Friday Wrap-Up

Friday Wrap-Up – PEI Brewing Co has Grand Opening for New Location, 2014 CBAs to be held in Fredericton, and more

Posted by acbbshawn on 2013-05-17
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. 2 comments

• This Saturday, May 18th, Prince Edward Island Brewing Co. will be celebrating the grand opening of their new location at 96 Kensington Road in Charlottetown. The event will feature live music all day, free hot dogs and sausages, “Beer 101” with Mike Ross, and more. Brewery specials will include 1/2-priced brewery tours from 12:00 – 5:00, as well as special prices on cask beers. Afterwards, there will be a Hoss’s House of Beer event, with more live music, food and beer. Admission for the evening festivities will be 19+; tickets are 10$ and can be purchased at PEI Brewing Co. and Back Alley Music.

• The Canadian Brewing Awards held last week in Victoria, B.C. were a great success as usual, with several Atlantic Canadian breweries taking home awards. And in further good news for Atlantic Canadian beer fans, it was announced at the event that next year, the awards ceremony will take place in Fredericton! We’re looking forward to reporting on this over the next year, and anxious to see what else we can expect to see as a result (maybe another collaboration beer?).

• For those of you who can’t wait until June to have your first Grimross Brewing beer, there’s a way for you to get it sooner, AND support a good cause! On Friday, May 24th, “Love Your Balls” will be held at the iRock in Fredericton. Tickets are $20 and include all-you-can-eat spaghetti, a Grimross beer (while supplies last),  and music; the event will run from 4:00 – 7:00 pm. The Grimross beer should be either a Belgian Rye IPA or a 100% Brettanomyces beer. Proceeds will support Relay For Life and testicular cancer research; tickets can be purchased here.

• New Brunswick craft beer fans should be seeing two new Picaroons beers available in bottles over the coming weeks. Plaid to the Bone is a “Heather Ale” of ~4.5% ABV; this golden-colored beer brewed with heather was launched last night at a party at the Boyce Farmers Market. The other beer is 104th Regiment, an English Brown Ale that has been available on tap for the past couple of months in Fredericton at various bars. A sessionable beer at ~4.2%, it was originally brewed in February of this year in commemoration of New Brunswick’s 104th Regiment of Foot, from the War of 1812. Check your local ANBL stores over the next few weeks for availability!

• Tickets are now on sale, and the list of brewers and beers is now available for the 2013 NLC Beer Expo, being held at the St John’s Convention Centre, June 14&15. It features many beers not previously available in Newfoundland, some of which will be available at the NLC after the event. The $75 price tag includes a $10 taxi voucher to help get you home safe.

• The latest beer offering from the Beerthief Newfoundland Artisanal Beer Club is closing this weekend. It features five solid beers from Belgium, none of which have been available in Newfoundland (and most of the East Coast!) before. Saison Dupont, De Koninck, Houblon Chouffe, Duvel and Liefmans Goudenband are all on offer, and will be delivered to your local NLC in August. Mike and Tom are working overtime to bring great beer to Newfoundland, great work gentlemen! You can subscribe here.

• Big Spruce has brewed up their first seasonal. Details are sketchy, but we know it is a Red Ale that will be released around the end of the month. Their two regular offerings are now available at Maxwell’s Plum in Halifax.

That’s all the news for now. Enjoy your Victoria Day, and we’ll see you out on a patio some day soon. Cheers!

Friday Wrap-Up — Picaroons plans “Brewer’s Bash” for July, PEI Brewing’s Beach Chair Lager new package size, and more

Posted by acbbshawn on 2013-05-10
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. 1 comment

Good morning, craft beer fans! Here’s the weekly craft beer news for your reading pleasure:

• Picaroons has just announced they will be holding a Brewer’s Bash on Saturday, July 13th in Officer’s Square in Fredericton. From 11 am-11 pm, this “Canadian Craft Beer Celebration” will involve 60 Canadian breweries  pouring 300 beers. Advance tickets will cost $25, and go on sale May 14th on the event’s website. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available!

• PEI Brewing Company‘s flagship beer, Beach Chair Lager, is now available in a new package size. When originally released in March of 2012, the beer was available in the larger, 473 mL can format only. Responding to customer requests, the brewery is now producing the beer in 355 mL cans as well. Look for both 6-pack and 12-packs of this size at local PEILCC and ANBL stores, as well as NSLC outlets for the first time, starting this week.

• Pump House Brewing has won two awards in the 9th annual Calgary International Beerfest, which was held last weekend. Both the S.O.B. and their seasonal Doppelbock won bronze medals. Congratulations, Pump House!

