Niche Brewing

All posts tagged Niche Brewing

Friday Wrap-Up for January 12, 2018 – News from Grimross, Lunn’s Mill, Trider’s, Ol’ Biddy’s, 2 Crows, Niche, Tatamagouche, and more!

Posted by acbbchris on 2018-01-12
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. Tagged: 2 Crows Brewing, Copper Bottom Brewing, Darlings Island Farm, Foghorn Brewing, Garrison Brewing, Good Robot Brewing, Grimross Brewing, Hammond River Brewing, Horton Ridge Malt & Grain, Ladies Beer League, Lunn's Mill Beer Company, Niche Brewing, Ol' Biddy's Brew House, Tatamagouche Brewing, Trider's Craft Beer. 1 comment

 

After a brief lull in the new beer releases last week (we figure the brewers in Atlantic Canada may have needed time to fully recover from the holiday festivities), we are back with a full complement of news in the region, ready to fill your growlers and glasses with the best beer going.

• Fredericton’s Grimross has the ninth entry in their Scratch series available for pints and growlers at their taproom on Bishop Drive. Scratch #9: Golden Ale is “light, earthy, and dry”, and was hopped with all-Maritime-grown hops. Dry-hopped with Chinook to give some spice and pine to go with the floral notes, the brewery describes the beer as well-balanced between malt and hop flavours. Coming in at just 4.7% ABV, like all Golden Ales it’s meant to be enjoyed in quantity.

• Halifax’s Ladies Beer League has teamed up with Lunn’s Mill to add yet another collaboration beer to their ever-growing list. Hopper’s Bazaar is a Belgian Dubbel brewed with Pilsner, Amber, Dark Munich, Special B, and Chocolate Wheat malt, with an addition of Dark Belgian Candi sugar. Hopped lightly with Saaz and Tettnang, they even threw in a late addition of Garam Masala, an Indian blend of spices, for good measure. This very dark Belgian Ale comes across as “rich, semi-sweet, and spicy, with hints of cumin and cardamom”, and weighs in at 6.7% ABV. It’s available right now at the brewery, and select licensees for pints.

• While it may feel a heck of a lot warmer now than it did a few days ago, no mistake, it’s still winter! Which means you can still enjoy Trider’s newest beer, an 8.5% ABV Winter Warmer called Hibrrnation. Described as a “deep chestnut brown”, the beer was brewed with demerara sugar and unfiltered local honey, to give it extra sweetness to go with the warmth from the alcohol. Hopped with earthy Willamette to prevent it from getting too sweet, this is a one-batch wonder until next year, so grab it while you can!

• We have a new beer alert for this week for Ol’ Biddy’s Brew House, as they will be releasing their Patrick O’Neil’s Irish Red. Brewed with Pale malt, Melanoiden, Crystal 30 and 60 L, and a bit of Black Malt for colour adjustment, the beer was hopped to 28 IBUs with Columbus and Willamette to help balance the sweetness from the malts. Coming in at 4.0% ABV, this reddish-coloured brew is medium-bodied with a “caramel, biscuit, and light roast finish”. Look for it to hit the taps at Battery Park and Stillwell very, very soon. New batches of Orange American Bastard and Funktown APA will also be popping up at local tap accounts, as well as Disco Inferno Red IPA and Saturday Night Fever IPA within a couple of weeks. And for OBB fans in Halifax, look for them to be available at another location before the end of January, we’re hoping to reveal exactly where that is next week.

• Your favourite Halifax brewery named after a duet of birds (that would make a great trivia question) is releasing a brand new beer tomorrow. That’s right, 2 Crows launches Forever Young on Saturday, a beer brewed with Pilsner, Wheat and Vienna malt. Hopped in the boil with Sterling and Hallertau Blanc, it was fermented in their cognac foedre with their house Saison culture, along with TYB 207, an experimental Brettanomyces strain. Further conditioned for 3 months on local rosehips, the beer was then transferred back to stainless for further conditioning on a small amount of rosewater, and then finally carbonated and packaged. Cans of this 8.5% ABV, 29 IBUs beauty will be available at the brewery and private stores, and a few kegs will be popping up at Stillwell (and probably a couple other lucky places). Described by the brewery as “earthy, floral, lightly funky and dry”, don’t miss out on your chance to try this one!

