Atlantic Canada Beer Blog

Tire Shack Brewing is located at 190 John Street in downtown Moncton, New Brunswick, and is poised to open within the next few days. Ahead of their opening, we had the opportunity to visit the space and speak with owners Alan Norman and Jerica Kennedy, and Brewer Henrique (Henry) Soares. While they await the last i’s to be dotted and t’s to be crossed before opening, let’s learn more about them, their beers, and their unique space!

– Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Alan and Jerica: We are so excited to open this brewery and share our love of beer with the East Coast! We grew up in Riverview, NB but have been away for far too long. We are so stoked to be back! Work took us to Toronto for the past 16 years and allowed us to travel and experience some incredible breweries throughout North America and beyond, not to mention some pretty great ones in Toronto. We were really fortunate to live next door to Bellwoods Brewery and watch them go from renovations/start-up to the incredible brewery they are now. We really learned a
lot from them.
Brewer Henry Soares has had a busy beer-filled career since getting into homebrewing almost a decade ago. First studying Biophysics in University in his native Brazil, he switched gears and attended a VLB Berlin-accredited Brewing program in his home country, before moving north and completing the two-year Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management Program at Niagara College. During, and after, graduation, he worked at a couple of breweries in Ontario, before the opportunity to run the brewing program at Tire Shack in Moncton arose.

– What made you decide to take the step into opening a brewery?
We thought, “What was crazier? Buying a house in Toronto or opening a craft brewery?” We are still not sure about the correct response 🙂
To make it even harder on ourselves, we decided to turn an old abandoned auto-garage into a craft brewery…a gargantuan task…believe me!
Joking aside, we love our location and knew it was the perfect spot the moment we laid eyes on it. We are very proud of the work we have done on the space and can’t wait to share it with all of the AC Beer Blog readers 🙂

– What is the culture or ethos of the brewery?
It’s all about community and guest experience. We want to create an engaging place that allows you to connect with friends over a shared experience…great beer. Our large taproom will allow you to be directly connected to our on-site brewery, guaranteeing the freshest beer possible as well as a great atmosphere to enjoy a few pints.

– Can you tell us more about the brewery and taproom space?
Our brewery will be located in an old auto-garage that was once operating as ‘The Tire Shack’ that everyone seems to have a story about. We love the idea of breathing new life into such a wonderful building that has been a part of the city landscape and community for so long. The name ‘Tire Shack Brewing Co.’ made perfect sense to us.

– Can you tell us about the beers you plan on offering initially?
Now why would we go ahead and do that? That would ruin the surprise. Rest assured, we are very excited about the beers we will be producing and we plan to rotate our selection a lot! We are really looking forward to experimenting on our pilot system… and I do mean experimenting. Eventually we plan to get a bit ‘funky’ too (that reference is for the true beer connoisseurs…you know who you are).
Ed Note: Since opening, we can share the details of those beers: The Specialist Blonde Ale (5.0% ABV), Secret Society Toasted Marshmallow Stout (5.5% ABV), Realignment Juicy Pale Ale (6.0% ABV), Full Service Double IPA (7.5% ABV), and Zenith Libation Cardamom Wit Beer (5.5% ABV).

– Ok smart guy, how can people drink these mystery beers?
We have a fairly large brewing system and fermentation capacity so we will do a little bit of everything. The best way to get our beer will be via our on-site taproom. At the taproom you will be able to enjoy a pint, fill growlers, purchase cans, and buy great merch. Basically, we’ve got you covered when you visit the brewery. We also plan on distributing to other bars and restaurants that might be interested in selling our product. We will also be available on the shelf of the ANBL.

– Have you had any assistance from other breweries/people in Atlantic Canada (or elsewhere)?
This is another great reason why we are so happy to be back in the Maritimes…incredibly friendly people who are happy to help. We have bugged a lot of breweries over the past year and a half and they’ve all been so kind. The list is too long to name names…so to all of you THANK YOU!!! WE REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!

– Do you have a favorite beer style, beer, or brewery you enjoy drinking?
We love all beer styles (yes, we even love lagers). It all depends on the seasons when it comes to favorite beer to drink for us. Three breweries that have had a profound influence on us are the aforementioned Bellwoods Brewery, Other Half Brewing and Blood Brothers Brewing.

– Let’s get nerdy and chat about the brewery itself…
We are brewing on a 15BBL (1700 litre), 2-vessel brewhouse, with a 30BBL (3500 litre) Hot Liquor Tank from Criveller. Our current fermentation situation is 1 x 15BBL and 3 x 30BBL fermenters, plus a 30BBL Brite tank. We also have a 1BBL (117 litre) pilot system with 2 x 1BBL SS Brewtech fermenters, for those experiments we talked about.

– Do you have an approximate opening date?
If the stars align with the sun and the moon at the exact specific time of the highest tide during the fullest moon and the groundhog sees his shadow then it will most likely be sometime in early November. In all seriousness though we are hoping for early November, but converting an abandoned auto-garage into a craft brewery has been a daunting task which has made us paranoid and allergic to timelines. I promise though that we are working overtime to open those doors.

Thanks again to Alan, Jerica and Henry for spending their time getting us up to speed on Tire Shack. Keep up to date on their Facebook and Instagram pages, which will have all of the Opening Day details as they are set. Which will be soon. Very, very soon. And kick the tires (sorry, first pun of the story, so you’ve gotta give us that!) of their website to track their retail and taproom hours and where in the future you could grab a pint of their beer at local licensees.
Ed Note: Their taproom and retail hours are: Sun 12 – 10 PM, Mon – Tues 11 – 10 PM, Wed – Thurs 11 – 11 PM, and Fri – Sat 11 – 12AM.