• We had the chance to drop by Big Spruce this week, and saw that they were expanding their hop field by about 300%. Still the best view from a hopfield I’ve ever seen! And they are brewing like mad men to keep up with demand from their draft clients all across the province. Keep up the great work!

• The Halifax breweries were all represented at the Local Connections “Meet Your Local” Spring Gala last night at the Halifax Club. Bridge Brewing, Garrison Brewing and Propeller Brewing were joined by food truck Nomad Gourmet and Ratinaud French Cuisine in the Craft Brewer’s Party Room.

• Several of our local breweries will be represented at the Canadian Brewing Awards, being held this weekend in Victoria, BC. Check out their gala (viewable by direct stream) Saturday at 10pm. Good luck to all of the brewers!

It’s beginning to look like patio weather, so be sure to get out and support your local brewpub and breweries. Cheers!

Friday Wrap-Up – Picaroons “May the 4th Be With You” Event, Pump House Maple and Braunschweig released and more

Posted by acbbshawn on 2013-05-03
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. Tagged: Atlantic Beer Festival, Big Spruce Brewing, Garrison Brewing, Hell Bay Brewing, Picaroons Traditional Ales, Propeller Brewing, Pump House Brewery, Seaport Beerfest. Leave a Comment

– Tomorrow, May 4th, Picaroons will be hosting a tap-takeover at Plan B Bar & Lounge in Moncton. For this “May the 4th Be With You” event, the six taps will include Dark & Stormy Night, Dooryard, Best Bitter, Timber Hog, Yippee IPA, and Feelsgood Imperial Pilsner; the band Gravity Strike will also be providing live music. Tickets are $10, and the event starts at 10:00 p.m.

Also on Saturday, Picaroons is releasing a special beer named JED IPA. This beer is their Yippee IPA “insanely dry-hopped with Galaxy, Comet, Aurora, Delta, Apollo, and Phoenix hops”, according to Dennis Goodwin, Marketing Director at Picaroons. JED IPA will be available exclusively at the Picaroons Brewtique in growlers only, and also on tap at Plan B Saturday night.

– The Pump House Brewery has released two more of their seasonal beers in bottles, just in time for the warm weather! The Maple Ale, at 5% ABV, is described as an amber-colored beer with an aroma that is slightly sweet, yet with a hint of Columbus hops in the background. The taste shows off the maple character, as the beer is “allowed to age upon an ample quantity of pure maple syrup, sourced from locally tapped sugar maple trees”. The second beer is their Braunschweig Wicked Wheat (Braunschweig is the German word for “Brunswick”). Also at 5% ABV, this beer sounds like it’s along the lines of a Hefeweizen, with a golden color, and aromas and flavors of banana and clove. Look for these beers at various ANBL stores across New Brunswick.

– Big Spruce Brewing in Nyanza Cape Breton is having a busy time these days, brewing often to keep up with demand in Cape Breton, Halifax, and locations in between. They are looking for a summer student to run their sales counter four days a week, to help move their growlers and merchandise. If you are over 19 and interested, email bigsprucebrewing@gmail.com.

They also have lots of certified organic hop rhizomes available (they grow and use their own hops whenever possible), email them for details. Jeremy will be happy to give you a crash course on growing hops at home!

– Hell Bay Brewing is continuing their move to a bigger and better location, and will be selling out of their Liverpool location (38 Legion St) this weekend (Fri-Sun, 12-6pm each day). They will be having a Grand Opening mid-June to celebrate their move, and we will keep you up-to-date with the details. Congratulations to Hell Bay on their continued success!

– Propeller Brewing is releasing their newest One Hit Wonder beer today. The style is an Imperial Red Ale, and unfortunately is only available in growlers at the brewery on Gottingen. Also, local drinks writer Craig Pinhey has details on Propeller’s expansion into Dartmouth in the latest edition of Taps Magazine.

– Garrison Brewing is also going through a major expansion in downtown Halifax, and we hope to give you some details on this soon. In the meantime, their much-anticipated Sugar Moon Maple beer is being released today at the brewery, and at Premier Wine and Spirits and Bishop’s Cellar this weekend. It will also be available at the ANBL shortly.

– Tickets for the afternoon session of the Atlantic Beer Festival in Moncton on May 25th are still available. Breweries from all over the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario and Maine will be in attendance. We hope to have the brewery and beer list for you soon.

– It’s not for several months, but the Seaport Beer Festival has put out their call for volunteers. The festival is taking place in Halifax August 9-10, and volunteer spots fill up early, so contact them for more details.