Atlantic Canada Beer Blog

Known as the Hub City, Truro Nova Scotia is a popular destination and stopover for travelers in the region, whether they are heading Northwest to NB or PEI, North to the Shore, East to Cape Breton, or South to Halifax and onto the South Shore. While the city was home to Keltic Brewing for a brief period in the 2000’s, since then, there has not been a full-mash brewery serving the community. Until now! Truro Brewing Company is opening their doors at 53 Inglis Place tomorrow, ready to serve the thirsty residents and travelers alike. Located in the heart of downtown, and a stone’s throw from the train station and other amenities, Truro Brewing Company could soon become the heart of Hub City! We caught up with Brewer and co-owner Jana Dellapina to learn more about TBC, her journey to opening, and what visitors can expect in the taproom. Jana’s name should be familiar to our readers, as she is a highly decorated homebrewer, who won the 2019 Black Box Challenge from Boxing Rock with Hello Darkness Schwarzbier, as well as the 2019 Lunn’s Mill Summer Patio Beer Homebrew Competition with her Mon Cherri Cherry Berliner Weisse.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Patricia and I are a married couple, and now business partners, with a love for craft beer! Jana has a background in Nursing and Patricia is a Chemical Engineer.

How did you get into the world of beer?
Jana has been brewing at home for a number of years and worked at Tatamagouche Brewing for a short time. Patricia is an expert taste tester! 🙂

What made you decide to take the steps into opening a brewery?
We wanted to bring locally made, fresh beer to the people of Truro, and have always wanted to run our own business. We hope our passion for brewing shows in our product!

What is the culture of the Truro Brewing Company?
The brewery is a cozy, comfortable space to come and enjoy a pint or flight. We want the people of Truro to think of us as their local watering hole!

What beers and styles do you have available at launch? Working on anything new and fun?
We have a core lineup of Willow Street Wheat, a 4.0% ABV American Wheat Ale, Hub Town Honey Brown, 5.2% ABV, Cobequid Bay IPA, 6.3% ABV, Exit 14 Porter, 4.6% ABV, and, finally, Trackside American Pale Ale, 4.9% ABV. We have the four flagships and the fifth tap will be rotating. We are also working on a collaboration with local coffee roaster Aroma Maya!

I’m thirsty! How can I try your beers?
We have a taproom at 53 Inglis Place that seats approximately 25-30 people for folks to enjoy samples, flights, and pints, and will be selling and filling growlers to take away. The taproom is open Tuesday – Saturday 2 – 10 PM, and Sunday 2 – 8 PM. While we don’t have a kitchen, we do have a few snacks, and bringing in food from local spots is totally fine. We’re not selling kegs to licensees just yet (have to keep visitors to the brewery happy!). Regarding growlers, we will fill any size/style, as long as it’s clean, and have our own 1.89 litre growlers for sale as well.

We often hear that the Atlantic Canadian brewing scene is very collaborative and helpful to new and existing breweries, have you had assistance from folks in the industry while setting up?
Greg Nash of Unfiltered has been an enormous help with several of our brews, and helping us find a yeast strain that works well across all our beers.

Where do you hope to see your brewery in the next 2-3 years?
We hope in 2-3 years we can expand our brewhouse and have an offsite production facility while keeping our current taproom location on Inglis place. The plan is to get into canning eventually.

Let’s get specific, tell us about your brewing equipment.
We are brewing on a 2BBL (230 litre) electric Stout system with 4 fermenters and a brite tank. We expect a yearly output of about 220hL (22,000 litres).

Care to share some info on your brewing history?
Way back when, Jana learned how to brew via Facetime from Alicia MacDonald of Port Rexton Brewing, also a brewer originally from Truro!

Thanks again to Jana and Patricia for sitting down with us and giving us a sneak peek at their taproom and brewery! We’re excited for their success, and the city of Truro having a brewery again! Keep up to date with their latest releases and events on Social Media (Fb/Ig/Tw), and here on the blog.