Gordon Alexander

Bull's Head Ginger Ale, a unique 110 year old piece of Eastern Townships history, has been sold, or probably to be more accurate, changed loving hands.

Early in January, the Bull’s Head Ginger Ale Brewing Company was bought from Richmond entrepreneur / veterinarian Peter O'Donnell for an undisclosed sum by Drummondville businessmen Brian and Barry Husk. Native Townshippers themselves, they are aware of the affectionate recognition most Townshippers attach to the product.

The Husk brothers say they full intend to continue the tradition and expand the product even beyond the Townships, having added a cranberry-ginger line to the existing old fashioned Orange drink and flagship Bull's Head Ginger Ale. "We want to explore the possibility of marketing Bull's Head to Montreal's West Island and even into Eastern Ontario," Brian Husk, the company's new president said.

The Husk Brothers claim they have no immediate plans to change any of the company's on-going operations. The warehouse with distribution facilities will remain in Richmond and the brewing and bottling will continue to take place in Saint-Félix-de-Valois, which is located North of Joliette. The driver responsible for delivery and distribution throughout the Townships is Johanne Ryan of Richmond.

"I am glad that our beloved Bull's Head will remain in the hands of Townshippers," O'Donnell said. "The Husk brothers with links to the Husk family, which goes back three generations in Richmond ,have made their mark in the local business world, Brian in industrial machinery and Barry who recently sold his carpet business," he said." I am leaving the business in good hands," he added.

The Bull's Head business had been off the shelves and lying dormant for over 10 years, when O'Donnell bought the company in 1993 from an ailing Lucien Lavigne, a Sherbrooke-based soft drink bottler who had earlier bought it from the founding Bryant Family.

O’Donnell claimed he bought the Bull's Head line hoping to rebuild it back to its former heyday of the sixties, a project for his two sons to learn marketing and product development.

“We were able to restore local availability of the Bull's Head line because of popular demand " O'Donnell said.” Townshippers have always loved Bull's Head Ginger Ale and wanted it back on the store shelves. It was quite a satisfying project," he said with a smile.

Since O'Donnell's sons had moved on to other areas of interest and business pursuits, Peter decided this would be a good time to sell, but to a buyer with local ties who could carry on the century-old Townships tradition.

"Bull Headed" was a name given to the company founder John Henry Bryant in 1896 by his wife who accused him of being stubborn. This title he adopted as the name of his new Belfast Ginger brew all according to his grandson Gerry Bryant, 83 year old resident of North Hatley and former co-owner of the company. “That was just a story that came from my father,” he said. To this day, Bryant maintains an ongoing interest in his grandfather's patented brew and grows ginger roots at home just for fun.

Bryant attended the press conference at the Richmond warehouse called to celebrating the sale. He brought an old quart-sized glass bottle of Bull's Head Ginger Ale with the Lavigne ownership name on it and held it up in sharp contrast to the new large sized plastic bottle of Bull’s Head now marketed.

"If some people say that Bull's Head doesn't taste the same as in the old days it is probably that our ginger ale was bottled in glass under a higher pressure than today's plastic could stand. The old glass bottles gave you more fizz because of this higher pressure," Bryant explained.

"Bull's Head all started back when my grandfather and his partner Seth Nutter were brewing beer at their Silver Springs Brewery down on Abenakis Street in Sherbrooke. They discovered that there really was not enough profit there for two families so my grandfather, J. H. Bryant, because he was Irish, decided to brew and sell a heartier, richer, Belfast-type of ginger ale in contrast to his partner's line of beer. They were already making club soda for the bars and they had the in-house bottling facilities," Bryant said.

The business was left to Bryant's three sons Albert, who was Gerry's father, Jay and Clifford. The business was later inherited by Gerry and his cousin John who, in the mid-1960s changed the official name to Bryant Inc.

"In the 1970s, in addition to Bull’s Head, we were the second largest bottler of Coca Cola in Canada. It was then that Coke decided to take the franchise away from us and do their own bottling in Montreal. This left us with just Bull's Head Ginger Ale to market. At the same time, the Teamsters Union came in, so we saw the writing on the wall and decided to give up the line to Lucien Lavigne another Sherbrooke bottler," Bryant recalls.

"Pepsi Cola did the same thing to Lavigne -- yanked his franchise and moved their bottling operation to Montreal. Lavigne then gave up producing and marketing Bulls Head Ginger Ale and it would lie dormant for 12 years until Peter O'Donnell of Richmond developed an interest in bringing back Bull’s Head Ginger Ale,” Bryant said.

"Peter called me up after he bought the trade mark and the recipe and wanted my opinion. I sampled the first batch and had to tell him that it was terrible, try again," Bryant said.

Bryant pointed out that when he was making Bull's Head they used imported Jamaican ginger." Today, that would be much too expensive so an artificial concentrate, using the old recipe was developed. Today this concentrate it is made by a company in Toronto. It is still the Belfast-type of ginger ale though," Bryant pointed out.

The present Bull's Head line of ginger ale, orange drink and the new Bull’s Head Cranberry Ginger Ale are bottled in Saint-Félix-de-Valois, the only small bottler left in Quebec.

Bull's Head Ginger Ale has been part of the Townships for more years than most of us can remember. It is a memorable and tasteful part of our Township heritage. It was what grandma used to give us when we went visiting, what we drank on a date at the corner soda fountain as “Rock Around The Clock” played on the juke box. When we got older Bull’s Head Ginger Ale could be helped to another level with ice cubes and a little something from the corner liquor commission. Former Townshippers coming home to visit usually always took some back home so they could reinforce those fading memories of youth.

Not just purely for recreational purposes, some of us used to leave some Bull’s Head open to go flat so they could use the tangy ginger drink to sooth tummy aches and help clear out stuffy heads. The drink with a unique Townships history lives on. This bull-headed Bull’s Head just won't go away.

Photos (by Gordon Alexander ):
Top right: Former owner of Breuvages Bull's Head, Peter O'Donnell (center ) congratulates the company's new owners, Brian Husk, President (left ) and his brother and partner, Barry, at an informal ceremony at the soft drink warehouse in Richmond, January 8th. The Husk brothers, businessmen from Drummondville, are the third owners of the 110 year-old Eastern Townships-based Bull's Head Ginger Ale Brewing and Bottling Company.

Top left:
Gerry Bryant, one of the original owners and grandson of the founder of Bryant's Bull's Head, holds one of the old glass bottles of the popular ginger brew.