• Hanwell, NB’s recently opened Niche Brewing is releasing their third beer today, but actually the first one they brewed, and one of their expected flagship brews. Called Something Different, the name acknowledges that this isn’t a style we see a lot of in our region: the table beer. Low in ABV and considered excellent for accompanying a meal, this is a classically Belgian style that is usually balanced towards the malty side. Niche’s offering takes the style in a slightly different direction, using the Amalgamation blend of Brettanomyces strains from the Yeast Bay to provide a citrus and slightly funky character to a fairly dry beer accented by Hallertauer Blanc in the kettle and a small dry hop of Amarillo.  At 3.6% ABV and 20 IBU you’ll be able to have a few without too many effects, which should give you plenty of opportunity to savour the interesting combination of yeast and hop characters. It’s available to Niche licensees as of today, with the Saint John Ale House already confirming that they’ll be taking a keg.

• Northern Nova Scotia’s Tatamagouche Brewing has a couple of new beers to tell you about this week that each feature a different unique ingredient. First is Mussed Up, a Double IPA in the Northeast style. Starting with a grist of pale malt from Horton Ridge and some oats and hopped with Enigma and Hallertau Blanc, this beer was dosed with the must of Petit Milo grapes after two days of fermentation. Although the hop varieties were chosen specifically to drive the wine character of this beer, they also add plenty of pineapple and other tropical notes characteristic of the style. At a hefty 7.9% ABV and 60 IBU, it’ll pack a punch in more ways than one. Look for it at the brewery for pints, fills, and in cans, at tap accounts in NS and some in NB, and next week in the private stores in Halifax. And if you’re one of the lucky ones who has a ticket, you’ll also find it being served next week at the Halifax Craft Beer & Local Food Celebration!

• Tata’s second new beer announcement this week is on the other end of the spectrum, a “breakfast” Porter called Crack of Dawn. Coming in at 8.4% ABV and 35 IBU, this is a big beer built on a solid base of Horton Ridge pale malt and plenty of oats, with color, character, and mouthfeel provided by chocolate rye and chocolate wheat malts. It was hopped with Chinook and with some lactose added in the kettle for a balancing sweetness, but the feature ingredient of this beer is cold-brewed barrel-aged coffee. The gang took 150 lbs of green Ethiopian coffee beans and aged them in a rye whiskey barrel for 3 months before taking them down the road to Meeting Waters coffee, where they were given a dark and smooth roast. The coffee was then cold-brewed to maximize flavour and smoothness and keep the bitterness under control; this cold brew was added to the finished beer before packaging. The resulting brew is big-bodied, with a creamy mouthfeel providing counterpoint to the acidity and roastiness of the coffee and the darker malts, with definite notes of whisky and fruit from the coffee aging process. Our own Chris McDonald and homebrewer extraordinaire Brian Harvey were part of the prototyping process for this beer, assisting with the process of figuring out the coffee dosing level and also helping brew the production batch (ed: no really, we did work!). Look for kegs of this one to start appearing late next week, with 500 mL bottles on their way as well, after its debut along side the Mussed Up at the aforementioned event next week (in cask, with an additional special secret ingredient added for the evening’s festivities).

• Rothesay’s Foghorn Brewing just put a new beer up on the board today, a New Zealand Pilsner named Captain Cook’s Goat. A crisp, 5.5% ABV lager hopped with New Zealand (of course) hop varieties including Rakau, Motueka, and Pacific Jade to 20 IBUs. In case you’re wondering about the name, our Foghorn source says it was inspired by the story of a Captain Cook who supposedly brewed the first beer in New Zealand, but more importantly, traveled the world with his beer-drinking (we assume) goat companion. If that’s not worth a beer name, we don’t know what is! It’s on tap at Foghorn right now, and will be at licensees sometime next week.

