Beer in the news

[mr x]

Check out the business section of the herald today. Valley is getting things moving.

Sent from my Nexus S

[Jayme]

Check out the business section of the herald today. Valley is getting things moving.

Sent from my Nexus S

Is it about the hop growing initiative? They had an interview with Randy about it on either Info Morning or Mainstreet yesterday (I think Mainstreet... yesterday was a long day though haha).

[Jayme]

I'm assuming this is the article (I forgot about the brewery in Digby): http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1 ... olis-digby

Microbrewing industry explored for potential in Annapolis-Digby

Ask not if a hop growing and craft-beer brewing industry can be established in the Annapolis-Digby area, but when.

This seemed to be the consensus Thursday as the Annapolis Digby Economic Development Agency began fielding calls from people interested in hearing more about the agency’s call for proposals for a study on the suitability of the hop growing and craft-beer brewing industries.

“There are a lot of exciting things happening with these industries across North America, and many people believe our area offers many of the critical elements for success,” Dan Harvey, an agency economic development officer, said in an interview.

Harvey said the craft brewing industry is contributing to economic development in several Canadian communities, and besides the hop growing and brewing, there are emerging opportunities in fields such as culinary tourism.

“A community can really get behind it’s local brand and this can become a feature of interest to visitors.”

The agency has set a Sept. 21 deadline for submissions from consultants interested in examining the hop-growing side of the business and a potential microbrewery.

The agency wants completed reports by the end of the year.

Harvey said the idea is to come up with two packages to be used in the immediate future to “reduce financial risk and accelerate the pace of growth” for potential investors.

One package would be prepared for growers and would consider such topics as hop varieties, harvesting and equipment startup costs. It would also examine agricultural supply chain opportunities in the region for hops, and research market demand and potential.

The other package, focusing on the feasibility of a microbrewery, would look at target markets, potential packaging, startup costs and financing and a host of other topics.

At least one private business has already expressed interest in investing in a microbrewery in the Annapolis-Digby area, but it has requested anonymity.

“We have secured a private business partner who wishes to gather more information in order to assess potential risks and returns associated with this project,” said the backgrounder on the feasibility study.

[mr x]

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1 ... -direction" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BRIGHTON: Microbrewery plan move in right direction

All the public-sector spending in the world is not going to push Nova Scotia higher up the economic ladder until landowners, factory owners and other business owners create new opportunities for investment or take a risk and invest their own coin.

With captains of industry and shrewd investors lining up at the public trough, small businesses and rural communities might be heartened by a scheme for a hops-growing operation and locally owned microbrewery, being hatched with help from the Annapolis Digby Economic Development Agency.

A local business owner, whose name the agency can’t divulge, expressed interest in investing in a microbrewery and distribution network and contacted the development agency, which is funded by the three levels of government.

In response, the agency obtained funds from a federal-provincial agriculture program to pay for two “start-up” packages designed for potential growers and investors, dealing with marketing, operations, production, supply and distribution. They will be ready early next year and the agency’s project leader, Dan Harvey, hopes the front-end work will reduce risk and accelerate the pace of growth if the investor goes ahead.

That’s what I meant in last week’s column when I suggested a good role for government in economic development is to invest in market development. Finding new ways to market old things is a sensible strategy and is the basis for most of what passes for “innovation.”

Beer, made with hops, is a case in point. Like wine labels, boutique beers can brand a region and add value further up the supply chain, as local restaurants and stores stock the new product. They also create value down the supply chain, as farmers and even small market gardeners add a new crop or bring more land into production.

The benefits flow directly into the local economy and the venture depends partly on the larger market for the product and partly on the strength and quality of the local supply chain.

Teetotaller or not, it’s hard to disagree with the sobriety of this kind of bottom-up economic development scheme.

In an investment-driven strategy such as this, job creation is the icing on the cake, not the main ingredient.

Harvey said having a private investor lined up was the clincher for obtaining funds under this market-development program, called Growing Forward.

“This idea came from a grassroots initiative and it’s a good example of how community economic development can and should work,” he said in an interview this week.

A desire to invest in and grow the local economy is quite different from a pure profit play.

