Ladies Beer League

All posts tagged Ladies Beer League

Friday Wrap-Up – News from Grimross, TrailWay, Big Axe, “Tasting NB” Event, North Brewing, Ladies Beer League, and more!

Posted by acbbshawn on 2015-06-19
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. Tagged: 540 Kitchen & Bar, Big Axe Brewery, Big Spruce Brewing, Boxing Rock Brewing, Bulwark Cider, Garrison Brewing, Grimross Brewing, Ladies Beer League, Lion & Bright, Local Source, North Brewing, NSLC, Propeller Brewing, TrailWay Brewing, Wooden Monkey. Leave a Comment

Hooray, another Friday! Which means… hooray, more Atlantic Canadian beer news! Things have slowed down a bit this week, but there’s still plenty of beer-related items to tackle:

• After the release of their Maritime Pale Ale last month, Grimross has released a darker variation of the beer that they’re calling Maritime Amber Ale. Featuring a brand of Pale Malt (sourced from Quebec) with a darker colour (i.e. longer roast), the beer is amber-coloured and features more toffee flavours as a result. That’s not the only difference, however; while the Pale Ale was hopped relatively equally with both British and American varieties, the Amber Ale hopping is skewed more towards the British side, meaning less citrus and more earthiness in the aroma, and more of a “perceived hoppiness”. Like the Pale Ale, it’s still an easy-drinking beer at 5.6% ABV.

• Earlier this week, TrailWay welcomed back their D’Under Pale Ale, and as promised when they first released this beer in early May, the second iteration involves some slight changes. The first go-around, this light-coloured Pale Ale was hopped solely with Galaxy, a popular Australian variety; this time, another Australian hop, Ella, was thrown into the mix. Actually related to Galaxy (half-sister… no, we’re not kidding), Ella is known to be a bit more subtle, and offers floral, spice, and tropical notes when used. The beer still weighs in around 5.5% ABV, but the IBUs have been decreased slightly to around 35, with the high majority of those coming from a whirlpool hop addition at the end of the boil. It’s available on tap now at 540 Kitchen & Bar, and will likely be seen at all of their Fredericton accounts within a week. Make sure you get some of this delicious beer before it’s gone! Also note that their Black IPA, Black Hops One, has returned, and is on tap now at the King Street Ale House.

• Quickly following the successful launch of their on-site taproom, Big Axe has released a new beer: Lizzie Borden Red Ale is an appropriately-named Amber Ale that incorporates a “mixture of Crystal malts” and some Roasted malt to give a “significant malt and toffee aroma”, along with a slight, “roasted-grain finish”. Hopped lightly with English Goldings, it comes in at 5% ABV. You can find it at the brewery for pints and growler fills, and should be on tap at their various accounts in the near future.

• Sticking with New Brunswick beer news, a new festival has been announced for Fredericton this summer. On Saturday, July 11th, the first Tasting NB event will be held from 7 – 10 pm at the Capital Complex downtown. With the purpose of “bringing together New Brunswick craft alcohol producers of all varieties for the first time”, the festival will feature many (if not all) beer, cider, mead, and even wine producers in the province. The full list of participants has not been determined yet, but it looks like a great way to sample what New Brunswick has to offer this summer! Tickets are on sale now; they’re $55.99, and include unlimited 6 oz pours during the event. Afterwards, there will be an after party with live music and a NB Tap Takeover at Wilser’s Room; we’ll keep you updated on the festival as it nears. Get your tickets now!

• Halifax’s North Brewing has brewed up a special beer to celebrate Local Source‘s 10th Anniversary. Hang Ten is a refreshing and sessionable 4.5% ABV hybrid beer. Pilsner malt makes up most of the grain bill (with a touch of Crystal 15 for body), with Amarillo hops added to the mash, and a first wort hop addition of Columbus. Late hop additions in the boil feature Columbus again, along with Wakatu and Amarillo. Columbus and Wakatu were also used as a dry hop during lagering, along with a blast of sweet orange peel. The beer was fermented mid-temperature (between traditional lager and ale temperatures, hence the term “hybrid”), and then lagered for 3 weeks. The beer is being released at Local Source’s Who’s Your Farmer Dinner tomorrow (tickets are still available), a celebration of LS’s local farmers and producers. After the launch, it will be available on tap at Lion & Bright and North’s store.

