Although it was a short work week due to the holidays, the yeast never sleep, so we’ve got a few new beers to introduce; and with New Year’s coming up this weekend, there’s also some events we think you’ll want to know about. We’ll start off this week, however, with news of a new brewery that launched late last week:
• It was a Christmas Beer-acle! Moth Lane Brewing, on PEI’s Prince County, opened December 24th to satisfy the thirsty folks in the Western region of the island. The 800 litre (7 BBL) brewhouse offers flights and pints in their tap room onsite, and sells growler fills to go. There are three beers available currently: Motorboat’r Blonde Ale, a refreshing and easy drinking 6.5% ABV light ale; The Answer Imperial IPA, a 7.0% ABV, 70 IBU bitter beer with plenty of pine character; and, Oyster Thief Stout, a 5.5% ABV dry stout, featuring local oysters added in the boil. The brewery, located at 101 Mickie Allen Shore Rd in Ellerslie, is open Mon-Wed 12-5, and Thurs-Sat 5-10pm, including live music Saturday evening. For those not able to get West, Charlottetown’s HopYard has all three beers available. Stay tuned to the blog, as we’ll have a full profile next week. Welcome to the neighbourhood, Moth Lane!
• Fredericton’s Graystone Brewing has two new beers on the go this week. The Crown Winter Warmer was released on Boxing Day and is described as a big-bodied holiday ale with seasonal spices. Built on a base of Maris Otter and Vienna malts for a solid backbone, chocolate and crystal malts are included to provide deep colour and chocolatey and caramel flavours. It also features a portion of Simpsons relatively new DRC (double-roasted crystal) malt, known for enhancing the body of dark beers and bringing complex dark caramel and dark fruit flavours without the bitterness or astringency of traditional heavily roasted malts. At 7.4% ABV you’ll almost certainly feel some alcohol warmth, while an addition of allspice and 30 IBUs worth of NB Goldings round out the flavour profile. It’s available at the taproom for pints, as well as growler and crowler fills.
• And hitting Graystone’s taps today will be a Belgian White IPA that they’re calling Mont Blanc, a collaboration with the in-the-works Gore Farm Brewery of St. Stephen, NB. A simple malt bill of Pilsner and wheat provide a canvas for some “cool” West Coast hops that bring 50 IBUs worth of bitterness and no doubt some citrus flavours. And judging by the name, expect to find some Belgian yeast flavours as well. More on Gore Farm in the near future!
• The folks at Lazy Bear have let us know that they’ll be pouring pints at a New Year’s Eve Dance Party hosted by local musician David Chamberland at the Rebekah Music Hall in Bear River. This will give them the opportunity to bring their regular lineup and also hopefully a brand new California Common-style beer. The as-yet unnamed brew eschews the Northern Brewer hops traditional to the style for Nugget from Ontario and Chinook from New Brunswick. Although the grapefruit aspects of the Chinook flavour profile might be viewed as crossing a stylistic boundary, there’s also every chance it will make for a tasty brew. There’s only one way to find out; grab a pint if you can!
• Also in the works from Lazy Bear is an Irish Red that will feature potatoes in the mash. Obvious jokes aside, care will definitely need to be taken to convert the sugars from the potatoes and to lauter the wort from what will no doubt be an exceptionally sticky grist, but the result should be very unique. We’re definitely looking forward to hearing more about this one as further information becomes available. Lastly, we’re told that LB will be featuring a percentage of Horton Ridge malts in all of their beers for 2017; the celebration of local ingredients continues!
• Hammond River has released another iteration in their The Vegas SMaSH series, a Single-Malt and Single-Hop beer that has had four versions prior to this release. The newest beer features Mosaic, a very popular and delicious variety that features plenty of berry character, resulting in a truly fruity-tasting beer. As with previous takes, this one weighs in at 6.5% ABV and 60 IBUs; you can find it on tap now at The Barrel’s Head, and it should be popping up at other HR tap accounts in the near future.
• Moncton’s Tide & Boar Brewing has released a brand new beer in their Hop Series. Lemondrop IPA is a 7.5% ABV IPA featuring the eponymous Lemondrop hop, an experimental hop featuring big notes of lemon citrus, and keeping in the hazy tradition of T&B’s other IPAs. Grab a pint now, and enjoy it at their Waterfront Craft Beer Garden event tomorrow (details below).
• We teased last week about Upstreet starting a barrel-aging program, with the recent delivery of a set of barrels from Kentucky’s Buffalo Trace Distillery. Well, the barrels have been filled with six different beers, which are now undergoing the first of many days of aging, before being bottled and released to the public next fall. Sorry, we can’t share what these beers are yet, but – as always – we’ll be sure to release that info as soon as we can!
