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All posts for the month August, 2012

I’m more than a little late getting around to posting about this (and seeing growlers for each at yesterday’s Seaport Beerfest was a subtle reminder) but both Rogue’s Roost and Rockbottom Brewpub now offer their beers for sale in growlers.

At Rogue’s Roost the initial purchase of a filled up growler cost $19.95 taxes included and refills go for $11.95.

At Rockbottom growlers go for $8 and can be filled for $13 or $14 depending on which beer you purchase.

Garrison Brewing Company is currently celebrating 15 years in business. In early July I had a chance to have a Nit Wit and a “15th Anniversary HOPS, Mango and Ginger” with Garrison President Brian Titus to discuss the past, present and future of Garrison Brewing.

Atlantic Canada Beer Blogger (ACBB): How did you decide to open Garrison Brewing Company?

Brian Titus (BT): I had been into home brewing for 12 years prior to opening Garrison with the last 4 years getting into all grain brewing. It was a fun, “drinkable” hobby and one where I constantly wanted to learn more about using different yeasts, bulk extracts vs. kits, etc.

While I always enjoyed trying imports there weren’t many options locally and most of the craft beers I’d tried over the years were as good if not better than the imports. I was stationed in Halifax with the Navy for a decade prior to opening and had been thinking about opening a brewery for a while. I saw that Sean Dunbar & Andy Hachey, two guys who decided not to be lawyers at the last minute, had opened up Picaroons in Frederiction and thought if it could work in Fredericton why not in Halifax? I spent some time with them in the Summer of 1996 and quit my job with the Navy shortly thereafter.

ACBB: Tell me about the start of the company and how it has changed over the years.

BT: The Brewery was incorporated in January of 1997 and had four false starts before finally opening the doors on Lady Hammond Road in the third week of August. Coincidentally, Propeller had just opened up as well but we saw this as a positive as it would help develop a community of craft beer drinkers quicker. We started initially with Irish Red Ale and Barrack Street Brown (now called Nut Brown Ale). We launched as draught only but were hand bottling and labeling within 3 months which was incredibly labour intensive. We started selling growlers within 2 years of opening but the concept was slow to take off at the time (much more popular now).

We quickly hit 2000 HL annually and then hit a wall in terms of capacity. We simply had too much going on in a restricted space. Although knowing it wouldn’t be without its challenges, we would need to move the brewery to a larger location. At the time the port area was underdeveloped but had a vision for shops, the market, coffee roasters and a destination for cruise ships. In October, 2006 we started gutting our new location, a character space within the 1929 Immigration Annex building, and by Feb 2007 we were brewing there. We then had to re-think the retail end of the business; being so close to the cruise ships (about 140/year) we had to hire actual retail clerks & stock more than one style of T-shirt! We also re-branded to the current noon gun/red dot logo (our third since opening) and added new glassware, aprons, T’s, etc. Ultimately, you need local support to be successful year-round, but the cruise ship traffic has certainly helped.

ACBB: Did you have any help from others in the industry to open?

BT: Once I decided to make the move I wanted to learn about the industry and actually make sure I wanted to do it. I went out to Quidi Vidi Brewing in St. John’s, NF for a week to determine if this is how I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I spent time with all different elements of the operations – with the brewer, sales, bottling and was hands on with the work. I also spent some time with some different micros out West (Tree, Granville Island, Storm, etc.) to pick their brains including how to get product into a bar when up against Molson and Labatts?

Today there is more of a sense of adventure when it comes to beer as consumers are more open minded and looking to try different things. The growth of micro-breweries has been great as it gets people away from the macros; as the saying goes the rising tide raises all ships.

ACBB: What’s your proudest moment over the past 15 years?

BT: Colin Allin is a former employee who did web and graphic design for us for 10 years. He was working remotely in Nicaragua, was shot and died one month later. We immediately wanted to do something to help out his family. Matt Phillips from Phillips Brewery, who is originally from Wolfville, agreed to help out with a collaboration brew with proceeds going to Colin’s family. Daniel Girard, our brewmaster, and Matt worked over email to get the right recipe for a Belgian IPA. Overall we raised $2300 for his family, setup a $1000 scholarship for NSCAD for 5 years & shot a great video. I look back and see this as a lasting positive coming out of something horrible.

