Belgian Brewer in Quebec Says Water will Fuel Growth

Brewmaster Jean-Louis Marcoux, president of Brasserie Belgh Brasse in Amos, Quebec, is planning to use water left over from an ice age glacier as the catalyst to expand his brewery and start exporting to the United States.

Located in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region in northwest Quebec the brewery makes a light lager called Taiga that is being sold primarily in small stores around Montreal, but at the start of 2007 distribution will expand to include several supermarket chains. The company's 60,000-case a year production is being doubled. The company plans to expand into Ontario and then into the U.S.

The brewery was originally founded in 1999, closed for a short period of time and then reopened in 2004. The Belgian-born Marcoux says the water used in the beer is the best in the world. It comes from an esker, a geological formation holding melted glacial ice. Marcoux believes the superior water results in superior beer.