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Friday Wrap-Up – News and New Beers from Grimross, Garrison Brewing, Shiretown Beer, Picaroons, Rogues Roost and Much More!

Posted by acbbchris on 2013-12-13
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. Tagged: Beerthief, Big Spruce Brewing, Boxing Rock Brewing, Fredericton Craft Beer Festival, Garrison Brewing, Great Canadian Beer Expo, Grimross Brewing, Hell Bay Brewing, King Street Ale House, PEI Brewing, Picaroons Traditional Ales, Rogues Roost Brewpub, Saint John Beer Fest, Sea Level Brewing, Shiretown Beer, Stillwell Beer Bar, YellowBelly Brewery. Leave a Comment

Happy Friday, Craft Beer Fans!

• Following very successful sales in Fredericton (on tap at the King Street Ale House and growlers sales at the Brewtique) and Moncton (on tap at the Tide and Boar Gastropub), Grimross Brewing recently began selling their beer in Halifax. Earlier this week, both the Ben’s Pale Ale and Belgian Rye IPA appeared on tap at Stillwell to great enthusiasm from their customers. If you’re in the Halifax area and missed out on your chance to try these beers, follow Stillwell on Twitter to see when they make an appearance there again! And don’t worry, Fredericton-local fans, they’ve just stocked the Brewtique fridge with more Rye IPA.

• Spruce fans, rejoice! Today’s the day that Garrison Brewing is releasing their highly-anticipated Spruce Beer. Brewed using a truck-load of spruce and fir harvested from Meander River Farms, and blackstrap molasses from Crosby’s in Saint John, the beer weighs in at 7.5% ABV. The brewery doors opened at 9 this morning, and folks were picking up the beer shortly thereafter. For us working stiffs unable to visit the brewery this morning, a cask of the beer will be tapped at 4pm, so you can sip it while you buy a bottle (or case). The beer will also be available at the local private beer stores, NSLC, and also at select ANBL stores beginning next week. Also look for a cask of it to be available at Stillwell soon.

• Meanwhile, Garrison Brewing has expanded distribution of their beers outside of Atlantic Canada – their Imperial IPA is now available in Ontario at select LCBO stores. If the beer proves popular with Ontario beer fans, it could become a regular product at the LCBO. Along with Garrison’s Mixed 6 recently becoming available in Alberta, this shows that the brewery is slowly starting to expand… hopefully we’ll see further growth in the not-too-distant future!

• Shiretown Beer has a previously-available brew returning for growler fills at the brewery. Big Brown Ale is an English-style Brown Ale that has a “complex bill of specialty malts, leaving well-balanced hints of roast and chocolate”. It is lightly-hopped to 20 IBUs, and clocks in at 4.5% ABV. Drop by to get some of this beer before its gone!

• Just an update concerning Picaroons‘ 12 Beers of Christmas event, which started yesterday (with the return of the popular “Dunkel Wisemen”, their Dark & Stormy Night brewed with dark chocolate and orange peel, which sold out in a little under an hour) – the time of the daily growler release for the Christmas beers at the Brewtique has been changed to 4 pm. Remember, each day’s beer will be announced on Picaroons’ Twitter feed around noon, and there is a 2 growler-per-person limit.

• Speaking of Picaroons, they’ve released an online survey for those of you who enjoy their beers. Check it out here; it should only take a minute or two to complete. They’re looking to learn a little more about drinking habits of Picaroons fans, so help them out and fill out the survey!

• Rogues Roost has released their popular Russian Imperial Stout seasonal beer this week. Brewed with tons of dark roasted malt, the beer starts with liquorice and treacle flavours, and ends with roast and coffee flavour and aroma. The beer weighs in at 9% ABV and 50 IBUs. This black beauty will not be available in growlers, so pull up a stool at the bar, and have a pint or two!

• Hell Bay has released their newest seasonal, Black Fog Oatmeal Stout. This dark beer features lots of roasted aroma and flavour with hints of chocolate and coffee and weighs in at  5.5% ABV and 36 IBUs. It is currently available in kegs and growlers at the brewery, and will shortly be released in bottles as well. Look for it at your favourite bar or private beer store soon!

• Boxing Rock has also released a new seasonal, the U-889 Russian Imperial Stout. We do not have many details on the beer , but do know that it weighs in at 8.89% ABV and a hefty 65 IBUs, and that vanilla was used during the brewing process, so this will be an interesting RIS! It is currently available in bottles and growlers at the brewery, and at Bishop’s Cellar and the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market this weekend. Look for it on tap and cask at Stillwell soon as well!