• Halifax’s Garrison Brewing has brought back a pair of beers this week, at the two ends of the flavour and ABV spectrum. Their Hopyard American Pale Ale has returned, melding the hoppy focus of a West Coast IPA (thanks to Amarillo and Cascade hops in both the boil and dry-hop) with an East Coast/British-influenced sensibility (featuring Maritime Malt with 2 Row and Carastan). The 5.5% ABV beer is available for the next few months in six-packs at the brewery and NSLC stores across the province. And launching today is the next in their Cellar Series (big and bold beers that are usually wood-aged and worthy of enjoyment now or in a few months/years), Rum Barrel-Aged Spruce Beer. Last year’s release of this historically-inspired beer spent 12 months in Ironworks Rum barrels, picking up plenty of spirit character, combining with the bold flavours of spruce, and touch of molasses. This barrel-aged edition also picks up a significant amount of alcohol from the wood, increasing from 7.5% ABV for the standard release, to 11.0% ABV for its bigger sister. 650mL bottles are available today at the brewery, with a $15.95 price tag.

• We’ve got Alpha and Beta news from Good Robot Brewing Company this week. First off, Extra Big-Ass Oktoberfest Camacho Lager is once again available on tap for pints and fills (and, no doubt, making appearances at GR tap accounts). Just remember to order it (respectfully, mind) in ALL-CAPS. This week’s Beta Brewsday, on the other hand, is a feelgood brew dreamt up and brewed by Kelly and Glee Club member Rebecca, along with Rebecca’s brother Joseph. Dubbed Cuddle Up, this coconut porter started with a grain bill of 2-row barley, flaked oats and Vienna malt, with both roasted and black barley for color and deep roasted flavour. Bittered to 26 IBU and very lightly kettle hopped with East Kent Goldings before being fermented with London Ale yeast to preserve a malty character, toasted flaked coconut was added for a lingering coconut flavour. Everything about this 4% ABV beer was designed to be comforting, so if that’s your jam, grab your favourite blankie and head on down to Good Robot this Tuesday when it’s tapped.

• Montague, PEI’s Copper Bottom Brewing has announced that they will officially be releasing their third flagship beer, The Rabble Rouser Red, next Thursday. Brewed “with a rich malt profile in mind”, this 5% ABV, 25 IBUs American Amber Ale has a grist made up of five different malts, giving a flavour of slightly-toasted malt, “with a residual sweetness to round out the body”. Check out their Facebook page for the back story on where the name came from, and plan to drop by the taproom on January 18th, from 6 – 10 PM for the launch party, which will feature live fiddle music and Sneaky Cheats BBQ, with a custom-created food menu to pair with the beer.

• Horton Ridge Malt & Grain in Hortonville, NS, has another new beer coming out next weekend, brewed on their small system. Beer of Fundy celebrates the Bay of Fundy and the Annapolis Valley by being made with malt, hops and water that are all from that region. The barley (75%) and rye (25%) were grown and malted by Horton Ridge and the hops used were Galena and Centennial sourced from Fundy Hops down the road in Berwick. At 6% ABV and 63 IBU, this beer is admittedly the hoppiest to come out of Horton Ridge and treads “perilously close” to IPA territory. This is a nod to Fundy Hops, who will be at the malthouse and brewery to celebrate the launch of this beer a week from tomorrow on Saturday, January 20th from 2 PM, at an event that’s being called Songs and Suds of the Valley. Look for lots of musical entertainment from Space Paddy Bog People and artists featured on This Place, Songs from the Annapolis Valley, along with lots of beer, of course!

