ChillStreet

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elreplica
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Re: ChillStreet

Post by elreplica » Wed Jul 19, 2017 7:35 am

amartin wrote:
Sun Jul 16, 2017 9:24 pm
Fair point about Rare Bird, I've never been overly impressed with any of their offerings. That said, I don't know how successful they are, or if they plan on expanding, or if they have already, or what. I haven't been paying a lot of attention to a brewery I don't care for, but I was under the impression that they were owned by the same people who own the "distillery" (I don't think of aging pre-made rum as distilling anymore than fermenting pre-made wort as brewing) and coffee roasting place, so maybe the beer's success is part of a larger brand, or something like that. I'm pretty sure I had a point when I started this thought.

I disagree with the point about the local element being the entire trend behind craft beer. Craft beer has been a trend for 30 odd years now, and was more about quality than where it was made. I've never had any qualms about buying a good beer from Sierra Nevada or Anchor or somewhere else far away. That said, I think craft beer has been helped by the local food movement (despite being made mostly with ingredients grown elsewhere), although I think the quality of the products produced here stand on their own. As in, the local breweries are making some fantastic beer, but there are probably some people willing to try some of it because it's local.

There must be something to this. I've tried one of theirs and wasn't impressed. I'll stick my neck out and say the same for Uncle Leo's. Both were styles I'm very familiar with and both were fails on first impression - Rare Birds Red and Uncle Leo's IPA I believe. All other NS breweries I've visited or tried brew great beer - and I've sampled a few in the five years I've been back.

That being said, I recall visiting a brewhouse in the Truro Power Center around 2003 or 2004 and I think they brewed some kind of extract which they canned in Schooner and Oland colours. Unimpressive stuff. Even a Keurig can produce a decent coffee, according to coffee drinkers - which I'm not. Keurig beer machines hmmmm... Good beer will sell if it's good. That's why craft brewers like Toronto's Steam Whistle have expanded nationally and I believe now into the US market. There's a tremendous amount of great brewing going on here in NS. I will admit that I've only made a few forays into the NS urban beer scene and need to devote some time to Halifax's.
At Bat: several Czech Pils
On Deck: Cream Ale
In the Hole: Kolsch
Clean Up: Tall Ships Ale clones
On tap: Propeller Pils, Festa Cream Ale

elreplica
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Re: ChillStreet

Post by elreplica » Wed Jul 19, 2017 9:56 am

toddthebeerdude wrote:
Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:23 pm
Should be something like the wine vqa for Nova Scotia beer to ensure quality and authenticate origin of the brewing process

That's the gist of this story Todd... Lisa J posted it in another forum...


http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/beer-cr ... -1.4202758
At Bat: several Czech Pils
On Deck: Cream Ale
In the Hole: Kolsch
Clean Up: Tall Ships Ale clones
On tap: Propeller Pils, Festa Cream Ale

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sleepyjamie
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Re: ChillStreet

Post by sleepyjamie » Wed Jul 19, 2017 10:42 am

This is no different than buying a temporary tattoo from the store and putting it on your body and branding yourself as a tattoo artist


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Re: ChillStreet

Post by Bowserm » Wed Jul 19, 2017 6:28 pm

It really would be nice for them (ferment on premises) to not be allowed to publicize as a brewery. Every time I hear about Salty Dog in Truro being the first and only brewery it makes me cringe. When the ad comes on the radio my wife interrupts my tirad of them not being a brewery.

I will stick with buying my favourites when I can get into Halifax, and when they bring it back (DOA anyone :) ) And it's really nice to see Big Spruce available now in stores. Mind you it always seems to be gone when I go to buy it.

On the Rare Bird topic, I really do enjoy their stout. Their pale ale on the other hand is not very good at all. I do like the Uncle Leo's IPA though, but every time I have it, it seems like the taste is different. I can't tell if it's from the water, additives or a change in hops though.