• Sea Level Brewing has announced their much-loved High Street Wee Heavy Scotch Ale will be available soon. Brewmaster Randy Lawrence first brewed this beer in the mid-nineties as a tribute to his grandfather who was born and lived on High Street, Inveraray, Scotland. An ale with a complex malty body and a slight hint of smokiness in the finish. Smooth, easy drinking and brewed in time for the longer darker nights. Good and Strong, ABV 6.3%. It will be available soon in growlers and on tap at the Port Pub, and cans at three of the private beer stores in Halifax.

• For those of you attending the Fredericton Craft Beer Festival on March 8th, 2014 (if you haven’t purchased your tickets yet, there’s still some available), the Crowne Plaza-Lord Beaverbrook downtown (right across from the Fredericton Convention Centre, where the event is being held) has a special rate of $109/night for ticket-holders. Check out this link to reserve your room now. Also, if you would be interested in volunteering for the Fest, contact FCBF on Twitter or by their website. It will be a fun night!

• As we mentioned previously, Big Spruce held their homebrew competition last Friday. The winning brew was Tim Gregory’s Dirty Grain IPA, which beat out 16 other entries for the best American IPA. We chatted with Tim about his win, and he had this to say, “The name comes from me being a very disorganized brewer and rushing to get my grain crushed while the strike water is heating and dumping them all over the basement floor, and then sweeping them up and back into the mill (hey, it’s all pre-boil right?). I was really shocked and excited when I found out [I’d won].  Just before bed I logged onto wifi on my phone and it immediately buzzed and said that like 13 people had mentioned me on facebook.  I logged on and saw the post that I’d won.  I was pretty surprised, I didn’t even know the judging was going down that night.” He will be heading up to Nyanza next Friday to brew his beer with Jeremy on the big system, and it will be released at the Local Connections Craft Beer and Local Food Celebration January 14th at the Halifax Club. Congratulations, Tim!

• St John’s YellowBelly Brewpub is holding a customer appreciation event next Wednesday (Dec 18th). Free hors d’oeuvres and music from 4-9pm, and sample Brewmaster Liam McKenna’s great beers (including the recently released Mummer’s Brew winter seasonal). All of YB’s friends and fans are invited, just be sure to RSVP via email before Monday.

• The Beerthief is holding another tasting next week, this time it is beer and olive oil. An interesting combination, to say the least, but we think it will work quite well. They are partnering with O’Leva Oils and Vins for the event. There will be five beers and oils tasted, each chosen to pair with each other. Attendees will also leave with a 60mL bottle of their favourite oil of the evening. The beers to be tasted are de Koninck, Liefmans Goudenband, and three beers from The Bruery. To take part, please email Tom Beckett to reserve your spot.

• Tickets for the Saint John Beer Fest are now on sale! The event will be taking place 7-9:30pm, Saturday April 5th, 2014, once again at Market Square downtown. The list of attending breweries is not yet available, but we have been assured that it will be even bigger and better than last year, complete with more unique and interesting entertainment (remember last year’s Atlantic Cirque performers?). Tickets are available at Harbour Station (online, by phone or in person). VIP tickets are also available, which will allow early access to the event.

• The Great Canadian Beer Expo is coming to your town! Well, if you live in Sydney, Halifax, Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, and Charlottetown, it is. The multi-city Expo will offer attendees the chance to taste and enjoy 120+ different beers. The ticket format is slightly different than most others in our region: entrance is $25, and then beer sample tickets are purchased for $1 per 4oz pour. Tickets are now on sale, and we will release more details as they become available. The Expo’s first stop is two nights in Sydney, NS, January 24th and 25th, at the Centre 200. And a lucky attendee from each stop on the tour will win a trip for two to Munich for Oktoberfest!

• Be sure to check out PEI Brewing Company’s Facebook page for their great twelve days of Christmas gift ideas and specials. There’s a new feature every day, so check back often.

That’s all for this morning, but stay tuned, as we’re working on several more posts for next week, it’s going to be a busy one! Here’s a teaser: we’ll have a full profile on Nova Scotia’s newest brewery, Bad Apple Brewhouse.

Friday Wrap-Up – New Beers from Propeller, Pump House, and Rockbottom Brewpub, Fredericton Craft Beer Tickets on Sale Now, and more!