• Hammond River Brewing has teamed up with Josh Mayich from Darlings Island Farm to brew their first Bohemian Pilsner. Currently unnamed, it features Bohemian Pilsner malt and Carapils, and was bittered with Magnum to 43 IBUs, followed by three later additions of Saaz. As you likely expected, both hop varieties are from Darlings Island. Look for this one to finish at about 5.6% ABV; since it naturally needs to undergo a lagering period, look for this one to hit taps around mid-February. And meanwhile, HRB’s Shane Steeves and Darlings Island’s Josh Mayich are hosting a “Hop Seminar” to talk hops and beer. Want to know which hops match well with which styles of beer or maybe which hops grow well in our region, but especially New Brunswick? These are just the gentlemen to tell you about that! Look for it to happen at the HRB Beer Bar on Sunday, January 21st, at 1 PM: grab a pint and learn a little about what’s in it and where it came from!

And one last mention before we go, you may have heard that Loblaw’s is giving away $25 gift cards as a measure of “atonement” for their bread price-fixing scandal. You may also have heard that there’s been a groundswell of support for collecting those cards and getting them to organizations who can put them to good use. You may not have heard, though, that our pals at the 902 BrewCast have taken it upon themselves to help this process, calling it the #RobinHoodChallenge. Over the past couple of days they’ve been enlisting breweries from across NS to agree to be drop points for the Loblaw’s gift cards, which will help the process by making it easy for the folks who can afford to do so to donate their gift cards, knowing that those cards will make their way to an important organization like Feed Nova Scotia. Be sure to check the 902BrewCast Instagram and Twitter feeds for more details and information about which breweries are participating. And big kudos to the Kyle, Phil and Tony at 902BC for organizing, the breweries for taking part, and everyone who takes the time and makes the effort to help out with such a worthy initiatve!

Friday Wrap-Up for January 5, 2018 – News from PEI Brewing, Horton Ridge, TrailWay, Big Spruce, Port Rexton, Niche, Good Robot, and more!

Posted by acbbshawn on 2018-01-05
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. Tagged: 902 BrewCast, Big Spruce Brewing, Craft Beer and Local Food Celebration, Good Robot Brewing, Horton Ridge Malt & Grain, Maybee Brewing, Niche Brewing, Off Track Brewing, PEI Brewing Co., Port Rexton Brewing Co., Propeller Brewing, TrailWay Brewing, Unfiltered Brewing. Leave a Comment

Good morning, everyone! Hopefully by now you’ve all had a chance to recover from yesterday’s storm (or at least have made a good amount of progress). There’s been a bit of a lull in beer news as the holidays have finally been winding down, but that doesn’t mean there still isn’t some reading to get done, so sit back and take a break from your snowblower/shovel, and let’s get right to it!

• PEI Brewing Co. has a new beer out this week, and don’t feel sad if it makes you think of warmer, and less-snowy, locales. Snowbird Juicy IPA is a 6% ABV New England IPA, made up of a simple grist of Pale Ale malt and Malted Oats (to help ensure that expected cloudiness). The high majority of the hop additions were in the whirlpool and dry hop, including both El Dorado and Ella varieties. The calculated IBUs come in at around 40, meaning this beer is more about hop flavour and aroma that it is about bitterness (true to the NEIPA style). Fermented with Escarpment‘s Vermont Ale strain to boost the juiciness even more, you’ll be able to find this one on tap at all Gahan House locations, select licensees, and at the NB growler program this weekend (while supplies last). There’s a good chance this one will also be released in cans in the spring, when it finally arrives in the Maritimes in approximately 4.5 years.

