To The Land of the Rising Sun ...

Now prohibition in Canada was repealed a year after it was instated but it left the control boards in each province governing the breweries with a heavy hand.

Henry Reifel wasn't pleased with this turn of events so the family decided to close its Canadian businesses for a little while. The elder Reifel travelled by steamship to Japan with his oldest son, George C., to set up a  brewery business there.

George had recently married a young woman three years his junior by the name of Alma Lucy Barnes from Nanaimo. George and Lucy were married in St. Paul's Anglican church in Vancouver on October 23, 1916. (Here's an entry I wrote on that church, complete with photos.)

Henry and George C. brought a lot of brewing equipment with them to Japan and while in the 'Land of the Rising Sun'; they developed the technique of producing malt from rice and created the Anglo-Japanese Brewing Company. Now that the Japanese brewery was successful, the Reifels sold their interest and moved back to Vancouver.

In 1924, Henry acquired the B.C. Distillery of British Columbia and later the Pioneer Distillery at Amherstburg, Ontario. These two companies were then amalgamated into the Brewers and Distillers Corporation.

Henry remained president of the corporation until his retirement in 1933. After his retirement, the family sold off their brewery and distillery interests. It was also in 1933 that Henry's brother Conrad died. Conrad had managed the Island part of the family business.

On May 22, 1936, Henry's wife, Annie Elizabeth, died at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.   

Once again, I am getting this information from a Reifel genealogical website. Friday, I will tell you more about this family.

I hope you find the beauty around you.