Canada, SK: Great Western Brewing Company announces C$25-million expansion at its Saskatoon brewery

Great Western Brewing Company is turning 35, and it's celebrating with a C$25-million expansion at its brewery site in Saskatoon, CBC reported on October 16.

Its current brewery, purchased from Molson in 1990, was built back in 1927, and the equipment in use was installed in 1954.

Now, Great Western is updating it and expanding, with the addition of 11,000 square feet and an entirely new brewing system.

Greg Kitz, one of the original 16 founding employees, recalled the first day their products hit the shelf.

“We went like gangbusters, it was amazing,” Kitz told host Stephanie Masicotte on CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning. “We sat outside liquor stores just watching. ‘They're actually taking our beer, the stuff we made.’ There were of course some rough times farther down the road. The initial push died off and we managed to struggle through.”

The new brewhouse, located at the longstanding brewery site on Second Avenue North in Saskatoon, is expected to be fully operational by early 2026. The expansion will increase brewing capacity to 55 million litres per year.

Great Western’s president and CEO Michael Brennan said that the new equipment is coming from a German company with a reputation for precision.

“From a consumer perspective, you will not be able to tell the difference between our products,” said Brennan. “That's core to us, making sure that the beer we're producing now tastes the same in the new facility that will get going very shortly.”

The City of Saskatoon has named the brewery as a preserved landmark, not only because it is the only major-capacity brewery still standing, but also because it has been used as a brewery throughout its entire history.

“There’s always challenges in the industry,” said Brennan. “The biggest brewer in the world is 2,600 times our size, so they have a few more resources than we do. So we have to be ingenious. One of our core values is relentless ingenuity, and that's what helps us get through each day.”

According to the Saskatoon built heritage database, in less than a decade from opening, Great Western was ranked 29th out of 300 breweries in North America for annual output.