• Speaking of Anniversaries, the Ladies Beer League is celebrating their Second Birthday with a party at the Wooden Monkey Dartmouth. Next Saturday, June 27th, they will be pouring casks from Big Spruce Brewing (Pump Le Mousse Grapefruit Wheat), Boxing Rock (Rule 42 English IPA), Garrison Brewing (TBD) and North Brewing (also TBD). The $25 ticket includes five 7 oz pours from the casks, along with pizza and cake. Tickets are available online now. They are currently only available to LBL Members (check out the details on becoming a member here), but will open up to the general public this afternoon. Attendees can also sign up for a membership that night, and pick up some LBL swag. And if you post a picture of yourself in your LBL shirt to their Facebook page, you could win one of their newly-designed shirts.

• Garrison Brewing has teamed up with their pals at Bulwark Cider to release a cider of their own! Brewhouse Cider is made from a blend of five Annapolis Valley apples, and weighs in at 5.8% ABV. Available at the brewery now for sampling and growler fills, and on tap at their licensees shortly, it may also be available in bottles in the future.

• The Rare Bird Pub in Guysborough has opened again for the season. While they brew on-site year-round for release on tap and the NSLC, their pub is only open in the warmer months. They are open daily 11:30-8pm at 80 Main Street, where their Full Steam Stout, Red Ale, Pale Ale, and seasonals can be enjoyed at the source. Look for their Spruce Ale to be re-released soon.

• Beginning next Friday, and for each and every Friday this summer, Big Spruce in Nyanza will host “Food Truck Friday”, where they’ll have have food, music, and of course beer at their brewery and tap room. To mark the occasion, the folks from Free Range Bio Farm in Cleveland, CB will drop by in their food truck. They will be serving their own on-farm raised and processed German-style Berkshire pork sausages, complete with sauerkraut and all the fixings. There will be live music, and of course Big Spruce’s beers, including the tapping of a special cask. Check Big Spruce’s Facebook event for more info, and subsequent weeks’ announcements.

• The NSLC has released their Year-End Report for 2014, and while overall beer sales fell by 1.2%, sales of NS Craft Beer sales grew by 25.4% (outpacing last year’s tremendous growth of 22%!). It now accounts for more than $5 Million is sales in the province. NS Cider also saw major growth, rising by 55% to $1.2M. Craft breweries in NS employ more than 300 people across the province, with more jobs coming soon with the new breweries coming online, and expansion for the successful current breweries. Congratulations and thanks to the NS Craft Brewers and Drinkers!

Have a fantastic weekend! If you’re in the Saint John area, Hammond River‘s DIPA, Too Hop to Handle, is back on tap, and Red Rover cider is now regularly pouring at The Barrel’s Head. The Gahan House has announced that they will be at this year’s Cavendish Beach Music Festival (July 10th-12th), with beer for sale, a pop-up restaurant, and beer and food demos. For those of you taking part in the MudCraft adventure race event next Sunday in Gore, good news, Propeller has brewed up a beer especially for you, MudCraft Brown Ale! And they will release their latest One Hit Wonder, Halifornia Common, today, weighing in at 5.2% ABV. As usual, on tap at their two locations for growler fills, and licensees, only.

Friday Wrap-Up – News from Hammond River & Big Axe, Tatamagouche, BarNone, Uncle Leo’s, Ladies Beer League, and more!

Posted by acbbshawn on 2015-04-24
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. Tagged: BarNone Brewing, Big Axe Brewery, Breton Brewing, Good Robot Brewing, Hammond River Brewing, Ladies Beer League, Spindrift Brewing, Tatamagouche Brewing, Uncle Leo's Brewery, Upstreet Craft Brewing, Wrought Iron Brewing Company. Leave a Comment

Hello folks! Our final Friday of April is shaping up to be another busy week in beer news… maybe a bit lighter than the past couple of weeks, but there’s still lots to report!

