Big Rock Brewery

Lore & Background

Big Rock Brewery was founded in 1984 by Ed McNally, a lawyer who became disappointed with the beer available in Calgary. While representing barley growers in a legal action against the Alberta Wheat Board, McNally learned that Alberta's climate produces 2-row barley ideally suited for malting, and that glacial water from the nearby Rocky Mountains was accessible. At the time, most Alberta barley was used as cattle feed. McNally decided to open a craft brewery, naming it after the Okotoks Erratic, a 16,500-tonne glacial boulder near Okotoks. The first brewmaster was Bernd Pieper, a German brewmaster for Heineken International. In summer 1986, when Big Rock had been in production for only a year, a strike at Molson and Labatt breweries made Big Rock the only beer available in Alberta that summer, rapidly growing production. Subsequent brewmasters included Larry Kerwin (former Molson brewmaster, later distiller at Eau Claire Distillery), Paul Gautreau (who joined in 1986 as the fourth employee and held marketing and operational roles before becoming brewmaster), and Ignacio Rodriguez (brewmaster from 2022 to 2025, previously with Molson Coors, Bridge Brewing Company, and Craft Collective Beerworks). McNally retired from day-to-day operations, retaining the ceremonial title 'Chairman Emeritus' until his death in August 2014. In March 2015, Big Rock's Urban Brewery opened in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2017, Big Rock partnered with restaurateurs Oliver & Bonacini to open Liberty Commons at Big Rock Brewery in Liberty Village, Toronto. These locations closed in 2024 and 2025, respectively, as Big Rock focused on their Calgary location. On July 23, 2018, Big Rock closed an amended transaction to acquire certain brewing assets and inventory from Fireweed Brewing Corporation, including brands such as Tree Brewing, Dukes Cider, and Shaftebury.

Reader's Guide

Big Rock Brewery is notable as the first commercial craft brewery in Canada to develop a wild ale, authentic Belgium-style program, building an isolated wing with a custom-built 2,000-litre coolships to replicate open fermentation conditions of Belgian lambic breweries. Its year-round beers include Traditional Ale, Grasshopper (a Kristall Weizen that won gold medals at the Canadian Brewing Awards in 2007 and 2009 and silver in 2017), Czech Style Pilsner (winner of multiple awards including 2017 gold for European Lager – Pilsner at the Canadian Brewing Awards and 2019 gold for German/Czech Style Pilsner at the Alberta Beer Awards), and others such as Rhine Stone Cowboy, Warthog (discontinued), Honey Brown Lager, Session IPA (discontinued), Citradelic, Scottish Heavy Ale, and Craft Lager (discontinued). The brewery also produces five Rock Creek ciders, including Apple, Peach, Pear, Strawberry Rhubarb (discontinued), and Rosé (discontinued). Seasonal offerings include Midnight Rhapsody Dark Ale and Jackrabbit (discontinued). Big Rock brews contract beers for restaurants in Western Canada, including Hudsons Tap House Beers, John Palliser Ale for the Fairmont Palliser Hotel, Livingston Lager for Heritage Park, President's Choice beers for Loblaw Companies, Co-op branded beers for Calgary Co-operative Assn. Ltd, and Original Joe's draft beers. The brewery hosted the Barn Burner concert series in Calgary in 2017 and expanded to Toronto in 2018. From 1993 to 2016, the Big Rock Brewery Eddies were an annual Calgary event raising money for arts beneficiaries, featuring a promotional contest for beer drinkers to create advertisements for Big Rock, later including a student category.