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by sleepyjamie » Wed Jul 19, 2017 9:33 pm

They should be called fermentery.
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Re: ChillStreet

Post by CorneliusAlphonse » Thu Jul 20, 2017 12:01 am

elreplica wrote:
Wed Jul 19, 2017 7:35 am
amartin wrote:
Sun Jul 16, 2017 9:24 pm
Fair point about Rare Bird, I've never been overly impressed with any of their offerings.
There must be something to this. I've tried one of theirs and wasn't impressed. I'll stick my neck out and say the same for Uncle Leo's. Both were styles I'm very familiar with and both were fails on first impression - Rare Birds Red and Uncle Leo's IPA I believe. All other NS breweries I've visited or tried brew great beer - and I've sampled a few in the five years I've been back.
I would caution judging a brewery based off one beer/one time - lots of breweries release a bad batch now and then (certain definite exceptions), or it could just be a style not brewed to your tastes. Uncle Leo's IPA was pretty variable back when i tried it, but their other styles were well brewed. Vs Rare Bird, which i tried everything at least once, a couple multiple times, and every time it was undrinkable.

Back to the topic at hand - brewery-scale kit n kilo (or pour n pitch, whatever) is pretty darn disappointing. I wonder where the break in the system is that makes it cheaper to make wort, ship it around the world, then ferment and tax it, be less than the cost of taking raw ingredients, brewing it here, and taxing it?
planning: beer for my cousin's wedding
Fermenting: black ipa
Conditioning:
Kegged: barrel barleywine from 2014 - i think i still have this somewhere

elreplica
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Re: ChillStreet

Post by elreplica » Thu Jul 20, 2017 10:33 am

Yeah it wouldn't stop me from giving them a second go...but that would have to be via a guest beer sample or flight at their brewery. I hear you on the local production too.

PS - I wasn't a Sea Level fan at first but a brewery visit won me over...
Last edited by elreplica on Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
At Bat: several Czech Pils
On Deck: Cream Ale
In the Hole: Kolsch
Clean Up: Tall Ships Ale clones
On tap: Propeller Pils, Festa Cream Ale

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by jason.loxton » Thu Jul 20, 2017 12:37 pm

Back to the topic at hand - brewery-scale kit n kilo (or pour n pitch, whatever) is pretty darn disappointing. I wonder where the break in the system is that makes it cheaper to make wort, ship it around the world, then ferment and tax it, be less than the cost of taking raw ingredients, brewing it here, and taxing it?
A lot of infrastructure and expertise.

They make this sort of explicit on their website (http://chillstreetbrewing.com/our-brewery/#!/beermaking). They're cutting out the need for grain handling and storage (unmilled and spent), gas lines or electrical upgrades, ventilation, plus the space that they kettle, etc., would take up.

On the expertise front, if you're just fermenting wort you literally need tier one home brewing skills (its large scale festabrew). I am sure you cold train someone off the street in a day or two on how to follow a protocol for cleaning, transferring, and carbonating. Most of a brewmaster's skills aren't required, since no recipes are actually be designed.

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by jason.loxton » Thu Jul 20, 2017 12:48 pm

This is no different than buying a temporary tattoo from the store and putting it on your body and branding yourself as a tattoo artist
A better analogy is buying cookie dough in buckets, scooping it and throwing it in the oven and calling yourself a bakery. That's actually what a lot of them do, however. I was equally disappointed when I realized that.

Nash: Glad to hear that there's lobbying going on to clarify what these places are. It seems that the province/NSLC are starting to realize that there's money in diversity and small scale (for tourism, in particular). Anything that undercuts that is bad of the province in the longterm.

On the Sobey's front, there's an additional concern. They have subsidized commercial retail space, the ability to raise capital without borrowing or at much lower interest rates, a captive market in their stores already, and province wide presence in key high traffic areas. It would be really hard for smaller guys to compete if they decided to throw themselves fully into it, especially if they're cutting corners in terms of how they actually make the product.