Posted by acbbchris on 2013-11-29
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. Tagged: Big Spruce Brewing, Fredericton Craft Beer Festival, Ladies Beer League, New Brunswick Homebrew Challenge, Picaroons Traditional Ales, Propeller Brewing, Pump House Brewery, RockBottom Brewpub, Stillwell Beer Bar. 2 comments

Another last Friday! Here’s your Atlantic Canadian beer news for the week:

• Propeller Brewing’s Revolution Russian Imperial Stout hits shelves today. Brewed to 8% and 60 IBUs, it features Roasted, Crystal and Chocolate Malts for a full bodied mouthfeel and great flavour and aroma, and Warrior and Cascade hops for bittering and aroma. It will be available at both the Halifax and Dartmouth breweries in 1 and 1.89L growlers, and in 500mL bottles at the breweries, NSLC and private beer stores.

• Also available today is the Pump House Premium Pilsner mentioned in last week’s Wrap-Up. This initial launch of the beer will be in the form of a gift box, containing one 750 mL swing-top bottle. Only 2000 bottles will be available to the public, and can be purchased at ANBL and NSLC stores, as well as at the brewery locations in Moncton (Mill Road and Orange Lange). Look for Premium Pilsner to be available in May or June of 2014 as one of Pump House’s seasonal beers, in the standard 12-oz bottle size.

• Brewmaster Nash at Rockbottom Brewpub in Halifax has released a new batch of an old favourite beer, the Wreckoning Russian Imperial Stout. It features loads of dark malts, including Crystal 150, Black Patent and Chocolate Malt, and is hopped fairly aggressively to 2 lbs/barrel. Some of the beer was then aged in Glenora 12-yr barrels, and fortified with Woodford Reserve Bourbon, and blended back to give you loads of chocolate, vanilla and dark fruit aromas to complement the oak and bourbon. Weighing in at 10%ABV and 132 IBUs (calc), this is a big black beauty of a beer, and only available on tap. And remember to drop by Saturday afternoon for their weekly Firkin, where Nash serves up a special small batch of beer from a gravity fed cask.

• Rogues Roost Brewpub in Halifax also has a favourite beer back on tap, their Raspberry Wheat. The beer clocks in at 4.6% and 15IBUs, and features loads of raspberry aroma and flavour. While it isn’t currently available in growlers, their IPA and Red Ale are, but that list is always expanding. Check their Twitter feed for up-to-the-minute news, and food and beer specials.

• Last week we posted info on Big Spruce‘s new collaboration beer with Crannóg Ale, Left Breton Organic Conspiracy Imperial IPA; well, the beer went on tap at Halifax’s Stillwell shortly thereafter! It probably won’t last long, but it may be back soon… keep an eye on Stillwell’s Twitter feed for tap list updates! Note that the beer is still available at the brewery.

• We also mentioned last week that Garrison Brewing had their employees working hard to harvest all the spruce tips needed to brew their extremely popular Spruce Beer. Well, the beer was brewed last weekend, and will be bottled next Friday! The expected released date is a week later, Friday, December 13th. This year, they plan on sending some Spruce Beer to New Brunswick; look for it to arrive at ANBL stores by December 16th or so. For more details on how they brew this beer, keep your eyes on CBC’s The National after the 13th!

• The final judging for entries in the New Brunswick Homebrew Challenge is winding down, and the winner will be selected and announced from the top 5 entries at the gala this Sunday, December 1st. The homebrewer of the best-judged Standard/Ordinary Bitter will get to brew their beer on a commercial-sized scale with Picaroons‘ head brewer Andrew Estabrooks, for release at the Brewtique in downtown Fredericton. Good luck, finalists!

• And don’t forget that tickets for the March 8th 2014 Fredericton Craft Beer Festival go on sale today! In addition to the regular and VIP tickets ($50 and $60, respectively), there will be a limited number of “Ladies VIP” tickets sponsored by the Ladies Beer League. For ladies only (obviously), these tickets will give the ticket-holder early entry (90 minutes) into the festival, along with Beer 101 with Garrison brewer Kellye Robertson, and guest presentations from local beer celebrities, or “beerlebrities” (unfortunately, I did not come up with that clever word, but… I like it!).  Priced the same as regular VIP tickets, with $10 going to a local women’s charity, we’ll have more details on these tickets and the rest of the festival in the near future. Buy your tickets here; don’t wait, last year’s event sold out quickly!

Details on Local Connections Halifax and their Craft Beer and Local Food Celebration Jan 16 at The Halifax Club

Posted by acbbchris on 2013-11-25
Posted in: Beer Events, Profiles. Tagged: Local Connections Halifax. Leave a Comment

localconnections_event

In advance of the Craft Beer and Local Food Celebration being held January 16 at the Halifax Club, we reached out to Alex Henden of Local Connections Halifax for more information.

