewpub license to a microbrewery license, and in December 2004 we started selling The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company’s beers outside of the pubs walls.

We brew numerous beers throughout the year and there will always be a seasonal on tap as well as our regulars.

In 2005 we added 6 microbrewed sodas to our portfolio as well as launching our food line including our award winning burgers.

2009 was a busy year for The Grizzly Paw. In April the brewery expanded with a new fermenting room being built behind The Paw Shop, and in May the washrooms were renovated. Sadly for its devotees, the Grape soda was retired, however Orange made its debut in bottles in April and has gone on to become a firm favourite for takeout.