• Sharp-eyed fans of the offerings from Horton Ridge may have noticed that to this point there’s been a limit to how dark their products have been, both in terms of their malt and beer offerings. Because their kiln is hot water-based, there is a limit to how dark they can go (and truly “roasted” malts are out of the question). And given that their in-house policy says that all beers on tap and available for growler fills must be 100% Horton Ridge malt-based, that has thus far prevented them from exploring certain styles. In a noble effort to broaden their brewery’s offerings without violating their own ethos, they’ve taken the step of allowing themselves to brew a beer with non-Horton malts, but in keeping with their policy, it will bypass the taps and go straight into bottles. Thus, Chocolate Oatmeal Stout is born. It’s still 90% Horton Ridge malt (2-row, oats and CaraHorton), but the other 10% is chocolate malt and roasted barley from other sources to give it a deep roasted character and typical deep brown-black color. Hopped with Fuggles and Perle, it also got a dose of cacao nibs in the fermenter to enhance the chocolate flavour. This beer is available in 650 mL bottles at the tap room and also at the Wolfville Farmers Market, the first time Horton Ridge beer has been available outside the brewery premises! We’re told that there will be some more entries in the bottle series over the course of the coming year, and that the brewery is planning to be at market from January to May. And in other good news, with Horton Ridge using more malting barley, the growers in the region have stepped up their production, and the maltster has secured enough locally-grown malt to last well into the year. Look for more truly Nova Scotian Grain to Glass beers in the coming months, thanks to this symbiotic relationship.

• Fredericton hop hawkers Trailway Brewing have yet another juicy hop bomb ready for consumption today, this one cleverly dubbed Hopical Trop. Featuring heavy doses of ultrafresh citrusy Citra and tropical Mosaic hops, it was conditioned on over 100 lbs of peach purée (note to Jeremy @2 Crows: peach purée is a thing that you can buy). Described as “straight up fruit juice,” it’s an 8% ABV double IPA that’s still soft and drinkable, with massive aroma and flavour. Quantities are limited, you’ll find it at the brewery as of noon today in cans and also available for pints and growler fills.

• Amid the blowing wind and rain yesterday, Nyanza’s Big Spruce Brewing released the latest in their informal Milkshake series. What began with Liquid James Brown in January 2017, it continued with For Peach’s Sake in August, followed up by Jackpot Apricot in September. Chamba features an addition of tart cherries during the conditioning process, lending fruit character to the 6.4% ABV, 50 IBU IPA. It is available at the Sprucetique for samples and growler fills now, and will be flowing at your favourite beer bar and restaurant soon (if not, be sure to ask for it!).

• Some happy news for beer fans on the Rock, as Port Rexton Brewing has re-opened their Retail Shop in St. John’s! They’re planning to restock every week and be open every Friday from 4 – 8 PM and Saturday from 12 – 6 PM at 286 Torbay Road in Corker’s Meadow Plaza. Terms are “first come, first served” until they run out each weekend. Look for cans, growler fills, and branded merchandise as well. Definitely keep your eyes on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) to find out what’s on offer each week, especially for growler fills!

• Hanwell’s Niche Brewing is following up last week’s release of their Single Origin Coffee Sweet Stout with the release of an entirely different sort this weekend. Born out of the common practice of rewarding (or at the very least, allowing) workers in Belgium with beer breaks during and after a long workday, Grisette was the drink of choice for miners in the Wallonia region of the country. A sibling to the Saison style, the low-alcohol Grisette feature malted Wheat, was fermented with Saison yeast, and often late-hopped; perfect for refreshing the dust-covered palate, but still providing plenty of aroma and flavour in a small package. Mines of Wallonia is Niche’s ode to the style, a 3.6% hoppy Grisette featuring a grist of Wheat, Oats, and Spelt, and fermented with a French Saison yeast. Deviating slightly from the Noble hop varietals of yesteryear, in favour of Hallertau Blanc and Nelson Sauvin (no complaints here!), Wallonia was late-hopped in the boil and further dry-hopped during conditioning to offer tropical and wine-like aromatics and flavours to complement the light spicy phenolics from the yeast. Not yet on tap as of publishing, we expect to see it hit the taps in Fredericton and beyond over the weekend/early next week. Keep an eye on Niche’s social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for the announcements. And if you run, don’t walk (maybe don’t drive, either!), you may be able to catch the last few drops of Single Origin at 540 Kitchen, James Joyce, and the King Street Ale House.