This is a strategy that builds on assets and strengths — land, temperature, topology, farming know-how, existing supply chains and distribution networks — rather than tearing away regulatory obstacles and pouring in cash, as in the case of the Pacific West-NewPage deal.

Rural Nova Scotia and its network of family enterprises do not need to be pork-barrelled, bailed out or propped up by the heavy hand of government. A touch of oil, some faith and a push-start will do.

I still don't see how growing hops is a business model that makes money. Romantic - yes. Practical or economical......

[wortly]

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1 ... -direction

BRIGHTON: Microbrewery plan move in right direction

All the public-sector spending in the world is not going to push Nova Scotia higher up the economic ladder until landowners, factory owners and other business owners create new opportunities for investment or take a risk and invest their own coin.

With captains of industry and shrewd investors lining up at the public trough, small businesses and rural communities might be heartened by a scheme for a hops-growing operation and locally owned microbrewery, being hatched with help from the Annapolis Digby Economic Development Agency.

A local business owner, whose name the agency can’t divulge, expressed interest in investing in a microbrewery and distribution network and contacted the development agency, which is funded by the three levels of government.

In response, the agency obtained funds from a federal-provincial agriculture program to pay for two “start-up” packages designed for potential growers and investors, dealing with marketing, operations, production, supply and distribution. They will be ready early next year and the agency’s project leader, Dan Harvey, hopes the front-end work will reduce risk and accelerate the pace of growth if the investor goes ahead.

That’s what I meant in last week’s column when I suggested a good role for government in economic development is to invest in market development. Finding new ways to market old things is a sensible strategy and is the basis for most of what passes for “innovation.”

Beer, made with hops, is a case in point. Like wine labels, boutique beers can brand a region and add value further up the supply chain, as local restaurants and stores stock the new product. They also create value down the supply chain, as farmers and even small market gardeners add a new crop or bring more land into production.

The benefits flow directly into the local economy and the venture depends partly on the larger market for the product and partly on the strength and quality of the local supply chain.

Teetotaller or not, it’s hard to disagree with the sobriety of this kind of bottom-up economic development scheme.

In an investment-driven strategy such as this, job creation is the icing on the cake, not the main ingredient.

Harvey said having a private investor lined up was the clincher for obtaining funds under this market-development program, called Growing Forward.

“This idea came from a grassroots initiative and it’s a good example of how community economic development can and should work,” he said in an interview this week.

A desire to invest in and grow the local economy is quite different from a pure profit play.

This is a strategy that builds on assets and strengths — land, temperature, topology, farming know-how, existing supply chains and distribution networks — rather than tearing away regulatory obstacles and pouring in cash, as in the case of the Pacific West-NewPage deal.

Rural Nova Scotia and its network of family eterprises do not need to be pork-barrelled, bailed out or propped up by the heavy hand of government. A touch of oil, some faith and a push-start will do.

I still don't see how growing hops is a business model that makes money. Romantic - yes. Practical or economical......

You're 100% right, x. How many of these studies do we need? We need the private sector to hammer this stuff out on their own. I am sick of seeing gov`t money go to consultants.

[mr x]

The hop farm looks like a back door way to get brewing with easy money, so I guess it works in that regard, but it seems to me we'd all be better served if the liquor laws were seriously overhauled...and then add the hop farm later if it makes sense. Hops are a lot of work AFAIAC. But I guess we'll see. I'd like to see this impetus spread to other counties though.

[KMcK]

You're 100% right, x. How many of these studies do we need? We need the private sector to hammer this stuff out on their own. I am sick of seeing gov`t money go to consultants.

Hey, I resemble that remark! Actually, many of us could be consultants on this one.

[dean2k]

This was in the Amherst Daily News today.... no mention of Tyndall Road Breweries (aka .... Andy's garage) hop production

http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/L ... -Halifax/1

[mr x]

...a pound of fresh hops, sold as a ‘boutique’ product – the large, corporate markets would have a much lower rate – goes for $12 to $16.

I just don't see that number as being realistic.

