Kokanee beer
Encyclopedia
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
brewed at the Columbia Brewery
Columbia Brewery
The Columbia Brewery, located in Creston, British Columbia, was once a part of the Fort Steele Brewery which opened in 1898 by brewmaster Albert Mutz...
in Creston
Creston, British Columbia
Creston is a town of 4,826 people in the Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia, Canada. The town is located just a few kilometers north of the Porthill, Idaho border crossing into the United States and about a three-hour drive north from Spokane, Washington. It is about a one-hour drive...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. Columbia Brewery began brewing Kokanee lager in 1959 and was purchased by the Labatt Brewing Company
Labatt Brewing Company
Labatt Brewing Company Ltd. is a Canadian beer company founded by John Kinder Labatt in 1847 in London, Ontario. In 1995, it was purchased by Belgian brewer Interbrew; it is now part of Anheuser-Busch InBev...
in 1974.
The Beer
A light beer, it is most-commonly found in the Western provinces of Canada and the Pacific Northwest states of the USA, with sparse distribution in eastern provinces and states. It was made available in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador recently. The Columbia Brewery also brews Kokanee Gold, with a fuller body and 5.3% alcohol content, Kokanee Light, and Kootenay True Ale.Kokanee is a Pilsner Style Lager
Lager
Lager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager...
with 5.0% alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
v/v and is British Columbia's best selling beer. Kokanee beer is aged naturally. The "Glacier Fresh" taste of Kokanee (a marketing slogan for the brew) is created by making the beer from pure mountain stream water. It uses three varieties of malt
Malt
Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air...
and a blend of western grown North American hops
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
.
Marketing the brand
Kokanee started life as a niche brand by attempting to appeal to the residents of the interior of British Columbia with the slogan, "Brewed right in the Kootenays". After Labatt bought the Columbia Brewery in 1974, they hired the advertising agency Scali McCabe Sloves whose Vancouver office produced a number of humorous campaigns, including, for instance, a mock documentary showing Kokanee bottles migrating up a stream like salmon. These helped the brand become the market leader with a share of 17% in 1992.In 1992 Labatt hired Beakbane Marketing, Toronto, to revitalize the packaging. Unusual for the time they changed the icon of the Kokanee Glacier to a photo montage that was shot from a helicopter by the nature photographer Alec Pytlowany. The image of the glacier was used on all packaging materials including bottle labels, cans and cartons. At that time a small sasquatch icon was developed and hidden in each design.
The brand was introduced to Ontario in 1996, but to save on shipping the beer was brewed at Labatt's facility in London, Ontario. Molson Breweries launched a preemptive advertising campaign questioning the beers legitimacy, with the slogan "b.c. or b.s.?". In 2001 Labatt re-launched Kokanee, trucking it in from the brewery in Creston.
Kokanee's current marketing slogans are "It's The Beer Out Here" and "Glacier Fresh". Kokanee advertisements are frequently shown on Canadian television stations and centre around the beer's official mascot, Matt the Sasquatch. The ad campaign follows the storyline of the "Kokanee Ranger" played by, John Novak
John Novak
John Novak is an actor and anime voice actor who frequently does voice work for the Ocean Group based in Vancouver, Canada....
; and his unsuccessful attempts to hunt and catch the Sasquatch who is stealing Kokanee beer. These commercials parody the real life Sasquatch hunter René Dahinden
René Dahinden
René Dahinden was a well-known Bigfoot researcher.Dahinden was born in Switzerland but moved to Canada in 1953, where he would live for the rest of his life...
, who appeared in the first Kokanee commercial of its kind. According to the ad campaign, the Ranger eventually recruited three Glacier Girls to join the search to catch the elusive Sasquatch.
In 2008, a new campaign encouraged customers to visit a website (RangerLiveOrDie.ca) and vote on whether the Kokanee Ranger should live or die. The campaign concluded on August 17, with the Kokanee Ranger ultimately being killed off in a commercial that spoofed the last few minutes of the final episode
Made in America (The Sopranos)
"Made in America" is the twenty-first episode of the sixth season of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos and the series finale. It is the eighty-sixth overall episode of the series and the ninth episode of the second part of the sixth season, which was broadcast in two batches with a break...
of The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
. It is yet unknown who or what will replace the ranger as Kokanee's new spokesperson.
Kokanee also sponsors the annual Crankworx
Crankworx
Kokanee Crankworx is a week-long celebration of mountain biking held each summer at Whistler-Blackcomb in Whistler, British Columbia at Whistler Mountain Bike Park. In the six years since its inception Kokanee Crankworx has become one of Whistler’s biggest annual events.-Festival:A central aspect...
mountain biking
Mountain biking
Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain.Mountain biking can...
festival in Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler is a Canadian resort town in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Vancouver...
.
In 2011, Kokanee launched a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
campaign that encouraged Kokanee drinkers to vote for a new ranger as Sasq's raids on Kokanee residents' beer in the absence of the Ranger grew bolder.
A TV ad introduces the late Ranger as a ghost resuming his post and duties, discovering he's dead as his hand passes through a bottle of Kokanee, remembering "you killed me off!" indignantly, and sourly wished the viewers "good luck" in finding his replacement. Voters may chose from a choice of candidates: Ma Ranger, the mother of the Kokanee ranger; Micheal Baystreet a Gordon Gecko-like TSX day trader; Cory, a Ski instructor who has skied the Rockies since the '80s and needs some responsibility; Beer Fridge 2.0, a beer cooler with a lock; Glacier and Fresh, a Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC...
esque buddy duo eager to make their mark by stopping Sasq's crime wave; and "Glacier Goat" a foul mouthed cantankerous goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
.
The candidates also have their individual Facebook pages as fictional characters, posting articles, videos, and responding to fans posts on their pages campaigning, and unveiling story lines to their own niche dynamics. Micheal Baystreet, seeks to redevelop the Kootenays
Kootenays
The Kootenay Region comprises the southeastern portion of British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Ktunaxa First Nation first encountered by explorer David Thompson.-Boundaries:The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay Land...
with condo high rise apartments, Ma wants to satisfy her widow lusts.
Kokanee drinkers have voted for Glacier and Fresh after a narrow election vs runner up "Goat".
The name
Kokanee is also a name for landlocked Sockeye salmonSockeye salmon
Sockeye salmon , also called red salmon or blueback salmon in the USA, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it...
. The beer is named after the Kokanee Glacier
Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park
Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park is one of the oldest provincial parks in British Columbia, established in 1922. The park has an area of and is located in the Selkirk Mountains in the West Kootenays region of BC...
in the Kootenays
Kootenays
The Kootenay Region comprises the southeastern portion of British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Ktunaxa First Nation first encountered by explorer David Thompson.-Boundaries:The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay Land...
region in which Creston is situated.
The label
The picture on the label consists of a mountain known as Grays PeakGrays Peak (British Columbia)
Grays Peak is a mountain in southeast British Columbia, Canada. It is located in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park in the Kootenays, and is best-known for being the mountain pictured on the label of Kokanee beer.-Location:...
in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
.
It shows a man or Sasquatch standing on top of one of the peaks. The entity is not in the pictures on Kokanee's box packaging. He appears only on the cans or bottles themselves, and is located in one of five various spots on bottles, and in different positions on different cans.