• Hammond River and Big Axe are pairing for their first collaboration beer, which is being brewed today! Big Axe owner/brewer Peter Cole will be joining Shane Steeves at his brewery, where they will be brewing up a currently-unnamed India Black Ale (aka Black IPA). The grist will be made up of several malts, including Pale Ale, Crystal, Black Patent, Melanoidin, and a little CaraAroma; the wort will then be bittered with the Columbus hop variety to 77 IBUs, with heavy additions of Citra later in the boil (and likely a dry-hop as well). It should clock in at about 7% ABV; we can likely expect a melding of roasted, coffee and chocolate flavors with the tropical fruitiness from the Citra! Next week, both brewers will be re-brewing the beer at Big Axe in Nackawic, so expect distribution of the beer throughout Fredericton and Saint John/Quispamsis when it’s ready.

• Last week, Tatamagouche Brewing released a new beer, Little Giant, on tap at Stillwell. A parti-gyle brew (brewed from the second runnings of a “bigger” beer), it’s an ESB that has been hopped with El Dorado and Ella to about 35 IBUs, and weighs in at 5.2% ABV. The first, bigger beer was an American Barleywine, brewed in preparation of Tatabrew’s Giant Beer Series in May, just in time for NS Craft Beer Week! Here are some details on the three beers in this series, just to get you excited…

Giantess Barleywine (11% ABV, 90 IBUs) – Named after Anna Swan, Tatamagouche’s famous Giantess, an American Barleywine hopped with Chinook, Centennial, and Columbus.

Two Rivers Baltic Porter (8% ABV, 36 IBUs) – Fermented with Lager yeast and cold-conditioned, and hopped with Czech Saaz, expect this one to be full-bodied, and “very smooth with hints of chocolate”, according to the brewery.

Rum Barrel-Aged Dreadnot IBA (11.5% ABV, 52 IBUs) – Their standard Dreadnot IBA, but aged in fresh Ironworks rum barrels for an additional 4 months. Jumping from its original 7% ABV after the barrel aging, it’s currently exhibiting lots of rum presence, including vanilla. Hopped with Waimea, El Dorado, and Cascade.

• And in more Tatabrew news, their Sunrise Trail ISA (India Session Ale) has been released this week. Weighing in at a modest 4.1% ABV, the beer packs a solid hop punch from the Azacca and Ahtanum varietals, and will be perfect for our ever-improving weather. It is available at the brewery for growler fills and in 650ml bottles.

• BarNone is releasing a new beer, and has a previous favourite returning! First, FarmAle Saison was brewed with the historic ‘Table’ Saison in mind; that is, a low-alcohol, refreshing, dry beer for consumption during the warmer months in Belgium, when farmers would be outside, working for hours on end. Hazy-gold in colour, it exhibits a “peppery flavour with an ever-so-slight funk”, according to the brewery. Definitely easy-drinking at 4.9%, it just became available at the brewery yesterday for their weekly growler night. Also on last night was their La Vaca Loca, a Sweet Stout (aka Milk Stout) that debuted months ago and was an immediate hit. Nicely balanced between roasted and coffee flavors, along with a slight lingering sweetness from the addition of lactose powder in the boil, this fan-favourite should now be available regularly on tap at the Pilot House in Charlottetown.

• Not stopping there, BarNone has just brewed yet another brand-new beer that falls on the “light side of an American Pale Ale”. Conceived by co-owner/brewer Don Campbell on his drive back to PEI after brewing Island Conspiracy at Big Spruce in Cape Breton. Listening to a CD by singer/songwriter Keith Mullins, Campbell was inspired by the song “Island Sol” to book Mullins for a gig at the brewery, as well as brew up a beer for the event. Next Saturday, May 2nd at 8 pm, Mullins will be performing at BarNone along with Christine Campbell to kick off the season’s events at the brewery; tickets are $15. The beer, Island Sol, is “summery and fruity, aromatic while lacking bitterness… encapsulating the Island soul” says Campbell. Light gold in colour, it weighs in at 5% ABV and ~25 IBUs, and will be launched during the event.