ACBB: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the past 15 years?

BT: It would be on the personnel side, make sure you gather people who are very strong in what they do but fit the culture of the company. They need to work together to address problems. It’s important to have complimentary personalities with people who enjoy their work and the people around them. People need to have pride in what they do and gathering likeminded people produces the best results.

ACBB: You’ve recently released a special 15th Anniversary HOPS, Mango & Ginger beer and are planning on releasing a second anniversary brew in the fall. Can you share any specifics?

Editor’s Note: Daniel joined us for part of the conversation to discuss the first 15 th anniversary beer. He described it as a beer with more of a tropical side balanced with 15 different types of hops used in the brew. It is very floral, piney with a taste of ginger that matches well with the number of hops used in its production. My thoughts on the beer? Beer geeks shouldn’t be scared off by the mention of mango and ginger in the title, this is an excellent beer with lots of character and not overly fruity or overwhelming ginger taste to it (9.0% and 100+IBU’s!).

BT: Regarding the second of the special edition beers, I can’t speak to the specifics as of yet but can let you know we expect to release it in late Fall and that it will be darker with a couple special twists.

ACBB: Why did you decide to create the Ultimate Brew Off competition and has this year’s style been decided?

BT: We started the home brewing competition 4 years ago as a way to connect with the local enthusiast.  It’s grown quite a bit over the years, this past year we had 62 entries which makes it a challenge to give each sample the time they deserve. We may have to restrict the number of entries this year as a result.

We strive to pick a style that is both interesting but makes sense for those without elaborate setups.

We do blind tasting initially to weed the number of entries down and bring in BJCP judges for the final decision. There were several great entries this year including a Rye IPA with ginger that stood out in addition to the winners. This year’s winner was female (Kellye Robertson) which was also a first.

We haven’t picked this year’s style as of yet but are planning on reaching out to people who have submitted previously for recommendations.

ACBB: Your Spruce Beer generated a great deal of buzz when it was available last Winter, can you tell me about the beer?

BT: This is a beer that was initially a curiosity to us and we appreciated the historical references to the founding of Halifax as it was brewed in the area at that time. We even came across some “how to brew spruce beer and cook beaver” reference material when researching the beer. It described cooked beaver as fatty, chewy and basically edible at best. The Spruce beer didn’t sound much more appealing based on the description!

Daniel was really pushing to brew this, he really wanted the challenge of creating something very unique and I kept asking him “how am I going to market and sell Spruce beer”? This has really turned into a big success for us, we brewed three times as much Spruce beer last year as the first year although the harvesting is a lot of effort. Overall Spruce Beers are growing in popularity with some form of Spruce beer available in many provinces at some point in the year.

ACBB: If you weren’t the president of Garrison Brewing Company today what would you be doing?

BT: I’m not sure if I’d be in the Navy. I enjoyed it, especially all of the travel when I was younger. I would want to do something that offered up a lot of travel. I always enjoy going to the Craft Beer Conference every year and several beer festivals.

ACBB: You organize the Halifax Seaport BeerFest. Can you share some details on this year’s event?

BT: This is something I run with a friend, Bruce Mansour, and is completely separate from the brewery. We expect to have over 200 beers available to sample this year with the Quebec pavilion fielding nearly 40 craft brews and Ontario over 30. We’re also expecting more gluten free options and cider this year. We’ve even added a second Halifax brewpub, Rogues Roost, sampling beside Rockbottom and south shore nano, Hell Bay.

We’re pretty much at capacity for this event with 4500 expected over the two days. The big thing is we don’t want people waiting in long lines so we keep adding more & more beers every year. I think we’re at about 96% craft/premium import & may push for 100% next year. Sorry, no Bud Lite Lime this year!

