And just like that, Nova Scotia is on a 4-week Circuit Breaker/Restore the Arse Shutdown, joining the Edmundston region in New Brunswick. It goes to show how truly tenuous our ability to stay ahead of the pandemic the region is, and the willingness for the region’s governments are to act swiftly and decisively, unlike some *other* places in the country. Despite the strengthening of border restrictions, while inter- (and some intra-) provincial travel is more difficult, and some regions are seeing another halt to in-person dining and drinking, we hope you will support your local brewery, restaurant, and bar, by taking advantage of curbside take-out and delivery options. Many spots have not stopped doing so for the past 13 months, and those returning to it will need every assistance possible to reduce food spoilage and laying off employees. Stay safe, take care of yourself and each other.
Holy Whale Brewery in Alma has released their beer as part of the Celebrating Sisters Beer Project, initiated by the Indigenous Brew Crew and aided by Do Better. Be Better.. 43 breweries across the country and in the UK signed up to the project, with the goal to raise awareness on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada, and to celebrate the strength and power of Indigenous Women. Locally, Holy Whale connected with a local Wabanaki Women’s group to learn from them and will be donating money to further their goals. The Irish Red Ale brewed as part of the project is on tap in Alma and their Riverview location now.
In Deer Lake, Newfoundland, Rough Waters Brewing is opening their taproom today, and celebrating with a new beer! Located at 83 Wights Road, the 27-seat bar will feature 7 taps, as well as a small but mighty menu of dips perfect for pairing with beer (if you want to bring in a Big Mary from down the street that’s OK too!). They also have some cool beer cocktails on the menu, perfect for when you want just a bit *more* with your beer. Retail sales of bottles, as well as a growler exchange program will let you take the beer home with you after you’ve chosen your favourites. They are launching with Friday (4 – 11 PM) and Saturday (12 – 11 PM) hours, but will expand during the warmer months. So what to drink while you’re there? Check out their latest release, Knock Out, a 6.0% Brut IPA. As the style suggests, this is a dry and light-bodied beer, with a clean bitterness, and big citrus flavours, thanks to a healthy dry-hop addition. On draught and in bottles too, if you can’t make it to Deer Lake, you can grab it at your friendly neighbourhood Marie’s Mini Mart, and on tap at the just-now-opened Bar Brewdock in St. John’s. But these all taste better on tap at the source, right? Congratulations to Jennie and Chris on the grand opening!
Continuing to step up their game with summer treats, Propeller has a brand new seasonal release available today. Tropic Haze is a 5% ABV golden blonde ale with some tropical vibes. With flavours of juicy mango, passionfruit and dragonfruit, the grain bill is pale malt and wheat malt, with a hop profile including Warrior for bittering and Citra for aroma. While not a hop forward beer at 8 IBU, the tropical impression of mango, passionfruit, and dragonfruit comes from fruit and flavouring additions. Keep an eye out for this one in cans and draught as you pop-by for a retail grab-and-go, or home delivery, until we can enjoy pints at the taprooms next month.
Our friendly neighbours across the bridge (no, not Dartmouth), Village Green in Cornwall, PEI, is releasing Golden Ale as part of their Comfortbier Series, a family of English inspired session ales. The grain bill of primarily 2-Row and Maris Otter with a bit of flaked corn and double roasted crystal joins a hop blend of EKG and Cascade to bring a nice citrus hop profile that is very well balanced. Fermented with London Ale III, this English ale should be easily drinkable, slightly dry, and slightly bitter at 4.5% ABV and 35 IBU. Look to grab it on draught and in cans directly from the brewery, and if the weather turns a bit warmer, their patio may even be open this weekend!
Keep an eye out for more news from the brewery with future food events with Sneaky Cheats popping up for a big burger cookout on May 1st, as well as the Holy Fox Food Truck returning in a couple of weeks to spend the summer at 30 Church Street. Also, if you’re in PEI and looking for work this summer in the craft beer industry, see below for some job openings with Village Green.
Staying somewhat close to PEI (depending on your definition of close these days) is O’Creek Brewing in Dieppe, NB. First up, they have fresh kegs at Tide & Boar and CAVOK of their new Mango Oat Cream IPA. This is a full bodied beer, brewed with a huge amount of oats in the grain bill, giving it a full, smooth and creamy mouthfeel. Lactose was then added to the boil to add some sweetness. During secondary fermentation, mango was added to bring some more sweetness and a more tropical flavour at 6.5% ABV.