• Good news, Weizen fans! Uncle Leo’s is bringing back Vohs Weizenbier, their take on the German Hefeweizen style that they first introduced last year. The recipe is the same as before, featuring a grist of roughly equal amounts of Pilsner and Wheat malt. Hopped lightly to 14 IBUs, it’s fermented with a German yeast strain and comes in at an easy-drinking 5% ABV. A fantastic style for warmer-weather drinking, it should be available for growler fills at the brewery any day now, as well as in 650 mL bottles at Bishop’s Cellar and Harvest Wines and on tap at select bars/restaurants in Halifax.

• The Ladies Beer League is looking for a couple of people to join their Board of Directors. This volunteer position will require 3-5 hours per week of engagement with fellow board members, organizing and promoting events. You must be of legal drinking age, a current member of the LBL, and of course, be passionate about beer! Check out more details here, and fire them an email to apply for the position. The posting closes next Thursday. And be sure to pick up a bottle of the Cinnamon Spin collaboration beer, brewed by Boxing Rock.

It was a big week for several soon-to-be-open breweries in our region:

• On Tuesday, Upstreet Craft Brewing in Charlottetown took delivery of their 15BBL (~17hl) brewhouse and fermentors from Charlottetown’s own DME Brewing Solutions. acbbchris was in town for work, and managed to snap a few pictures during the 12-hour day, while all of the 11 brewing vessels were unloaded and put upright inside their facility. There was a tired yet immensely satisfying feeling in the brewery when everything was complete at 9:30pm!

• On Wednesday, Wrought Iron Brewing Company announced that they were changing their name and rebranding as Good Robot Brewing Company. The new name is a better fit with the founders’ attitudes and fun direction (while paying homage to their engineering roots), rather than the rigid or medieval connotation of their previous name. They have been brewing up a storm on Robie St, and will be launching in earnest during the NS Craft Beer Week, taking part in many of the events, including the Open Brewery Day, when visitors will be welcome to take a look around their digs.

• Spindrift Brewing in Dartmouth has been taking delivery of their fermentors this week as well, with at least one 80BBL fermenter (good for multi-batch brewdays) being installed. They are expecting delivery of their 20BBL brewhouse (also from DME) early next week. This week they also launched their logo and Facebook page, with their full website on the way shortly. While their launch date has not yet been released, they have confirmed that they will be taking part in next month’s NS Craft Beer Week, including the Full House Craft Beer Fest.

• Breton Brewing in Sydney has also taken delivery of the last of their brewing vessels for their 15BBL steam-fired system from Criveller in Niagara Falls. Their location next to the Cape Breton Farmers’ Market is taking shape quite nicely; while they won’t be officially taking part in any events during NS Craft Beer Week, they are on track for having beer ready for consumption in June!

That’s all of the news fit to print for today. A warning that tomorrow’s launch party at Stillwell for Propeller’s Lambic-style beer has been postponed, as the beer is not quite ready yet. We promise this isn’t just a scheme to somehow allow us to drink more of it! Once the new date is released, we’ll pass it along, we swear! And homebrewers, don’t forget that beers for the inaugural Brewnosers Homebrew Competition are due May 15th. With three weeks left to submit them, time is running out to put together your brewday. They have received over 250 entries from across the country, so it will be a true judge of local talent on the national stage.

Friday Wrap-Up – News from Paddys Irish Brewpub, PEI Brewing Company & Gahan, TrailWay, NBCBA, Picaroons and much more!

Posted by acbbshawn on 2015-04-10
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. Tagged: Beerthief, Big Spruce Brewing, Boxing Rock Brewing, Bulwark Cider, Burgers n' Beer, DME, Fredericton Craft Beer Festival, Gahan House (Charlottetown), King Street Ale House, Ladies Beer League, Le Naufrageur, Lion & Bright, New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association, Paddys Irish Brewpub, PEI Brewing, Picaroons Traditional Ales, Propeller Brewing, reLiSH, Sea Level Brewing, Stillwell Beer Bar, Storm Brewing in Newfoundland, TrailWay Brewing, Unfiltered Brewing. 2 comments

Happy Friday everyone! In case you thought last week’s busy post was a fluke, fear not! It’s been another busy week in Atlantic Canadian Beer News. And that means more tasty bevvies out now, and cool events coming our way! Let’s get right to the action!