Now that the Canadian Brewing Awards are traveling to different locations we’re hoping to bring it to Halifax for 2014 (it sounds like it will be in B.C. next year). People are starting to notice the great beer here on the East Coast and this would only help with visibility. We would definitely work to make the awards in Halifax the most memorable ever!

ACBB: Any new beers and / or collaborations being planned for the near future?

BT: We have our regular seasonal beers coming up in the Fall but no new ones planned other than the second 15th anniversary special edition brew.

We’ve had five other breweries express an interest in doing collaboration beers with us but we haven’t been able to squeeze it into the schedule yet. In addition to the one that Matt Philips did with Daniel for the fundraiser, Daniel also returned the favour by going out to B.C. and developed a Baltic Porter with him for their market. There was nothing like it available there at the time & it went well. I don’t think the big guys see how much some of the small breweries work together.

ACBB: Do you have any future expansion plans?

BT: We’re currently brewing 3 times per day 4 days a week between 5am and 2am. We’re at the limits of this space and have no warehouse capability. We have an option at the port and lots of other options around as well but haven’t finalized anything yet. We’re getting pushed to the next level rather than overreaching.

ACBB: What does the next 15 years hold for Garrison Brewing Company?

BT: I expect we’ll be having even more fun as it feels like things are just getting started. I expect I’ll do another 10 years personally then just travel & drink! Now that we’re out of survival mode (in the early days it’s a race to get to the level of volume to overcome your overheads) and have a level of security, it’s all about having fun. We want to have some growth but you’ll never see us offer up generic beers. We need to continue to focus on consistency batch after batch, while still bringing out interesting releases. We also plan to continue to be active in the community. We’ve sponsored the Jazzfest for 13 years and Multicultural Fest for 6, plus countless charity events and team sponsorships.

“Cheers to 15 Years of Great Beers!”

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For additional information on Garrison Brewing Co., you can check out the profile I did of the brewery last February or this video interview from True Canadian Beers website.

Propeller Brewing Company is one of the best known and loved craft breweries in Atlantic Canada.  In early July I had the chance to have a beer with company owner John Allen and compile the information for this profile.

Background

In the mid-1990s John was looking to get out of film business where he worked on the prop side of the business.  As someone who started homebrewing in the early 1980s, moving into brewing professionally was the next logical step.

John purchased the original equipment for the brewery in Victoria, B.C. and took the opportunity to meet with local brewers to get their advice on starting up a brewery. Jim Pryor, who brewed in Britain for Bass and Whitbread, is someone he met online while preparing his business plan and also offered a great deal of assistance in starting up the brewery.

Propeller Brewing Company opened its doors in July 1997 at its current location at 2015 Gottingen Street in Halifax.  The location has previously served as a strip joint, movie theatre, café and Carpenters Union Hall.  In addition to the brewery, the location has a store front, the Prop Shop, where growlers, bottles of their beer and Propeller merchandise can be purchased.

Propeller Team

Bobby Zacharias has been the brewmaster at Propeller for the past four to five years and studied brewing in Scotland at the Heriot-Watt University and also took a year long course at the Siebel Institute of Technology and World Brewing Academy.  John originally met Bobby years ago and he joined the Propeller team with the previous brewmaster.

Tracy Phillippi recently joined the Propeller Team.  She servers as a brewer and also helps out Andrew Cooper on the sales and marketing side for Propeller.  The Wisconsin native has completed the BJCP, has been a regular contributor to TAPS magazine  and in the past has been heavily involved in the Toronto craft beer scene.

Production and Distribution

Propeller is currently producing 18 HL batches and brew a total of 18-19 times per week with 3 to 4 batches per day being produced.  They are currently looking to order a new system that will double their capacity as they are struggling to keep up with demand for their products.  They are planning on expanding around January as they are far too busy to do so this time of year.

Last year they sold a total of 7500HL and this year are on pace for 8500 HL.  Approximately 75% of their sales is bottles with the balance coming in draft.  Growlers have been a huge success since they’ve launched them in 2006.  They sell on average 110 growler fills per day (based on 365 days) and have sold over 300 per day on peek days.