In other news from O’Creek, they have a Hazy IPA hitting wider distribution this week as Citra in a Galaxy is available at multiple ANBL locations. This is a tropical, juicy, hazy IPA generously hopped with Citra and Galaxy that brings citrus and stone fruit flavours with low bitterness at 6% ABV. It’s available in 473ml cans now across most of New Brunswick, specifically, Fredericton, Saint John, Greater Moncton, Shediac, Richibuctou, Miramichi, Péninsule Acadienne, Bathurst, and Kedgwick.
The fellas behind Delta Force Brewing are back this weekend with release #5 which sees four new variations on their ‘Traditional Farmshed Ale” Anderlect. The base beer is DF’s take on a Trappist single, with some funk from the Brett fermentation. The four variants feature different fruit additions for your drinking pleasure: peach, red currant, sour cherry, and rhubarb. They are available through a Farmshed Harvest pack that includes 500 ml bottles of each fruited variant, alongside the regular Anderlect and Mean TIme, DF’s take on an English Bitter with Brett. Bottles of Anderlect, Mean Time, and their English Barleywine with Brett, Wessex, are also available. As usual, email deltaforcebrewing@gmail.com for ordering details, or to be added to their email distribution list. They are starting deliveries this weekend to those who place orders within a one hour drive of HRM.
Back across the border, Trailway Brewing has a new batch of Hot Sky, a beer seeing just its second release. This hazy IPA celebrates the Aussie hop Eclipse and features flavorus of citrus, pine and a taste that’s gonna move ya (juicy fruit gum, that is). Hot Sky comes in at 6.6% ABV and is available now at the taproom and for delivery across Atlantic Canada. This weekend also sees a return of Good Weather (hopefully not just the beer variety). Look for this 6% IPA featuring Vic Secret hops at the brewery and various ANBL locations. Finally, in exciting news for Nova Scotian beer drinkers looking to satisfy their haze craze, both of these beers are on their way to the NSLC, which we believe is Trailway’s debut at the NS government liquormart. Expect to see them on the shelves in about two weeks with Hot Sky exclusively at the Port location.
A few weeks off of their renovation, Tidehouse has a new release for the people to enjoy. A Westward Pine is a 6.5% ABV IPA bringing true west coast IPA vibes. Using crystal malt to give a malt-heavy backbone, Warrior and Idaho 7 hops were used to balance the bitterness and bring some pine flavour and aroma leading to a dry and delicious finish! With the COVID-related closures in HRM, the best way to support Tidehouse and grab some beer is via retail cans, which opens today at 4 PM (Wednesday – Saturday, 4 PM – ?). Keep an eye on their Insta page for updates to that schedule.
Just outside of Fredericton, the fine folks at 3Flip have a seasonal can release available across the province. The Goodest Girl is a pale ale named after their own little doggo: the dog’s name is Citra (!) and so is the main hop in this 5.2% ABV pale ale. Featuring fruity and tropical flavours, it has a touch of balanced malt sweetness and a bit of juiciness as well. It’s available in 355ml cans online and across the province at select ANBL stores and local producers; you can check out the full list here of where to pick this up, as it’s available at some brand new locations for the brewery.
Up the Acadian Peninsula, Brasseux d’la Cote is releasing a new SMaSH beer that is made with 100% local ingredients. This single malt, single hop ale comes in at 5% ABV and features local grains malted by their friends at Distillerie Fils du Roy. The hops are a locally harvested wild hop that has yet to be identified as a specific variety. Look for notes of stonefruit, specifically apricots and peaches. SMaSH is available now on-tap at the brewery.
A bit further south in Kent County, Broue du Païen is releasing two new beers. FIrst up is Dieppe IPA, the third release of their Kveik-fermented IPA. This one comes in at 6.2% ABV and features an aggressive dry hop, leading to aromas of passionfruit and pineapple. Next we have Shediac Red Ale. Brewed in the Irish Red style, this 4.9% ABV ale features caramel and roasty notes and a smooth mouthfeel. Both beers are available at three ANBL locations – in Moncton, you can find them on Elmwood Drive and Mountain Road, and further north, they’ll be available at the Tracadie-Sheila ANBL.