• Paddys Irish Brewpubs in Kentville and Wolfville have a few new beers on tap that are worth checking out! First up is their Extra Special Bitter, weighing in at 5.5% ABV and 30 IBUs. It’s brewed with a traditional English malt bill and English Ale yeast for a light caramel character, and traditional East Kent Goldings hops exclusively give a light bitterness and a taste of England in the Annapolis Valley. Their Irish Stout is also on tap, an easily sessionable, light-bodied beer, but with a roast-forward character. This beer weighs in at 5% ABV and 33 IBUs, and is a fan favourite. Also keep an eye out for two lagers to be making their debut at the pubs in the next while: a Helles, which incorporated step mashing on their full 7 barrel system (sounds like quite a task!), and a Red Lager. We’ll have more details on both when they are available.

• There’s lots going on at PEI Brewing Co. these days! First off, they just sent over a new cask to Bar Stillwell in Halifax: Rais’n Sais’n is a bit of an experiment, consisting of their Iron Bridge Brown Ale fermented with a Saison yeast (Belle Saison, from Danstar, the same strain used in last year’s Lobster Saison). The beer was then transferred to a cask with a quantity of sultana raisins (a sweet, golden-coloured variety); it comes in at 5.1% ABV. Get down to Stillwell to try a pour before it’s gone!

• Moving on, they’ve also brewed a new Saison. Currently unnamed, it’s a completely different brew from the Lobster Saison. Brewed with all 2-row malt and hopped with Saaz and UK Goldings, it was then fermented “very warm” with the Belgian Dupont yeast strain from White Labs. With this yeast, expect lots of spicy flavors and aromas, accompanied by some fruitiness and a dry finish. The beer should be hitting taps at select locations sometime early next month; we’ll be sure to keep you updated on its release.

• Finally, a bit of a teaser: PEIBC brewmaster Chris Long has confirmed that we can expect to see a series of small batch (8 bbl) single-hop beers this summer at the brewery tasting room, and at Fishbones Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill in Charlottetown. We look forward to hearing more about this series when better weather arrives!

• Moving on to the Gahan side of PEIBC, they’ve released a new beer just in time for the Island’s annual (and extremely popular) PEI Burger Love. Angus Pale is a single-hop APA featuring the fairly-new Belma variety, and fermented with an English yeast strain. The beer is lightly filtered, with a “slight citrus aroma and a fruity/berry-like finish”, according to the brewery,

• It’s time to join the Club! Ahead of their opening later this Spring, Unfiltered Brewing have announced the details of their Club, available at launch. There are three levels available to those able to get in: The first level is an annual membership ($250 for the first year, $175 to resubscribe, plus HST), which gets the member an Unfiltered-branded Stainless Steel growler (full of beer, of course!), plus another free fill on their birthday (and $1 off all subsequent growler fills Mon-Wed), a branded glass and limited edition t-shirt, a pair of bottles of Russian Imperial Stouts (perfect for cellaring), and early access and first right of refusal to subsequent releases and swag. The second level is a lifetime membership in the Club, with all of its benefits, but with an even better growler. The cost to enroll is $1000 (plus tax). The third level is $5000, and is identical to the second level, but will offer the member the opportunity to brew a beer with Brewmaster Greg Nash, and leave with 20 litres of it after your hard day(s) of work. Full details on the Club, including how to sign up, are available here, and we’re happy to report that their brewhouse from DME was delivered this week, which means it won’t be long until the brewing begins!

