BALA BIDS SUDS FAREWELL TO BEER STORE THAT HAD ‘COLDEST BEER’ IN TOWN AT TEARFUL PARKING LOT WAKE AND TAILGATE PARTY

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

BALA — They were crying in their beer here last Sunday when the last call finally came.

After 75 years of it serving “the coldest beer in Bala,” it was cry-fives at the Beer Store for a “couple hundred people — at least,” who rallied around the historic west Muskoka log landmark.

What started as “one for the road” turned in to a “tailgate party” for the ages, said Bala resident Tim Ogilvie whose dad Mac was a manager decades ago.

It was a toast and a roast that brought back a ton of fond memories for everyone — many of them that most still recall and a few maybe they didn’t want to revisit.

Tim Ogilvie, who worked at the Bala Beer delivering to Muskoka resorts, was one “a couple hundred – at least” who answered last call Sunday last. He made – and remade this sign the night before. PHOTOS Norah Fountain

Mac Ogilvie (a legendary local hockey player) ran the Gravenhurst brewers’ retail outlet when it was a “group store” distributing to the smaller communities like Bala in “five-ton green and red trucks,” remembers his son.

When Mac was transferred to Bala around the ’70s, Tim said he’d sometimes help deliver beer to Muskoka resorts in the summer along with other casuals Mike Decaire, Steve Davidson and Scott Vickers — who also eventually became a Bala manager.

His son, Kyle Vickers, who grew up in the family home across from the Beer Store on Hwy. 169, organized what he thought would be a small lager lament by his hockey team — and “maybe a few others.”

He was “stunned” when he saw the crowd.

The wild wake made a CBC National News’ ‘Moment of the Day’ segment two nights later. See link here.

A team photo for the books that went National days later as community members celebrated the good and bad times associated with the Beer Store. SCREEN GRAB CBC NATIONAL NEWS

Ogilvie, who moved back to back to Bala a few years ago after first being a salesman with Brown’s Beverages, only got wind of the celebration a day before.

“So I went home, opened a box of beer and painted a whole bunch of signs.

“When I woke up Sunday I noticed one where I said ‘Gonna miss you …’ I spelled Gonna wrong. I was half in the bag,” he laughed. “So I changed it.”

And when he got to the Beer Store at 3:45 p.m. it was jam-packed.

“There were beer cans all over the parking lot. And everyone was singin’ and hollerin’, ranting and raving, yelling and screaming. Having a great time. Chad Arney was dressed as the Grim Reaper.

“Davidson told me to get in and get a last beer” — which like almost everyone else did making for maybe a record sales day. Certainly the bewitching hour. With many grabbing a last takeaway and no doubt proudly displaying at least one last coveted brew at home or in safe place — in case of emergency. And reminiscing on the day, its history and significance and the changing time where residents and cottagers ran into each on its steps coming and going to buy brewskies.

Ogilvie said the small beer cooler inside next to the cash, for single sales (“travellers”), was pretty well sold out after being replenished more than once.

Kyle Vickers read, right, a eulogy from his phone that captured what was in the hearts of everyone attending the impromptu farewell for a friend.

Just before the 4 p.m. “last call” — and closing — Vickers in a black mourning suit read a heart-felt final eulogy from his phone.”

With Ogilvie front and centre on the deck steps “waving my sign.”

It left a Chill in the air with a beer can wreath as testament to the past.

Ogilvie mentioned he’d gotten word out “indirectly, not personally” to local cops alerting them through covert community channels.

“I just happened to overhear a conversation and let it slide there’d be a tailgate and going away party. And suggesting they not bother driving by between say 3 and 5 — we’d be drinking, eh.

“The cops buy their beer there, too. So they never come by. They stayed clear.”

The next morning the parking lot was all cleaned up by someone who could have made a bundle on empty can returns. Ogilvie expects it was the manager, Ben, or somebody else.

“So it was actually pretty cool.”

It was cry-fives with brisk sales at the bewitching hours as souvenir beers flew out the door – some of them being kept for a safe place at home.

‘Bala it rocks’

The closure is the latest blow to the Muskoka Lakes village, which is also losing its TD Bank branch in November.

“That’s not good,” said Ogilvie. “And I don’t know if the post office is going to go back to work.”

He speculated on whether they’d lose the post office next. A restructuring of arenas in Muskoka Lakes could also threaten the Bala arena.

“If we lose the bank, the post office and the Beer Store …,” he said, his voice tailing off.

Beer is still readily available to thirsty villagers, nearby at the Bala Bay Inn, Bala Falls Pub, LCBO, Freshmart and up the road at Clear Lake Brewery in Torrance where they have their Thanksgiving Beer Fest this month.

“Lots of stuff of going on compared to Port Carling,” says Ogilvie.

“You know, when you stop and think about Port Carling, it’s nothing compared to Bala.

“The public opinion here in Bala it rocks. … Everybody in this whole area is very, very positive. Because there is so much to do.”

Just not a place to buy the coldest beer in Bala.

Send us your memories of Sunday or buying beer there to news@muskokatoday.com

And so it was said …. as Kyle Vickers bid so long to Bala’s Beer Store Sept. 28, 2025. RIP.

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