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by Broob » Thu Jul 20, 2017 12:51 pm

Harvest Wines is in Sobey's near my house. I hope they don't force them out.
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elreplica
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Re: ChillStreet

Post by elreplica » Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:08 am

Broob wrote:
Thu Jul 20, 2017 12:51 pm
Harvest Wines is in Sobey's near my house. I hope they don't force them out.
I'm betting they're gone if Sobeys brings in Chillstreet...I visited a couple yrs back ( Portland Estates?)and bought a northern Cal IPA to see what the fuss was all about.. freakin' $9 a bomber and it was whatever...
At Bat: several Czech Pils
On Deck: Cream Ale
In the Hole: Kolsch
Clean Up: Tall Ships Ale clones
On tap: Propeller Pils, Festa Cream Ale

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by elreplica » Wed Aug 30, 2017 12:55 pm

Okay...so I finally got to visit Chill St. to see what the fuss is all about. Sampled all except their Honey Brown and picked up two talls of their pale ale and lager. The gal giving samples explained that they didn't purport to be a craft brewery. She was a novice but lassoed Barry the mgr/owner. I chatted and asked if he knew about the Brewnosers (he did)and was affable and cordial even whilst pressed for time and told me 75% of his customers were noobs to craft beer. Thus, I would agree that their brews are good gateway beers into the market and a good thing. They were pretty good, cans carbed well (tap better as usual) and inoffensive. I could see someone getting hooked into craft and then moving on to more flavourful, fuller, bigger and robust beers that abound in the maritimes. My biggest exception is the way they market the beer as they knew I knew the game (Keurig style smart brew, Festa style, more Brewhouse though as they overshoot their OG and then water down- as some craft brewers do here in NS) concentrated for the long journey to Canada from New Zealand. I agree that a VQA (Brewers Quality Alliance?)label (and exclusion) needs to be noted. How, as their can labels state - is the beer a product of Canada and how can they claim to be brewed in NS? I know of producers in Ontario that have been doing this for years and in fact I returned recently with a keg from a bro's U Brew that is done exactly the same way...although it is brewed all grain in Canada and fermented off site. It's great and he modifies, as Chill Street does in myriad ways to produce a wide range. Of course, adjuncts and short cuts are taken - guaranteed Chill Sts. cider is like Everwoods and Mangrove Jacks - concentrated, artificially flavoured and extremely drinkable. But hardly a product of Canada (Everwood excepted) as are the beers. All things told at the end of the day I see a market for these products - but take strong exception to the "local" claim. I will post pictures of their labels if anyone wishes to see.
At Bat: several Czech Pils
On Deck: Cream Ale
In the Hole: Kolsch
Clean Up: Tall Ships Ale clones
On tap: Propeller Pils, Festa Cream Ale

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by KMcK » Fri Sep 01, 2017 12:04 pm

I visited recently with low expectations and was surprised that it wasn't as bad as expected. The beer and cider were drinkable and certainly better than industrial beer and even better than some of the other attempts at this sort of festabrewpub I've seen. I spoke with one of the brewers about what they actually do on site. They use dry yeast (disappointing to me but apparently not to most people on here) and local hops and blueberry juice. He spoke about adjusting the hops over several batches to improve the beers. Assuming he was telling the truth I'd say that there is some brewing effort going on here (within the constraints of what they can control) but I still have reservations implying it's a craft brewery.
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Re: ChillStreet

Post by jason.loxton » Fri Sep 01, 2017 2:17 pm

If you spend time on Probrewer, a surprising number of commercial, highly reputable, breweries use dry yeast. It's really a non-issue. Some even use both for different batches of the same beer. 21st Amendment, for example, at least used to brew some of their overflow batches at an adjacent brewery that wasn't set up for yeast harvesting. They subbed S05 for their regular American Ale strain in those batches. (That's from an interview with the head brewer from a Brewing Network podcast.)

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by elreplica » Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:22 am

I'm sure lots of craft breweries in NS use dry yeast...I've visited at least three in my area and their "go to" is usually Safale US05 for most APA's...
At Bat: several Czech Pils
On Deck: Cream Ale
In the Hole: Kolsch
Clean Up: Tall Ships Ale clones
On tap: Propeller Pils, Festa Cream Ale

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by KB1138 » Sat Sep 02, 2017 5:46 pm

I don't really see why using dry yeast would be a point of contention. It limits the variety of strains you can use but it certainly makes yeast handling a lot easier.
On tap: Hopped Mead, ESB, Schwazbier
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Re: ChillStreet

Post by amartin » Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:09 pm

Dry yeast used to have its issues, but it's a lot better than it used to be. I used to use it only rarely, now I use it for a probably 80% of my beer. That may change a bit come lager season though, I haven't had a lot of luck with W34/70.