• TrailWay has brewed a new beer, and it’s their first collaboration! Staying true to their roots, they formulated a recipe with two homebrewers from the New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association, Adam Jones and Roger Ringuette. The beer, Sensible Nonsense, is a DIPA hopped with Apollo, Magnum, Orbit, Centennial, and Mosaic, to approximately 95 IBUs. Supported by some malty sweetness thanks to some Vienna and CaraRed malt in the mash, expect this hoppy beer to exhibit lots of fruity, piney, and dank notes. It should come in around 7.5% ABV; look for it to hit taps around Fredericton within the next couple of weeks. They’re also planning on experimenting with some casks of this beer, so stay tuned for that (and remember, their inaugural cask release at the King Street Ale House starts tonight at 6 pm!).

• Picaroons released a new experimental beer earlier this week, an unnamed “Belgian Scotch Ale”. Definitely a bit of an orphan beer, think of it as a low-ABV Scotch Ale (featuring Roasted, Crystal, and Smoked malts) fermented with a Belgian Ardennes yeast strain, and hopped with Goldings and Fuggles. The beer came about from two batches of another experiment, a stronger Scotch Ale, where the weaker run-offs of each batch were combined for this release. The stronger batches were combined and are now being aged for a future release (and possibly some barrel-aging). Coming in at around 4.5% ABV, it features lots of clove and banana aromas and flavors, in conjunction with the smokiness and sweetness from the malt, according to the brewery. It’s on tap now, exclusively at the Brewtique for growler fills.

• For this year’s Earth Day (April 22nd), the Lion & Bright is once again celebrating with Spruce up the Planet!, a Big Spruce tap takeover. Doors open at 7 pm (the $7 charge will go to the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) to support their Ocean’s Week activities), and there will be live music from The Bluejam Grass Band, as well as “Love Letters to the Ocean”, hosted by Brave Space. For every pint purchased, an additional $1 will be donated to the EAC. Unfortunately, we don’t have a full tap list for you, but we’re pretty sure you won’t be disappointed with the selection!

• There’s yet another beer event planned for Fredericton from those behind the Fredericton Craft Beer Festival. Let Them Eat Cake… and Drink Beer will pair six different La Naufrageur beers (each pour is 8 oz) with six cake varieties from local bakery Fuller Confections. Scheduled for Saturday, April 25th at 2 pm at the King Street Ale House, it’s going to be a small event, with entry being limited to ten people. Tickets are $25 each and can be purchased by sending an email. This is the first of several planned small-pairings; stay tuned for more in the near future!

• Now seems like a good time to mention that the fourth Burgers n’ Beer has been planned for Tuesday, June 9th, from 8:00 – 10:30 pm. Held once again at the uptown reLiSH location, this event is taking on a new twist, featuring an “Ales vs. Lagers” approach. Breweries are currently TBD, but count on six beers (8 oz pours) to be paired with six different reLiSH sliders. It’s a great way to kick off the two-week Fredericton Burger Battle (part of Eat New Brunswick), which begins on June 8th.(Tickets are $48 each, and are available online. We’ll have more info on the breweries participating, soon.

• Sea Level Brewing is bringing back their latest seasonal, Düssel-port Altbier. This “New World Alt” uses a recipe given to Brewmaster Randy Lawrence by a brewer friend from Brauerei im Füchschen, in Dusseldorf, home of the Alt style. This medium-bodied ale weighs in at 4.8% ABV. Lawrence used Saphir hops throughout, for an authentic bitterness. It is now available at the brewery in cans, growlers, and kegs, and on tap at the Port Pub and other locations shortly.

• Last month, Boxing Rock brewed up a collaboration brew with the Ladies Beer League: the Cinnamon Spin. While the poor weather kept the LBL crew away, they were there in spirit, and the crew visiting from Upstreet lent a hand in their stead. We now have some information on the beer, and the release details! The base beer is a Robust Porter, weighing in at 6.5% ABV. It featured some first wort hopping, and whole cinnamon sticks added during the boil. Now the important details: how can you taste it? The Ladies Beer League and Boxing Rock folks will be launching the beer April 18th at Bar Stillwell in Halifax. It is an open event, no tickets required, and pay as you enjoy, starting at 6pm. There will be a cask of the Cinnamon Spin tapped at 6:30, and the beer will also be available on tap. There will also be LBL swag and memberships available for purchase that evening. Stillwell will have exclusivity on the kegged beer, but there will be some bottles available at the B.R. brewery, Seaport and Alderney Farmers Markets, and the private beer stores in HRM. As the beer was brewed in celebration of International Women’s Day, there are two charities benefiting from sales of the beer: Halifax Sexual Health Center and Shelburne County Women’s Fishnet Bursary Program.

