Profiles

The Story of Rudder’s Brewpub – Yarmouth, N.S.

Posted by AtlCan BeerBlog on 2012-10-11
Posted in: Profiles. Tagged: Rudder's Brewpub. Leave a Comment

Editor’s Note:  I’ve recently exchanged emails with Mike Ferguson, the Brewer / Keg Washer (as described in his email signature) for Rudder’s Brewpub in Yarmouth.   Below is the story of Rudder’s Brewpub in the words of the self described Old Fart:

Rudders Brewery is a 10 bbl gravity flow brewery consisting of grain storage and a grain mill on the 3rd floor and a mash tun/lauter tun on the second floor. On the main floor is a steam heated kettle, a 20 bbl fermenter and two 10 bbl fermenters. In our walk-in cooler are five 10 bbl  serving tanks and one 20 bbl serving tank. The gravity flow part comes in from the 3rd floor to the main floor, nothing is pumped until the wort is ready to be pumped through the heat exchanger into the fermenter.
The restaurant, brew pub and brewery are all located on Yarmouth’s waterfront in a 145 year old building. Here we brew about 20 times a year producing  20000 litres of beer. Most of the beer is served in the restaurant with the remainder being sold in 20 litre party kegs and 1.9 litre growler bottles.
Over the years we have brewed 14 different ales and lagers which include the 4 regular signature beers as described on our web site. There are 3 seasonal brews including Lighthouse Lager at 4.5%, Scottish Wee Heavy at 5% and Killam’s Irish Ale at 7%. The Pompey Dick IPA was brewed for the 250th anniversary of Yarmouth and is no longer available.  New this month is the ‘Land’s End IPA’  It’s a 6.4% ABV , 22.4 IBU  amber copper one-off  ale.
At this point we have only used the Maritime malt which was in the Pompey Dick IPA. I may look towards sourcing some hops locally for next year.
Brewery tours are offered when ever I am there. When I am not there Cliff Armsworthy, my assistant and most of the servers are knowledgeable of the brewery workings.
Rudder’s Brew Pub was established in 2000. Prior to that it was called the Queen Molly. The original owners of the Queen Molly built the brewery in 1996.  Randy Lawrence of Sea Level brewing, brewed here right up until December 2010. In 2005 I was newly retired and had just moved here from Ontario. Rudder’s became my regular watering hole partly because the atmosphere and character of the old building and the other part was I liked the draft beer that was on tap.
I over heard a conversation between Randy and the General Manager  at that time about hiring a brewery assistant. I raised my hand and the rest is as they say is history. Over the next 5 years  Randy taught me how to brew (I had not even home brewed at the time). I took an on line course from Seibels to learn the basics and have learned what I can from the internet. I have the perfect retirement job.
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If you’re an Atlantic Canadian brewery (of any size) and interested in being profiled on this site, please email me.

Q and A with Beer Blogger Beer Maven

Posted by AtlCan BeerBlog on 2012-08-15
Posted in: Profiles. Tagged: Beer Maven, Dave Evans. Leave a Comment

Dave Evans, a.k.a. Beer Maven, is based out of Sackville, New Brunswick and writes reviews about beers from around the world on his blog  (you can also follow him on Twitter @CdnBeerMaven). I’ve recently exchanged emails with him in order to produce the following Q & A:

Atlantic Canada Beer Blogger (ACBB):  Tell me about your blog and why you decided to start one.

Beer Maven (BM): I started blogging about beer about two and a half years ago. I started off collecting bottle caps for one of my younger cousins but in the process of drinking a wide assortment of beers for their bottle caps I started to realize that were lots of wildly different kinds of beers and lots of them were really good so I started writing down some descriptions and decided to put a couple descriptions up on the web.

Like most new bloggers, I pretty much forgot about my blog after two posts but, following an eye-opening three days in Brussels, I soon decided to fire up the old beer blog again. I was living in Norway at the time and saw it as a way of sharing with my friends and family back in Canada the cool Norwegian beers that I had come across.

Now I post reviews of beers brewed by everyone from mega to micro-breweries from all over the world at least twice a week (sometimes more). I have taken a shine to reviewing brewpubs I visit and their often fantastic sample trays so they are often the focus of a post. My goal is to provide a vicarious beer experience so people can make informed decisions about whether they would appreciate a beer before they actually buy it. When reviewing a beer I do my best to understand it through the lens of what the brewmaster was trying to accomplish rather than my own personal preferences. I have nearly one-hundred posts up and more than one hundred unpublished reviews waiting on my computer and my blog has been visited by beer enthusiasts from 106 different countries.

ACBB:  How did you develop your interest and knowledge of beer?