• Halifax’s Good Robot doesn’t have anything on the Alpha system for us this week, although you might scope their social media for hints about their plans for big brews in the coming months. Meanwhile, Kelly Costello continues to helm the BetaBrew program, bringing diverse brewers into the fold to make interesting beers. This week’s Beta Brewsday release will be a wheat ale with a touch of rye and featuring every child’s favourite pigmentally-challenged starch, parsnip. Pale golden in color, sporting an ABV of 4.2% and a very moderate 19 IBU, Arsenip was hopped with Sorachi Ace and fermented with the Pin Cherry yeast from Big Spruce for a hefeweizen-esque feel. Brewed with East Coast violin savant Donald Maclennan, the careful taster will note a progression of yeast and hop flavors before being rewarded with spicy elements from the rye and parsnips. Available this Tuesday at the GR taproom for pints and, depending, possibly growler fills.

• Tickets for the 5th Annual Craft Beer and Local Food Celebration are just about gone, so if you haven’t yet grabbed yours for the all-inclusive beer and food event from 16 Nova Scotian breweries and 17 food producers, now is the absolutely last time to do so. January 18 at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront will be the launch party for many new beers from the provinces producers, including the winner of Big Spruce’s Home Brew Challenge (a beer featuring a strain of yeast harvested and isolated from a tree on their farm), and a brand new beer from Tatamagouche (with local homebrewer 1029Brewing and our own acbbchris). Don’t miss out on the fun, grab your tickets now!

Just a few more things to get you going this weekend:

– In case your podcast software didn’t grab it automagically already, be sure to head over to the 902 BrewCast site and grab their first episode of 2018. Kicking off a month focusing on New Brunswick breweries, they sat down with Paul Maybee of Fredericton’s Maybee Brewing, learning about his introduction to beer, his history as a homebrewer, and plans for the future.

– Bedford’s Off Track Brewing has mixed feelings about announcing that you drank them dry! Keep an eye on their social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for the word when they are stocked with product again.

– Propeller in Halifax is resuming their Friday Cask Nights at their Gottingen Street location again, this week featuring their Russian Imperial Stout aged on American oak from 5 PM.

– Unfiltered on North St. has a fresh batch of DOA available in all its Citra-laden glory. Available for fills and pints today from noon. And if you’re looking to get your hands on some cans, as of opening they’ve still got some Exile on North Street and Hoppy Fingers available.

Niche Brewing now open in Hanwell, New Brunswick

Posted by acbbchris on 2017-12-29
Posted in: Friday Wrap-Up. Tagged: Niche Brewing. Leave a Comment

The town of Hanwell, New Brunswick, is just a few minutes southwest of the province’s capital city, Fredericton. A small community of fewer than 5000 residents, with many working in town, in Fredericton, or in other nearby communities, it can now also boast that it is home to the province’s newest brewery, Niche Brewing. Founded by two award-winning longtime homebrewers, Rob Coombs and Shawn Meek, Niche aims to expand the palate of the local community and the province at large. The brewery itself is located on Millennium Drive, but there is currently no retail location for growlers or pints; they’re opting instead to sell kegs direct to licensees for the time being. We managed to chat with Rob and Shawn to learn more about how they got into beer, their brewery’s ethos, and plans for the future of Niche Brewing.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Shawn – I’m originally from PEI, and moved to New Brunswick after meeting Jill (now my wife) when I moved to Ottawa after graduating from pharmacy school. I’ve been living in Fredericton and working here as a pharmacist since the summer of 2005. We have a 5-year-old daughter, love to travel, and love beer (Jill and I, not Zoe… yet).

Rob – I was born and grew up in Labrador City. I moved to New Brunswick for school and was planning to relocate afterwards but work kept me in Saint John as an X-Ray technologist. I met my wife there and we moved to Fredericton nearly 10 years ago where I’ve been working as an MRI Technologist ever since. We have two young boys, Cameron and Oliver, ages 5 and 2, respectively. They share our love of travel and tolerate my love of photography.