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Re: ChillStreet

Post by CorneliusAlphonse » Sun Sep 03, 2017 9:04 am

(i think Kyle's comment about dry yeast is because it limits the possible yeast characteristics you can get from a brew, which is important if you care about that part of the brewing - Kyle is certainly a yeast enthusiast. It's similar to if he had expressed disappointment that they were dry hopping with cascade, instead of something more interesting.)

Since the yeast is one of the few things that ChillStreet can control, it would be a good opportunity to set them apart from the other ns breweries that use, as don mentioned, us05 et al. Would increase the complexity of their brewery operations but.

Back to the topic at hand, thanks Kyle and Don for the hands on reviews of the beer. Glad it's not half bad - and certainly sounds better than my 2-3 batches i did from concentrate!
planning: beer for my cousin's wedding
Fermenting: black ipa
Conditioning:
Kegged: barrel barleywine from 2014 - i think i still have this somewhere

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by KB1138 » Sun Sep 03, 2017 12:08 pm

I haven't had a chance to try it myself, but I've had two different people tell me they had cans that were under carbed or not carbed at all.
On tap: Hopped Mead, ESB, Schwazbier
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Re: ChillStreet

Post by Bowserm » Thu Sep 07, 2017 6:49 pm

Looks like they don't want to change the laws on what is considered " micro brewery "
Whomever is in charge obviously doesn't care or want to know the difference because they are getting their tax dollars..

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/nova ... -1.4275794

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by elreplica » Fri Sep 08, 2017 7:04 am

amartin wrote:
Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:09 pm
Dry yeast used to have its issues, but it's a lot better than it used to be. I used to use it only rarely, now I use it for a probably 80% of my beer. That may change a bit come lager season though, I haven't had a lot of luck with W34/70.


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Funny thing, I use Saflager 34/70 regularly and like it. I've not had any issues with it at all.
At Bat: several Czech Pils
On Deck: Cream Ale
In the Hole: Kolsch
Clean Up: Tall Ships Ale clones
On tap: Propeller Pils, Festa Cream Ale

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by MitchK » Sat Sep 09, 2017 7:06 pm

I think it's completely bullshit that this basically means a giant manufacturer in NZ is getting microbrewery tax breaks in order to unfairly compete in a local market.

I'm not 100% certain whether this can happen in BC or not - My interpretation of our liquor license application was that we were legally obligated to own all the equipment to produce beer on site, even though we can buy from other manufacturers on contract.

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by elreplica » Sun Sep 10, 2017 10:07 am

Re: the VQA certification...apparently it is happening. I spoke with an owner of a NS Craft brewery and its in the works. The next step will be to get the word up there and to promote it as successfully as Ontario vintners did.
At Bat: several Czech Pils
On Deck: Cream Ale
In the Hole: Kolsch
Clean Up: Tall Ships Ale clones
On tap: Propeller Pils, Festa Cream Ale

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by sleepyjamie » Sun Sep 10, 2017 1:42 pm

I have no problem with them doing what they are doing, however they don't actually brew, they ferment on premise. If they claim they are brewing then it's BS. They aren't involved in the brewing process (it's in friggin NZ for god sakes).
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Topaz SMaSH
Cranberry Rye Saison
Monde Souterrain (Dark Saison)

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Re: ChillStreet

Post by elreplica » Mon Sep 11, 2017 9:22 am

sleepyjamie wrote:
Sun Sep 10, 2017 1:42 pm
I have no problem with them doing what they are doing, however they don't actually brew, they ferment on premise. If they claim they are brewing then it's BS. They aren't involved in the brewing process (it's in friggin NZ for god sakes).
That's the issue I think most people have...their cans state "brewed in NS" and "Product of Canada".
At Bat: several Czech Pils
On Deck: Cream Ale
In the Hole: Kolsch
Clean Up: Tall Ships Ale clones
On tap: Propeller Pils, Festa Cream Ale

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