| Columbia Brewery |
| The History of |
| The Columbia Brewery was once a part of the Fort Steele Brewery which
opened in 1898 by brewmaster Albert Mutz. A reproduction of this brewery has been re-constructed
at the entrance of the Fort Steele Heritage town - - located 10 minutes north of Cranbrook. In 1901 the Fort Steele brewery relocated to Fernie where it later became known as the Fernie/Fort Steele brewery. This was one of four breweries operating in the Kootenay area at this time. The other active breweries were Cranbrook, Nelson, and Trail. In the late 1950s, these breweries were combined under one name - - Interior Breweries - - and were later combined yet again to a central location of Creston. Creston became the ideal location because of its excellent water source and was in the heart of the geographical market at this time. In 1959-60 Interior Breweries began producing their beer from the newly built brewery in Creston. Interior Breweries soon felt a name change would better reflect their broadening distribution of quality beers. So in 1965, Interior Breweries became known as the Columbia Brewing Company and launched provincial distribution of its beer. In 1974, Columbia Brewing Company was purchased by the Labatt Brewing Company, a larger company with plans on expanding the Columbia market. Columbia Brewing Company was renamed in 1993 to Columbia Brewery.
 The portfolio of award winning beers now consists of Kokanee, Kokanee Light, Kokanee Gold, Kootenay True Ale, and Kootenay Mountain Ale. The Columbia Brewery now distributes its quality product all across Canada and into Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, North California, and Alaska. Columbia Brewery, with its roots going back to a small brewery in Fort Steele, is now the sixth largest brewing company in all of Canada with breweries in Creston(BC), New Wesminster(BC), Edmonton, London (Ontario), Toronto, St.Johns, Montreal, and Latrobe (Pensylvannia).
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