Niche's Sign, courtesy of Zoe Meek

Niche’s Sign, courtesy of Zoe Meek

How did you get into the world of beer?
Shawn – I was never a beer person until a trip to Belgium in the winter of 2009. I had no idea that beer was available in so many styles, and when I returned home… I wasn’t able to find many of them. Keep in mind this is over 8 years ago, long before there were many breweries in the area. I started reading about beer online, and quickly discovered that it was possible to brew these styles at home. Rather than just jumping into the hobby of homebrewing, I bought John Palmer’s How to Brew and did a lot of reading; eventually, I bought a simple homebrewing setup and brewed my first batch on November 29th, 2009 (yep, I still remember the date). Like a lot of people, I was immediately hooked, and have been brewing regularly since then (I think I’m at 155 or so brews now). My love of beer and brewing lead to me writing a homebrewing blog in 2011, and a couple of years later I started co-writing the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog.

Rob – About six years ago I was introduced to quality craft beer by a friend on a trip to Portland, Maine. He told me about Dogfish Head and Stone and my love for beer grew from there. When I returned from that trip I did some research online about those breweries and found that Dogfish Head owner Sam Calagione had a mini-series on Discovery called Brew Masters. Sam’s explanation of the brewing process conveyed the simplicity of making beer and also his passion about the creative and intuitive aspects of the process. I found this very inspiring, so much so that I started home brewing that same week. A couple of years later I joined the NBCBA which was a great resource for the practical aspects of brewing as well as feedback on beers I had brewed. That club helped me progress and I eventually started a homebrew blog a couple of years ago. This gave me an excuse to brew more interesting beer such as 100% Brett, mixed fermentations, sours and New England styles which I could subsequently post about.

What made you decide to take the step into opening a brewery?
We met about four years ago – our kids were going to the same daycare – and got into your typical homebrewing relationship soon after that: sharing recipes and ideas, trading homebrew, etc. Looking back, it’s really hard to actually pinpoint when we started discussing opening a brewery, but it was about a year ago that the idea was sparked. Neither of us were looking to open a brewery for any reason other than because we love to brew. It wasn’t because friends were saying they loved our beer, it wasn’t because the beer scene has improved so much the last few years… it’s because we’re both passionate about beer, about brewing it, and sharing this passion with others.

What is the culture of the brewery?
Really, this can be found in our brewery name, as well as our tagline “Find Your Niche” (which, as intended, can be interpreted in two ways!). The idea behind starting this brewery stems from a belief we share regarding finding a passion that speaks to you and fully immersing yourself in it. We believe this can apply to everyone within their own context and interests. Find something that you love to do more than anything and focus on applying your own creative character to it. It’s also important not to take any hobby, job, or even yourself too seriously, and to have fun in what you do! Even when it involves writing business plans, securing loans, and dealing with the 1001 things that will inevitably go wrong when opening a business. Wait, where were we going with this again?

Niche Single Origin Coffee Sweet Stout

Niche Single Origin Coffee Sweet Stout

Can you tell us about the beers you are offering initially?
We have three flagship beers that we’re launching with, and will keep these in rotation if demand (and ingredient availability) allows. All three of these beers have been homebrewed by both of us, and tweaked over many attempts for each:

Single Origin – a Coffee Sweet Stout, we took a Sweet Stout recipe that we’ve liked in the past (featuring lots of roast character, with a healthy amount of lactose added to boost the mouthfeel and provide a bit of residual sweetness), and added local coffee. The coffee presence is pretty apparent, and those who aren’t big on Stouts shouldn’t shy away from giving it a try.

Something Different – a “Brett Table Beer”, this one is a pale-coloured, low-alcohol brew hopped lightly with Hallertau Blanc and fermented with Amalgamation (a blend of six Brettanomyces strains); dry-hopped with Amarillo, we wanted to showcase Brett in an easy-drinking package, complemented by some light hop character.

Orange Creamsicle IPA – a Milkshake IPA featuring the addition of lactose, vanilla bean, orange zest, and hopped with plenty of Citra, El Dorado, and Ekuanot. Probably pretty obvious what flavour/aroma characteristics we’re going for here, and I guess the name gives it a way a bit as well! This is a beer we started brewing over a year ago, and have played with it a little bit to get it where we really wanted.