Be sure to check the hours of your local brewery and beer store before heading there tomorrow, as some are on reduced hours. Here are some events guaranteed to help you say goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017 while enjoying great beer:
• If you’re in the Moncton area, what better way to ring in the New Year than with the NYE Waterfront Craft Beer Garden? Starting at 4 pm on Saturday, December 31st, the Tide & Boar will be hosting seven local breweries, including Acadie-Broue, Beckwith Road, Bore City, Celtic Knot, Flying Boats, Scow Cider, and, of course, their own T&B Brewery. The beer garden will run until 9 pm, and have a view of the concert on the waterfront, which will feature several live bands.
• And what about Fredericton? Well, those behind the Fredericton Craft Beer Festival will be hosting their own NYE Craft Beer Garden on Saturday. Held downtown at Officer’s Square and starting at 4 pm, there will be lots pouring from both Maybee and Sunset Heights Meadery until midnight. As well, select products from Bogtrotter, Graystone, Grimross, Picaroons, Red Rover, and TrailWay will be available. A food truck will be on-site, live music will be playing, and there will be two firework shows (8 pm and midnight). Can’t get away from the family? No worries – kids are allowed in the beer garden with their parents. No charge to attend, just pay by the beverage… and be sure to dress warm!
• Somerset’s Bad Apple Brewhouse is celebrating its third anniversary Saturday from 10-6 and will have a small run of bottles of their APA, Mosaic DIPA, and Black and Tackle Russian Imperial Stout available, and will no doubt have some other treats for those who drop by for the fun.
• Although Stillwell probably shouldn’t be part of your plans for New Year’s Eve (owing to them being closed), you should think hard about making them a destination for your hangover on New Year’s Day. They’ll be opening at noon for their New Year’s Day Levée with some brunchy menu options (Smoked Striped Bass Fishcakes, Triple-threat Breakfast Sandwich, Smoked Meat Hash or Toutons with Lonzino and Molasses, anyone?) and a pretty intense wall’s worth of goodies. Do you like stout served on nitrogen? Sure you do! They’ll have three: Granite Keefe’s Irish Stout, Unfiltered Flat Black Jesus and Dieu du Ciel! Aphrodisiaque. How about one of the three existing kegs of Acadie Broue Zirable, the Geueze-style we waxed poetic about in last week’s wrap-up? You know you want to try that. There’s also taps from Les Trois Mousquetaires , Brasserie Dunham , Trailway , Mikkeller and Bad Apple Brewhouse and the bottle list you know and love.
• Don’t worry, PEI, there’s a local New Year’s Day celebration going on for you, too! Upstreet will be starting their 2017 Kick-Off Sunday at 10 am, and it’ll be continuing all day long! A total of six different bands will be playing live, with the first starting at noon; the music will continue through the celebrations until roughly 10 pm. Beer cocktails, brewery tours, $4 pints, and a special brunch menu will also be available. Last year’s event was the biggest party of the year for the Upstreet taproom, so be sure you don’t miss out! Check out the link above the full details on the bands that will be performing.
• The 5th Annual Fredericton Craft Beer Festival is fast-approaching, and several events have been announced. Returning is ACBB Trivia, alongside a Nova Scotia Tap Takeover, at the King Street Ale House on Thursday, March 9th from 6-9 pm. All 24 taps at the KSAH will be dedicated to a variety of NS breweries; your $25 ticket gets you a special glass to take home, as well as ten 5 oz samples to start off. Trivia starts at 7 pm, and we promise this time the questions will be easier (no drawings of chemical structures, please Chris?)! And for those that haven’t yet grabbed tickets to the main event on Saturday the 11th, there are still a few tickets available for the afternoon (1:30-4:00) session.
A few more notes before you head out today:
– You can celebrate NYE with your very own keg of Garrison beer, and on the cheap, as they are offering a 10% discount on all rentals, and they’ll even include a sleeve of cups. Drop by today or tomorrow, as the sale ends after that.
– It looks like Mama’s Brew Pub has finally got their Crowler machine up and running, meaning that 1-L cans to go of their in-house-brewed beers are now available for purchase.
– The canning continues at TrailWay Brewing, with the latest release being their American Pale Ale, Rype, a 5% ABV hazy hop bomb. As of right now, this one is available only at the brewery, but look for ANBL stores to receive shipments, soon.
And be sure to celebrate the New Year responsibly: with a local beer(s), and a safe ride home! As we close out 2016, we want to thank the breweries and readers that we get to connect with on a weekly basis, and we look forward to spreading the Good News about Great Beer in 2017. Cheers!
The Moncton Beer League is collaborating with the Tide n Boar to bring you the craft beer garden at tomorrow’s kickoff to Canada’s 150th downtown Moncton!