BM:  My go to reference book is Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher but I also use Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion. By and large, my knowledge of beer and brewing has been as a result of a large number of public and private brewery tours of the years, a private tour of a Canada Malting plant, brewery websites for terminology and conversations with countless other beer geeks.

As far as developing my interest: I think three days in Brussels will pique most people’s interest in beer.

ACBB:  Do you have any interesting or unusual experiences related to your blog or beer tastings?

BM:  A marketing rep for Molson contacted me through Twitter and sent me a pair of cans of Rickard’s Blonde to review which was pretty cool. But the most rewarding beer blog experiences I’ve had are when a reader emails me or leaves a comment that my review helped them appreciate a beer or make a decision about whether or not to try a new beer.

ACBB:  Have you ever gotten into homebrewing?

BM:  I do make homebrew now and then but for the moment am only using off-the-shelf kits from my local brewing store (www.splendidgrapes.com). A friend of mine started growing hops this summer so by next summer I hope to be able to add some fresh hops to ‘spruce’ up the kits; pun intended.

ACBB:  What are some of your all-time favourite beers?

BM:  My all-time favourites include Garrison Spruce Beer, Maredsous Brune and Esrum Kloster by Skands. Hacker-Pschorr’s Hefe Weisse, Gahan House’s 1772 IPA, La Fin du Monde by Unibroue and Lagunitas’s Hop Stoopid are some of my current favourites.

ACBB:  What are some of your preferred styles of beer?

BM:  Belgian and especially Trappist ales, wheat beers, IPAs are probably my favourite styles but I enjoy just about any kind of beer.

ACBB:  Where do you get some of the more exotic beers that you review that aren’t available locally?

BM:  Local options for exotic beers not available at NB Liquor that I frequent are Marky’s Laundromat Bar in Moncton and Premier Wine and Spirits in Halifax but other than those two places I make a point to look up breweries and beer stores whenever travelling. Also, I’m lucky to have some great friends and family members that often bring me hard to find beers when they visit or return from travels.

ACBB:  Do you have a favourite brewery?

BM:  Really hard to pick just one but I’ve been impressed by everything I’ve tried from Lagunitas though there are plenty of fantastic breweries out there and right here in Atlantic Canada. I really like the Pump House Brewery in Moncton, Sea Level Brewing in Port Williams, Gahan House in Charlottetown and Propeller, Garrison and Rock Bottom in Halifax all make great beer. With the craft beer revolution still going strong, it is a great time to be a fan of beer.

ACBB:  Are there any beers that you refuse to try again?

BM:  Schnitzer Brau. I’m pretty sure “Gluten free and terrible” could be their motto.

ACBB:  What is the best time to sample a new beer? Do you have any particular habits during your tastings?

BM:  I personally think the best time to sample a beer is in mid-afternoon and when I am hungry because I feel like that way my tongue naturally seeks out the different flavours and complexity. Also, being hungry lets me see the flavours in the best possible light and guarantees my palate will be clear.

Usually when I review a beer I’m sitting in front of my computer with the beer, my reference books and usually an INAO Official wine tasting glass or a Weissebier “Vase”. After I’ve formed my own impressions of the beer and written my review I often share a drink and ask my girlfriend (@KTara691) her opinion and read my review to her. She acts as my sounding board and does a good job of keeping my reviews grounded so that they don’t get too esoteric and so they don’t fail to mention any flavours that I might fail to mention for being too obvious.

ACBB:  What are your beer related plans for the rest of 2012?

BM:  For the first time I’m headed to the Sea Port Beerfest in a few days and am getting really excited about that. ( Editor’s note:  I received the info prior to the festival but only posted it afterwards).  I’ll be spending the last half of August on vacation in Southern Ontario and while I’m there I’ll be searching through beer stores collecting as many craft beers as possible to bring home and review over the next few months. I’m also looking forward to trying some of the top rated Belgian beers as I work my way through that section of Premier Wine & Spirits.

One other thing I’m really excited about is a project that is really a spinoff of my beer blog. A local restaurant (Pickle’s European Deli) and I have partnered up to do a handful of guided beer tasting evenings. We already did one and plan to do another in September. If the interest is there it’s something we would like to continue doing every month or so. I’ve been doing these for friends and family as preparation for the paid events and am hoping to do more of these intimate tastings for groups of 4 or 5 in people’s homes.

As for the rest of the year and part of 2013, I’m planning to start pursuing some more formal training and certification in beer tasting. Also I am registered in a university level chemistry course with an eye for potentially entering a brewing sciences program in the future.

Q and A with Garrison Brewing Co. President Brian Titus

Posted by AtlCan BeerBlog on 2012-08-02
Posted in: Profiles. Tagged: Brian Titus, Daniel Girard, Garrison Brewing, Halifax Seaport Beerfest. 1 comment

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.