We’ll definitely be experimenting with one-offs (while at the same time focusing on keeping the flagships in rotation), and have a Grisette hopped with Hallertau Blanc and Nelson Sauvin; that one should be available very soon.

What are your plans for distribution?
We’ll definitely be keg sales to licensees only… at least for a while. Growlers or packaged beer may come in the future, but we’re in no hurry.

The Niche Brewhouse, from Stout Tanks

The Niche Brewhouse, from Stout Tanks

Do you have some initial accounts in the area lined up to serve your beers?
We have at least two locations in Fredericton who have agreed to serve our beer – the James Joyce and King Street Ale House – as well as Moncton’s Tide & Boar and Saint John’s Cask and Kettle. We hope to be at least occasionally on tap at other great beer bars/restaurants in Saint John, Halifax, and Charlottetown at some point!

Have you had any assistance from other breweries/people in Atlantic Canada?
We’ve had lots of help from plenty of people in the brewing industry, and we’re extremely grateful to all of them. During the months of business plan writing, equipment selection, dealings with licensing, etc., we had lots of help from Shane at Hammond River, Marc at Flying Boats, and Scott at Think Brewing. When we announced the brewery in late September, several people were quick to provide support, advice, and equipment when needed, including Jeremy at 2 Crows, Mark McGraw at Loyalist City, Paul at Maybee Brewing, and Dan and Jake at TrailWay. Ken at Beer Tech has been beyond generous with helping us get our CO2 and kegging equipment set up, and Chris McDonald (of some blog, forget which) has been more than a lifesaver with too many things to mention, least of all muling equipment from Halifax on his work trips to New Brunswick (which didn’t necessarily include Fredericton!), as well as setting up/building various pieces of brewery equipment.

Do you have  favourite beer styles you enjoy drinking?
Shawn – I enjoy a wide range of beer styles, but tend to focus most on hoppy ones, as well as funky, sour beers. I love a well-brewed Saison, and really do have a soft spot in my heart for a lot of other Belgian styles (since they’re kind of what got me here to begin with).

Rob – Like most beer geeks I enjoy a variety of styles. I love the current NE hoppy beer available from breweries like Bissell Brothers. Mixed fermentation beers really interest me, as well as those time-honoured Flanders and spontaneous sour styles. Finally, I enjoy some styles that tend to be harder to find, such as Grisette and Gose.

Niche fermenters and brite tank

Niche fermenters and brite tank

How about a favourite style or ingredient to brew with?
We’re both very like-minded when it comes to brewing (luckily). We love hops. We love Brett. We love brewing sour beers, whether it be kettle sours with a fast turnover, or barrel-aged brews that take 1-2 years (or more) to be ready. We recognize that those aged beers will be difficult to brew on our system, but we hope to get access to at least a few vessels in the near future to make this a reality, so that we can get started on at least a couple Flanders Reds, Oud Bruins, etc.

Tell us about the brewery: What type of system are you be brewing on?
We have a 2 BBL (240 L) brewhouse from Stout Tanks and Kettles: three vessel system (HLT, mash tun, and boil kettle), with four 2 BBL fermenters and a brite tank. Since both of us are keeping our day jobs, full-time, we can’t say for sure what our output will be, especially launching during the slow beer season; probably somewhere in the 1000-1200 L range monthly to start.

Where do you hope to see your brewery in the next few years?
It’s probably safe to say we really aren’t sure where we’ll be… hopefully still open and brewing beer that people really enjoy. At some point we’ll obviously have to sit back and take stock about where we are and where we ultimately want to go; for right now, we want to focus on brewing good beer and continually improving in that regard.

Congratulations to Rob and Shawn on their launch, and having their first beer out in the wild! Single Origin is available now at Moncton’s Tide & Boar, Saint John’s Cask and Kettle, and Fredericton’s James Joyce Pub. Keep on eye on Niche’s social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for the latest news on their releases, with the Grisette expected in the first week of January.

Niche kegs waiting to be filled

Niche kegs waiting to be filled