They have experienced 15 to 20% growth fairly consistently and this year are up 12% so far.  They sell the majority of their beer in Nova Scotia followed by Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunwick and Alberta.  They have sold their products previously in Newfoundland and Manitoba but due to the need for critical mass marketing support, they have abandoned those provinces and focused on other areas.

Their Beer

Here is a description of each of the regular rotation beers taken directly from the Propeller website:

Year-Round:

Extra Special Bitter (ESB):  Our ESB is a rich, full-bodied English-style bitter, brewed with carefully selected malts and hops. This copper coloured, English styled ale is our best seller. Smooth, Full bodied and All Natural, like all our beers.

IPA: Not for the faint of heart. True India Pale Ales had to withstand long sea voyages before quenching the thirst of cranky British troops stationed in India. Our IPA is true to this style, it’s bracing, bitter and higher in alcohol (6.5%alc./vol) and made with the trademark Propeller quality. It’s full-bodied ale for full throttle beer lovers!

Pale Ale:  Advances in malting techniques made possible paler coloured malts and heralded the arrival of Pale Ales onto the brewing scene in the 1800s in Britain. The most famous Pale Ale brewers came from Burton, where the hard water perfectly suited this new style of beer. Propeller “Burtonizes” its water to emulate this famous style. Crisp, hoppy and dry, Propeller Pale Ale is a delightful interpretation of a classic British brew.

Honey Wheat Ale:  Our Honey Wheat Ale is brewed with a blend of barley and wheat malts, with just a hint of Nova Scotia honey. The honey used is high quality fruit blossom and wildflower honey made in the Annapolis Valley. This honey is gently blended into the kettle late in the boiling process.  Propeller Honey Wheat is fermented at a slightly lower temperature than our other Ales. This provides a cleaner, smoother beer and also ensures the delicate flavours provided by the addition of Honey are uninhibited.  Light and refreshing, this is a year round favourite!

London Style Porter:  This beer style was created in the mid-1750’s. A dark full-flavoured beer but smoother and less bitter than stout. Made with softened water, Propeller London Porter is a blend of pale, roasted and chocolate malts, hopped with English and North American varieties.  Porter was the drink of the masses long before lagers or modern ales were fashionable. The name Porter originated because this strong, nourishing drink was reputed to be the favourite beverage of the hard working porters of London’s Covent Gardens.

Pilsner: Pilsner is a style of lager that originated in Plzen (pronounced Pilsen), Czechoslovakia in 1842. Prior to that time, most beers were made with top-fermenting yeast and were dark in colour and somewhat hazy. In 1842, an innovative Czech Brewery used a ground-breaking technique of methodical bottom fermenting with a new strain of yeast. The resulting brew, Pilsner, was a refreshing golden and bright beer that has now been adopted by breweries all over the world.   Propeller Bohemian Style Pilsener, is a refreshing brew in the classic lager style of Bohemia. Made with a blend of Canadian and European malts and prized Noble hops, Propeller Bohemian Style Pilsener displays classic Euro-lager characteristics: a slightly sulphurous nose, distinctive Continental hop aroma, a light malt sweetness and a refreshing bitter finish.

Seasonal:

Revolution (RIS):  This beer was born for greatness. Sent by English brewers via the Baltic Sea to the court of the Czars, Russian Imperial Stout was brewed to very high gravities and allowed to ferment on the long voyage. The result? A dark, strong and bracing brew.   Propeller’s version weighs in at a whopping eight percent alcohol content, with a deep, rich, black colour. The taste of alcohol is well masked by the intense hop bitterness, extreme roasted malt and dark fruit notes.   Propeller Brewing Company has brewed and bottled this unfiltered ale each year since 2006, making Propeller the extreme brewing pioneers of Nova Scotia. This seasonal offering is only available at the Propeller Cold Beer Store on Gottingen Street, and select private retailers in Halifax.

