The Granville Island Brewing Company (GIB) is a brewery originally based on Granville Island in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1984 and calls itself "Canada's first microbrewery". In 1989, it was sold to the wine conglomerate Andrew Peller Ltd. In 2009, it was bought by Creemore Springs, a subsidiary of Molson Coors,[1] which in 2016, became the third largest beer corporation in the world.[2] Of brewers with locations in British Columbia, Granville is the seventh largest based on sales to the BC Liquor Distribution Branch.[3]
History
Granville Island Brewing was founded in 1984 by Mitch Taylor. The first Brewmaster was a German import who later quit the 65 Hectolitre brewery in 1988, after winning a lottery. In 1989 Potters IXL hired James Holden away from Carling O'Keefe Breweries to make changes in the product quality and consistency and to work with the new union. Potters financed building renovations as well as the installation of a new 120 Hl tank maturation cellar while upgrading the old Krones bottle Filler with a new body, back and neck labelling station.