And last but certainly not least for our main news section this week, host Jimmy Carbone of Beer Sessions Radio sat down (virtually) with a quartet of Atlantic Canadian beer folk this week, as a way to introduce his listenership to the history, present, and future of beer in our region. Tapping Christopher Reynolds of Bar Stillwell and Stillwell Brewing, Craig Pinhey a Beer, Wine, and Spirits Writer, Jeremy White of Big Spruce Brewing, as well as our own @acbbchris, the quadrumvirate chatted up the region’s offerings to Jimmy’s primarily US-based audience. Once travel is a thing again, we’re sure at least 50% of the influx will be due to our waxing poetic on the state of beer in the Atlantic Provinces! Listen to the episode here or in your favourite podcatcher.
No events to talk about this week, for obvious reasons, but here’s your usual quick mentions to complete the beer news:
Always one to bring back nice favourites, Big Spruce has a draught-only return of Hugs Bunny. A dry-hopped gose, this bright, effervescent, salty batch of deliciousness is traditionally made with coriander and French sel de mer and then given a citrus kick with a dry hopping of (this week’s hop of the week) Citra! Lovers of this style will find a slight tartness and a small kick of salt on the tongue for a thirst quenching beer. At 3.8% ABV it’s only available on tap in Nyanza and for a short time only.
Another returning favourite this week comes from Garrison, as their tasty Italian Pilsner, Tesoro, makes its return. First seen back in 2019, this seasonal release is inspired by the heavily-hopped German-style Pilsners of Italy. With the bitterneess coming in on the stiffer side for a Pilsner at 40 IBU, it was brewed with a base of Pilsner malt, fermented with German lager yeast and then dry-hopped with German Hallertau and Czech Saaz. You can expect this tasty eurotreat to be bready, spicy and boasting a pleasant finishing hop bitterness at 5.0% ABV. Find it in cans at all Garrison locations and keep an eye on the private shops as well.
Rounding out a trio of Nova Scotia craft beer re-releases, Tatamagouche, brings the return of Deadeye, a Double IPA. Also a 2019 initial release, this Double IPA is hopped with Hallertau Blanc giving flavours of passion fruit, grapefruit, and pineapple, with hints of pine and citrus. It was then dry hopped twice using Hallertau Blanc. Coming in at 8.0% ABV, cans are coming *very* soon, and can be ordered from the brewery for nationwide shipping, directly from the brewery, the private shops in Halifax in the next week or so, and NSLC in May. And their 2.9% ABV warm weather crusher Dekorum Lager is now available in short cans for a killer price from the brewery (even more savings!) and for delivery too.
We’ve got a new release from CAVOK in Dieppe! Always excited for this style, Touch ‘n Go (appropriate name for the times) is a Belgian-style IPA – hopped like an IPA but fermented with traditional Belgian yeast – from which you can safely expect some clove, pepper, and fruity aromas and flavours combined with a high bitterness. This 6.8% IPA is available in limited quantities in cans directly from the brewery.
A couple of job postings for you today, in New Brunswick and PEI, for those looking for Front of House positions at a brewery taproom, as well as behind the scenes making the lovely beer…
CAVOK Brewing is looking to hire staff for their Dieppe Brewery Retail and Taproom, as well as for the nearby seaside town of Cap-Pelé. Being bilingual is key, given the number of tourists and locals who speak both official languages, as well as being well-organized, enthusiastic, jovial, willing to learn about and promote local products. Plus you’ll have a blast pouring beer for thirst folks! All shifts are available, and the successful candidates should be available days, evenings, and weekends. Send them your resume to apply (taproom@cavokbrewing.ca), and who knows, you could be pouring one of us a beer before too long!
Cornwall PEI’s own Village Green is looking for some help both in front of house as well as behind the scenes. If pouring beer and chatting with visitors is more your speed, they are looking for some folks to work the taproom which is now open Wednesday through Sunday. And if you want to learn how to make beer, hang with BA in the brewery/cellar to learn the ins and outs of mashing in, vorlauf, spunding, and all the fun in between. They strongly encourage inclusion and diversity, and are looking for all who have a desire to work in the brewing industry to apply, which you can do via email: villagegreenpei@gmail.com.