YellowBelly Brewery

All posts tagged YellowBelly Brewery

G’day, beer friends! Time to end another beautiful week with some Atlantic Canada craft beer news…

• Stephen Dixon of Grimross Brewing recently brewed another Belgian-style Stout which should be pouring in Fredericton in the near future. Different from the previously-released Destrier Stout, the new beer has, “a little less roast, and a little more chocolate”, according to Dixon. The beer was brewed with hops from Southan Farms in Wicklow, and Maritime Malt, a malt variety from Canada Malting made exclusively from Maritime-grown barley. Remember to look for Grimross beers at the Picaroons Brewtique on Queen Street, and on tap soon at the King Street Ale House.

• As mentioned last week, the PEI Brewing Company has released their Pumpkin Ale across the Island; luckily, it has already made its way to several select ANBL stores in New Brunswick! Currently available in a few Moncton outlets, it should also be popping up soon in Fredericton and Saint John. Still no word if it will make it to Nova Scotia; we’ll be sure to let you know if it heads that way!

• Over in Newfoundland, we have some more information regarding Yellowbelly Brewery‘s soon-to-be-released seasonal beer. Revisiting their Republic Pale Ale from last year, the beer is brewed with Pale Ale, Munich, and Carastan as the base malts. A “hop bomb” brewed with locally-grown hops, it also features dry-hopping with the Australian Topaz variety, known for providing “resinous and grassy” qualities when used in this way. Coming in at 5.3% ABV, the beer should be released late next week, according to the brewery. It’ll be on tap at the brewery, and hopefully available for growler fills.

• Something very interesting from Liam McKenna, head brewer at Yellowbelly: TODAY, he will be giving a talk on beer’s role in our civilization. It is being held at Memorial University, Biochem room SN-4015 at 1pm. Beer has been much more important than most of us think, as recent articles and documentaries have shown. Essentially, you can thank your great-great-great-great-(…)-great grandfather for liking his wife’s beer enough to want to plant barley. Cheers to all you Brewsters out there!

Sea Level Brewing‘s newest beer, the wet-hopped Hopfazupa IPA, is already available in cans despite just being released in draught form recently. Featuring fresh Cascade hops from Sea Level’s own hop farm, it has an ABV of 6.5%. If you live in Halifax, head on over to Harvest Wines, Bishop’s Cellar, or Cristall Wine Merchants to snatch some up while you can!

• With the City Harvest (cool map of the events here) happening in Halifax this Saturday, several breweries in the city have some events planned. First off, Garrison Brewing will be serving some special micheladas, a traditional drink originating in Mexico that features beer, lime juice, and various sauces, spices and peppers. For this concoction, Garrison will be mixing in a cask of their Harvest Wheat that has been infused with jalapenos. Getaway Farms will be on site selling some freshly-made tacos to go with the beer.

• Over at Propeller Brewing on Gottingen St., Chez Tess will be there for a collaboration… spiced pumpkin wraps with beer-marinated roasted vegetables. Great timing for this, as Propeller just released their Pumpkin Ale, which is now available in bottles and for growler fills at both brewery locations.

• And, lastly from City Harvest, Bridge Brewing is pairing up with Highland Drive Storehouse for a harvest vegetable and  beer tasting event Saturday evening. Bridge’s new Saison will be pouring for the first time; they will also have their Many Hands Wet-Hopped Imperial Pale Ale. The 5.5% Saison is a new addition to their year-round offering, and is similar to the Summer Ale that was very popular over the past few months, but with more hops for bitterness and aroma and Candi sugar for dryness, and they’ve dropped the orange peel.

• Bridge will also be taking part in a Beer Dinner at harbourstone sea grill & pour house on Monday the 7th. Their four beers will be paired with four courses of fresh and interesting cuisine all evening. The flyer with course and beer details can be seen here, and reservations can be made by calling 902-428-7852.

• In other Garrison news, their 3 Fields Harvest Ale has made it into some NSLC and ANBL locations, so those of us not in Halifax can enjoy this wet-hopped beer. Also, keep an eye out next week for the release of their third One Hop Beer (à la Comet and Citra). Sorry for jumping the gun last week. 🙂 It will also be available at the NSLC and ANBL stores

• There’s a new beer on tap at Rockbottom Brewpub, The Rookie. Brewmaster Greg Nash has worked with the recipe since its first release in June, and this low-alcohol (3.1%) but high hops (3.2 pounds/barrel) beer is even better. The idea behind his “American Mild” style is to pack a lot of flavour into a small beer, just like Milds in the UK, but with his own signature twist. For those of us who appreciate full flavour and aroma in a beer, and the alcohol content is a happy byproduct, this is a must-try.

• Also out this weekend, Uncle Leo’s Smoked Porter. Using a variety of malts (the base is Pale, with flavour, body and aroma from Chocolate, Smoked, Crystal, and Roasted), this beer will have a lot going on, with a great malty body and smoky aroma. It weighs in at 6.8% ABV, and hopped to 31 IBUs. It will be available in bottles and growlers at the brewery starting tomorrow (weekend hours are Friday and Saturday 2-7pm), and will make it to Bishop’s Cellar and Premier Wines mid next week.