• And speaking of beer launches at Stillwell, the next Saturday, April 25th, will see the launch party of the third in the line of Propeller Brewing’s Lambic-style beers. This release will be different than the earlier two, in that there was no fruit added during the fermentation and maturation process (raspberries and blackberries were featured previously); this will be the straight wheat beer that was inoculated with wild yeast and bacteria and aged in Blomidon Estate oak barrels, to produce a unique beer not otherwise available in our region. Think of it as a 4.2% ABV Gueuze-style beer, though this will be an unblended 4-year old beer. As in previous releases, the beer will be available by the glass and in bottles (for consumption at the bar) beginning at noon. There will be a signup sheet on site for those who would like to purchase one bottle (and one bottle only) from Propeller the next day, ahead of the general sale on Monday. The last release was so popular that none of the beer made it to Monday, all was scooped up in pre-sales, and we imagine the same will happen again this time. More details on the beer can be seen in a previous post on the first release.

• Details for the Beerthief Ancient Ales tasting in St John’s are now available, being held at The Bella Vista, at 5pm Saturday, May 2nd. Dr. Patrick McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist,  will be giving a presentation on the fieldwork and research required to develop the Dogfish Head Brewery for their Ancient Ales series. And through some local collaboration with local brewery Storm Brewing in Newfoundland, Brew Craft Homebrew Shop, Sap World, and gypsy brewers Chad Levesque and Stephen Canning, visitors will be able to enjoy two beers based on ancient recipes:  Levesque Midas Touch Collaborative Clone and Canning Kvasir Collaborative Clone. After the presentation and Q&A session, there will be a supper of lamb shank and flank steak paired by Chef Ian Smith. The tasting will continue with several selections from Garrison Brewing, led by Brewmaster Daniel Girard, and from Storm Brewing in Newfoundland, led by owner and brewer Mike McBride, for a full evening of beer, food and fun. Tickets for the event are $90, and are available by emailing Tom Beckett before April 29th.

Enjoy the weekend, and the (hopefully) warmer temps! While you are out and about this weekend, stop into the ANBL and fill up your growler with Petit-Sault Lancaster KB882 Amber Lager, Picaroons Historical Brown Ale (formerly known as 104th Regiment Ale), and/or (we vote and) Le Trou du Diable’s Dubai Pillee Imperial IPA. For the first time, all four fill ANBL filling stations will have the same three beers available. And for those of you in Fredericton, be sure to drop by Grimross to buy a pint and growler of Monk’s Choice, the name chosen from the submissions for their Abbey Ale. In Nova Scotia, Muwin Wines has received a loan from ACOA to expand distribution of Bulwark Cider to the UK, a massive Cider market. The extra funds will go towards additional equipment to expand production, and re-branding their bottled packaged product. Tickets for the Full House Beer Fest, the highlight of the CBANS Nova Scotia Craft Beer Week, are now officially sold out, though there is a waiting list available. Tickets for Beer & Beethoven (May 8th at the Halifax Forum), Science of Beer (May 14th at the Discovery Centre) and Brewer’s Brunch (May 17th at Stubborn Goat) are still available, however. We’ll be sharing details on more of the events in the coming weeks. Spindrift Brewing in Dartmouth has taken delivery of their brewhouse recently, and are busy setting it up and preparing for their first brew day in the coming weeks. And finally, in new more brewery news, Trestle Brewing is set to open in Truro in the fall. The brainchild of Alicia MacDonald and Sonja Mills, it will be located in the downtown area. We’ll share more details when available. And for those of you lucky enough to have tickets to tomorrow’s sold-out Saint John Beer Fest, enjoy the selection of craft beer! With even more breweries and beer than last year, it’s bound to be a great time as usual! And don’t miss their Hair of the Dog Brunch at the Saint John Ale House the next morning.