Hefeweizen:  Nothing refreshes more than this naturally cloudy wheat beer with a yeasty aroma and flavours of banana and clove. Our summer seasonal is made with special Weizen yeast, German Noble hops and equal amounts of barley and wheat malts and finished with higher than normal carbonation.   “Propeller’s version displays typical cloudiness with yeasty, spicy, banana, and dry savoury aromas. Very light and refreshing on the palate, with creamy texture and gentle, lightly fruity character, it finishes with a touch of dryness. The mild, refreshing style makes this a good summer brew that will appeal to most palates.” (Sean Wood)

Pumpkin Ale:  In the fall of 2004 we created a Pumpkin Ale at the request of the Town of Windsor’s  Pumpkin Festival and a fall classic was born. We brew this ale using Howard Dill’s® world famous Atlantic Giant Pumpkins® with a special blend of spices – this of course in addition to the usual ingredients: highest quality malted grains, hops, water and yeast. It’s the next best thing to pumpkin pie. This one goes fast so make sure you mark your calendar for this October.

Double IPA:  Propeller Double IPA is a full bodied, American style Double India Pale Ale that is brewed with premium Pacific Northwest hops and a rich blend of 2-row Pale and Crystal malts. Following fermentation it has been heavily dry hopped (a process that enhances the aroma without imparting bitterness in beer) giving this bold brew its big west coast nose. Double IPA delivers a huge amount of piney, floral, and citrusy hop aroma and flavour from start to finish that is balanced by sweet malt flavours. At 8.2% alcohol by volume and 85 IBUs, Propeller Double IPA is not for everyone… It is a TRUE hop bomb, for TRUE hopheads.

Occasionally, Propeller will release a “One Hit Wonder” limited release beer.  John talked about how the brewers love brewing the One Hit Wonders as it allows them to experiment and create different beers.  He also explained as a microbrewery (and not a brewpub) he needs to focus on consistency of their regular products which limits the amount of “one of” beers they can produce.

Collaboration Beers

Propeller has produced Alpha Dog Wet Hopped Collaboration Ale with Sea Level Brewing and also an Imperial Extra Special Bitter with Hart & Thistle.  John hopes they’ll be able to do both collaborations again this year.

Local Suppliers

Propeller used Maritime Malt last year for one of their “One Hit Wonders” and also for their collaboration brew with Sea Level brewing.  They use Annapolis Valley honey and Howard Dill pumpkins for their pumpkin beer that is available in the Fall.

Philosophy on beer festivals / Conferences

Propeller is not a regular attendee at beer festivals (especially those not focused on craft beer).  They’ll attend a festival if there is a marketing rationale for it, normally if they are looking to enter a new market.  He’s not interested in attending “giant open bar” festivals where he needs to donate his beers to someone else who is making a profit on the tickets.  Because most of the beer festivals are so busy and crowded it is more about handing out beer than it is a real opportunity to market their product.  Considering how busy Propeller already is, coordinating attendance at beer festivals and giving away product that would otherwise be sold doesn’t make sense.  He’d also like to see more of an emphasis on pairing with foods at festivals.  Propeller did attend this initial Saint John BeerFest earlier this year and also a beer festival in Toronto.  John also mentioned that he is giving some thought to organizing a true craft beer event for this Winter.

John and Bobby attended the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego a few months ago.  While they do not attend every year, they do go when there is specific information they are looking for and it also serves as a good networking opportunity although John is already well connected within the industry.

Philosophy on Beer Awards

Propeller has stopped submitting their beers for awards the past few years.  They have previously won multiple awards at the Canadian Brewing Awards and also at the World Beer Championships.  John jokes that this is due to the high cost of plaque mounting but it has more to do with the time and effort involved in submitting their beers and they are more than comfortable with the fact that people love their beer.  John also mentioned that for the past 10 or so years that the Coast has been running the best microbrewery award in Halifax they have won for all years but two.

Community Involvement

Propeller has been heavily involved in community projects.  Propeller has been involved in events related to the North End Community Health Center, Northern Lights Lantern Festival , have donated a labeller for a charity to create salad dressing that benefits Inner-city kids and have been involved in other community events.

Internet Presence

Propeller has a website, a Facebook Page, and a very active Twitter account ( @propellerbeer ).