Welcome to the last Friday of the summer of 2013. It seems like just yesterday that we were kicking off the beer festival season, and announcing the patios opening. But fear not, fearless Atlantic Canadian reader, there is plenty of great beer news and information to guide us into the fall of 2013!

• Details are few, but this week Yellowbelly Brewpub in St. John’s brewed up another batch of their Republic Pale Ale using locally-grown hops. If it’s anything like previous year’s beer, it will be about 6% ABV, and feature a big citrus and pine nose from the hearty Newfoundland hops.

Shiretown Beer in Charlo has also brewed up a beer with fresh hops, these being some wild hops from Charlo. They brewed up “Runnin’ Down the Road” Amber Ale, and the local hops will give it a spicy aroma, and plenty of bitterness. It will be available in a few weeks. Their Big Brown Ale and Buckwheat Honey Ale are both currently available at the brewery, as well as their flagship Blonde du Quai. And their expansion into bars and ANBLs across the province continues, with more and more stores being added all of the time.  Fredericton, Moncton, Sackville, the list continues to grow.

BarNone Brewing in PEI will soon be releasing their first IPA since a brief appearance at the PEI Beer Festival two years ago. An unfiltered American IPA, it comes in at 6.5% ABV and is heavily-hopped, both in the kettle and with multiple dry-hop additions, according to brewer/owner Don Campbell. Showcasing several “sought-after” hop varieties, the beer should be available for growler fills at the brewery (every Thursday from 6-8 pm) soon. To keep updated on its release, follow Barnone on their Twitter account.

• BarNone will also be taking part in this weekend’s Kegs, Corks & Oysters event at Credit Union Place (511 Notre Dame St) in Summerside. Their beer will be used to cook and pair with famous Malpeque Oysters as part of this Fall Flavours Festival event. Tickets are $35 (+fees), available at BoxOfficePEI.

• We now have some details on this year’s Harvest Ale from Picaroons, which will be officially launched on Thursday, Sept. 26th. A Pale Ale that uses two-row base malt grown in New Brunswick, it also has a small percentage of Crystal malt which should add some caramel sweetness to the beer. As mentioned before, there will be different locally-grown hops used in each batch, coming from different farmers in Atlantic Canada; this should give each batch separate flavor and aroma profiles. According to Dennis Goodwin, Marketing Director at Picaroons, the farms providing the hops will be Happy Hopyard in Cornhill, NB (showcasing Nugget, Centennial, Cascade, Goldings, and more),  Southern Farms in Wicklow, NB, Wysmykal Farm in Chapman Settlement, NS, and possibly more to be added later. By going to picaroons.ca/myharvest (the site will be active upon the beer’s launch), you will be able to enter the batch number on your bottle’s label to find out more information regarding your beer.
• The newest beer on tap at the Hart and Thistle in Halifax is the Statutory IPA. Weighing in at 7.2% ABV and 52 IBUs, this is a juicy and malty IPA, brewed with Centennial, Cascade, and Columbus hops. It contrasts the TubberRoe Robust Porter nicely, whose flavours are reminiscent of dark chocolate and dark fruit.
• For fans of the Rockbottom Brewpub, and in beer in general, Brewmaster Greg Nash posted a video of a recent brewday for the Broken Down Special Old Bitter. It’s a behind-the-scenes view of what it takes to get from grain to glass at the Rockbottom. And remember that every Saturday at 1pm, Nash taps a special cask of beer, sometimes a different take on a current beer (blackened Fathom IPA), or a completely new one (last week’s was the Deadwood Wheat refermented with 8oz of fresh ginger).
• This coming Wednesday, the 25th, Mike Buhler (Certified Cicerone and co-director of the Beerthief Newfoundland Craft Beer Order Club) will be doing a guided tasting of six beers from the Wychwood Brewery. The event is at 7PM at Bitters Restaurant and Lounge on the MUN campus (216 Prince Philip Drive). For $24, you will receive 100mL of each Wychwood beer, an appertif of Quidi Vidi or Yellowbelly beer, a burger, and chocolate brownie. Mike is a fount of beer knowledge, and lots of fun, so I’m sure the evening will be great. To take part, please reserve your seat by emailing Tom Beckett.
Finally this week, big news from Propeller Brewing! They brewed their first batch of beer at their new Dartmouth location yesterday (617 Windmill Rd, their cold beer store has been open for a few months). It was, not surprisingly given Halifax’s lust for hops, an IPA. We hope to get a look at the new digs soon, and will certainly do a full profile on their expanded system and location. In the meantime, be sure to look for their Nocturne Dark Lager out today, released in collaboration with the Nocturne Art at Night event, taking place October 19th, 6pm-midnight around the HRM.

This past September the Where blog created a Top 10 list of Craft Beer Destinations in Canada identifying one per province.

Yellow Belly Brewery was identified for Newfoundland, the Gahan House for P.E.I., the Rare Bird Pub in Guysborough for Nova Scotia and the Pump House Brewery for N.B.  Check out the link for a picture and brief write up on each.