From Bulk Wine to Public Company

The story of what would become Constellation Brands began in 1945, when Marvin Sands founded Canandaigua Industries in New York's Finger Lakes region. The operation was modest in scope: selling bulk wine to bottlers across the eastern United States. In its inaugural year, the company moved roughly 200,000 gallons of wine and generated about $150,000 in gross revenue. Over the following decades the business grew steadily. In 1972 it was formally incorporated as Canandaigua Wine Company, Inc., and the following year it took its shares public. Sands' son, Richard, assumed the presidency in 1993 and the CEO role three years later, guiding the company through a period of increasing ambition. Marvin Sands passed away in 1999 after a short illness. A notable early move came in 1987, when the company acquired the Manischewitz winery in Canandaigua, New York, and has since continued to license the Manischewitz name from R.A.B. Foods. These foundational years established the family-led, regionally rooted enterprise that would later transform into a global beverage giant.

The Great Expansion Era

After rebranding to Constellation Brands in 2000 to better reflect its broadening portfolio, the company entered a remarkable stretch of aggressive acquisitions throughout the 2000s. Rob Sands was named president and CEO in 2007, overseeing a period of transformative deals. The company purchased Ravenswood Winery for $148 million in 2001, followed by BRL Hardy in Australia and Nobilo in New Zealand in 2003. The crown jewel came in 2004 with the $1 billion acquisition of Robert Mondavi Corp. In 2006, Constellation paid $1.44 billion for Vincor International, then Canada's largest wine company. Spirits Marque One, home to Svedka Vodka, joined the fold in 2007, and Beam Wines Estates—carrying brands like Clos du Bois—was added for $885 million in 2008. Yet growth was not one-directional. By the end of that decade, Constellation divested Almaden Vineyards, Inglenook Winery, and Paul Masson, and sold its value spirits portfolio to Sazerac. In January 2021, the company further streamlined by selling thirty low-cost wine labels, including Clos du Bois, to E. & J. Gallo for $810 million, signaling a clear pivot toward premium positioning.

Building a Beer Empire Across the Border

Constellation's most consequential strategic move in the beer space came in 2013, when it acquired Grupo Modelo's United States business from Anheuser-Busch InBev. The deal was necessitated by an anti-trust settlement that required AB InBev to divest the operation as part of its own acquisition of Grupo Modelo. Constellation had previously imported Corona and other Modelo brands into the US, but this transaction gave it full ownership of Crown Imports LLC, an exclusive perpetual brand license for Corona and Modelo in the American market, and the freedom to develop new brand extensions. The company operates two breweries in Mexico dedicated to producing these beers for US consumption: one in Nava, Coahuila, and another in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora. A planned third facility in Mexicali, Baja California, was never completed due to environmental concerns, and Constellation is instead constructing its third brewery in Veracruz. In 2014, the company finalized a joint venture with Owens-Illinois and acquired a glass production plant situated next to the Nava brewery, further verticalizing its supply chain. Today, Constellation holds the third-largest market share among major US beer suppliers at 7.4 percent and stands as the nation's largest beer importer by sales volume.

Diversification, Cannabis, and a New Chapter

In the 2010s and beyond, Constellation pursued a strategy of selective diversification across craft beer, spirits, and cannabis. The company acquired Ballast Point Brewing of San Diego for $1 billion in 2015, High West Distillery in Park City, Utah, for $160 million in 2016, and Funky Buddha Brewery in Florida in 2017. A landmark moment arrived in October 2017 when Constellation agreed to pay approximately C$245 million for a 9.9 percent stake in Canopy Growth Corporation, a Canadian medicinal-marijuana producer. That investment made Constellation the first Fortune 500 company and the first major alcoholic-beverage maker to take a minority position in a cannabis business. The company also took minority stakes in Black Button Distilling in Rochester and Montanya Distillers in Colorado, along with a majority stake in Nelson's Green Brier in Nashville. Yet not every venture stuck: Ballast Point was sold to Kings & Convicts in 2019, and Funky Buddha was returned to its founders in 2023. In June 2024, Constellation relocated its headquarters to a 170,000-square-foot campus on the site of the historic Aqueduct Building in Downtown Rochester, becoming the first Fortune 500 company to operate in that city in two decades.

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