Alex is the brains and visionary behind Local Connections Halifax, a quarterly print and online magazine that highlights the best of Halifax, in all categories (shops, food, beer, crafts, everything!). In addition to the magazine, Alexander also hosts and helps promote events all over the HRM (remember Sausage Fest?). The Autumn edition of the magazine has a wonderful feature on The Golden Age of Craft Beer in Nova Scotia.

ACBB: Please tell us a little about yourself and Local Connections Halifax.

Alex: My background at Local Connections Halifax is that I started the magazine about 1.5 years ago with no experience, and have begun doing events right from the get go. At this point in our brief history, we have accumulated a lot of data/experience doing events successfully, and are now looking to apply our findings to what we do to make our events even better. There hasn’t been any outward pressure to improve, but we simply roll this way.

Reception from local businesses and the general public has been similar. We have developed a solid group of readers and supporters. We are close to sustainability with the magazine and have forged a fairly solid reputation as an event host. With this is mind, we are keen to deliver big on January 16 and move up a notch or two in terms of public expectation and demand. We want to be one of the top dogs.
You certainly appear to be a fan of craft beer and local food, tell us about how you got into it.

My interest in beer comes from my first bottle of craft beer which was Shaftebury’s Rainforest (in BC). From there I just started liking beer and began to try others. I am not in any way a beer expert, but I do enjoy drinking craft beers on regular basis and have tried quite a few. On the food end, I probably began a slow transition towards good food, which is often local, probably as far back as 20 years ago. At some point, you have to concede that not all food is equal, and at some point, realize that some of it really isn’t food in the first place. Obviously having a name like Local Connections Halifax implies a support-local mandate, but the truth is, we have a quality-first mandate which is then supported by a support-local one. I think this differentiates us most other buy-local groups.

Please tell us about the January 16 event.

The previous event (Meet Your Local Spring Gala), from the public’s perspective, was that it was a great event, and the format of having 7 themed rooms is something we are keen to continue. The Gala actually showcased the most local producers in the Halifax Club’s 150 year history, and to my knowledge, no one has ever has 7 differently themed rooms, or host the diversity of people entering the building. As event organizers, we enjoyed ourselves, but have instead choose to look at where we can improve. With a bunch of people having told us that the Gala was one of the best events they’ve ever been to makes us very happy because we know we can do much better.

So, the Craft Beer and Local Food Celebration will be more refined in terms of quality and experience. Obviously the focus will be the beer, but we will have cider, entertainment, contests at the event, and lots to eat. Our goal is to have an event which exceeds even our own expectations. This might sound odd, but what we’ve learned is that when you surround yourself with like-minded folks and let them run with it, you end up with something pretty amazing. We saw this firsthand at 3 of the pop-up events during Sausage Fest.

At the moment, for the most part, what you see on the website is pretty much where we are right now. On the breweries end, we are aiming to have as much of the complete product line-up as possible, and in the cases of most breweries, have them make a cask or two for the Cask Room. Jeremy at Big Spruce is keen on doing a home brewers contest prior to the event. We’ll also be requesting that the breweries do some sort of collaboration on their casks. As an example, I have asked Boxing Rock to work with Avondale Sky Winery. We will also have the chefs and dessert makers cook and bake with beer, with the exception of the Stubborn Goat who will be using apples and cider with pork.

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Thank you to Alex for the additional details. We can also tell you that almost every packaging brewery and cidermaker in Nova Scotia will be in attendance, as well as all three HRM brewpubs. As he mentioned, they have been encouraged to collaborate with the excellent chefs in attendance, so the pairings will be effortless (no need to scoot from the beer room to the food room, food and beer will be right beside each other). One of the most intriguing room is the Cask Room, where many brewers will have a special one-off beer pouring, and there will be Beer Ambassadors roaming around to chat about the brewing process, suggest beer and food pairings, and just chat beer.

Some other details on the evening: the event is all inclusive, and there are only a handful of tickets still available, even with the event two months away. They are expected to sell out this week, so act now if you are on the fence! More details on the “Seven Rooms, Seven Experiences” can be found on the event page. Be sure to follow Local Connections on Facebook and Twitter as more details and sneak peeks are released. We’ve been told that there are still lots of fun details that will be released leading up to the event. And look for the magazine online or at your favourite restaurant, bar or shop.