Our logo
Our logo is hand-drawn ink work by the incomparable Thomas Moore from Last Maps https://www.lastmaps.com/. This is our face to the world. It tells the story of where we come from and where we’re headed.
It’s based on Samuel de Champlain’s astrolabe. An astrolabe is an ancient device known as a handheld window to the universe. It was used to measure the position of celestial bodies, to survey, and to identify one’s position on the planet. Samuel de Champlain used his to navigate 26 journeys from France to Canada in the early 1600s and to map the eastern part of our country. This particular astrolabe was lost in June 1613 during a portage around the Calumet rapids on the upper Ottawa River. It was re-discovered in 1867, our year of Confederation, and now resides in the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
This device is significant to me because the name Brasserie du Bon Temps is inspired by the L’Ordre du Bon Temps (the Order of the Good Times / Good Cheer), established in 1606 by Samuel de Champlain, founding father of French Canada.
The purpose of L’Ordre du Bon Temps was to promote health, wellbeing and community among the people of Port-Royal after they experienced the harsh conditions of their first Canadian winter. Each settler in their turn had fifteen days, and the help of the Mi’kmaq Nation, to hunt game, fish, and prepare a feast that would entertain diners long into the night. Morale went up, disease went down, and a key alliance was formed.
They had four rules: Have a good time, remember us fondly, speak of us kindly, and come back again. Over four hundred years later we’re continuing a tradition on which our nation was founded. We’re promoting unity, camaraderie, friendship, and charting new territory in beer as we navigate hop Terroir. At the same time, we’re remembering where we come from as Canadians by celebrating the history of beer in all parts of the world.
Champlain’s astrolabe represents how he navigated and mapped the land, which jives with our brewery's involvement in the uncharted territory of scientific hop terroir research. Just as important, it also represents his moral compass.Champlain sought equality and understanding among different peoples, largely as a reaction to the horrors he witnessed during France’s chronic wars in the late 1500s. He was faithful enough to his morals that when Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak (Black Hawk), chief of the Sac and Fox Nation, dedicated his autobiography to Abraham Lincon in 1832 he included Champlain as one of two examples of a great leader who behaved honourably, kept his word and made other nations his kin.
The Brasserie du Bon Temps logo also represents our moral compass, and as such we will support our common striving for a just society with feature beers that dedicate a portion of their proceeds to Canadian charities. This logo is thus a reminder that we must work to create the society and culture we want to live in. We support local businesses that are each striving to make their own mark in their communities. We brew on Canadian-made equipment with Canadian ingredients from independent farmers (when not explicitly featuring international Terroir) and our packaging is made in Canada, as is our merchandise.
This logo is also significant to me in a very personal way. In addition to brewing I’m a coastal surveyor and history nerd, but my connection to this logo goes deeper than that. Canada is today a bilingual country, but we struggle to express our francophone culture in daily life outside of Québec. I want to help make Canada’s francophone presence in the West more visible, however small my contribution might be, as a way of promoting national unity. Regardless of where we come from or what language we speak we are all Canadians. Our strength is in sharing our histories and cultures. With Brasserie du Bon Temps I hope to share a unifying narrative of people coming together to exchange stories with friends. What better way to do that than over a beer?