[akr71]

This was in the Amherst Daily News today.... no mention of Tyndall Road Breweries (aka .... Andy's garage) hop production

http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/L ... -Halifax/1

Its Crazy Grouse Brewery

[dean2k]

This was in the Amherst Daily News today.... no mention of Tyndall Road Breweries (aka .... Andy's garage) hop production

http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/L ... -Halifax/1

Its Crazy Grouse Brewery

I was unaware of this development. I guess "Hungry Bear Knocked Over My Compost Bin" wouldn't look so good on a label.

[BobbyOK]

Front page teaser titled simply "The Beer Guy": http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1 ... on-the-job" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mr x]

We should get some press for Hoptoberfest.

[akr71]

We should get some press for Hoptoberfest.

Invite one of the The Coast Food & Drink reporters.

[derek]

This was in the Amherst Daily News today.... no mention of Tyndall Road Breweries (aka .... Andy's garage) hop production

http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/News/L ... -Halifax/1

Its Crazy Grouse Brewery

I was unaware of this development. I guess "Hungry Bear Knocked Over My Compost Bin" wouldn't look so good on a label.

It might look great on, say, a billboard, but it might not fit on a bottle.

[mr x]

Real ale revival sees most breweries in Britain since the war

The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said a record 158 new breweries had opened in the past year, the highest number ever recorded in the group's annual Good Beer Guide.

Camra said it was an "astonishing" number, with twice as many breweries now in operation than a decade ago and around one brewery for every 50 pubs.

Many micro breweries have opened in recent years, but smaller ones have expanded despite a steady flow of pub closures.

Roger Protz, editor of the Good Beer Guide, said: "A double dip recession has done nothing to halt the incredible surge in the number of brewers coming on stream, making the small brewing sector surely one of the most remarkable UK industry success stories of the last decade.

"In fact, the boom in new breweries has, in many cases, made the term 'micro' obsolete, with some small brewers having become remarkably large, installing new equipment or doubling production to keep up with demand.

"Beer drinkers in the present day are faced with an enormous variety and choice like never seen before on these shores. Whilst historically there were more breweries in the UK pre-1930s, the distribution and communication networks of the modern day mean that real ale has never been so accessible to consumers, or to pubs wanting to meet demand for serving locally produced beer."

Over 1,000 new pubs are featured in the 2013 Guide, which marks Camra's 40th anniversary, taking the total to 4,500, including seven which have been included in every edition - The Buckingham Arms in Petty France, London; The New Inn, Kilmington, Devon; The Queen's Head, Newton, Cambridgeshire; Roscoe Head, Liverpool; The Square & Compass, Worth Matravers, Dorset; The Star, Netherton, Northumberland; and The Star Tavern, Belgrave Mews West, London.

Mr Protz added: "It's a remarkable achievement for the publicans of these pubs to have maintained an exemplary standard of beer over all these years. The special thing about these seven pubs is that they vary so much in their location, size and heritage, showing how brilliantly diverse our pub industry remains, even through weathering the high profile storm of closures in recent years."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink ... e-war.html

[mr x]

Oktoberfest 2012: the world's largest beer festival kicks off in Munich, Germany
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/pictu ... rmany.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[canuck]

Oktoberfest 2012: the world's largest beer festival kicks off in Munich, Germany
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/pictu ... rmany.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Oh man, those pictures make me wish I was in Munich again. I was in Munich two weeks after Oktoberfest two years ago and enjoyed myself immensely. I spent the entire day at the Hofbrauhaus and it was probably the best beer drinking day I've ever had. So much fun! I can't even imagine how much fun Oktoberfest would be. I've always wanted to do one of these trips as well.

http://www.beertrips.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[pet lion]

http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2012/09 ... onal-beer/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shiretown Releases First Seasonal Beer

DALHOUSIE, NB – Shiretown Beer, the small brewery Dalhousie’s Artisan Cafe & Brewpub, has announced via Facebook the release of tis first seasonal beer.

Runnin’ Down the Road Amber Ale is described as being made using “locally grown wild hops.” Assuming that “wild hops” means freshly picked hops, this would make the beer one of a number of wet-hopped ales being made by breweries across the country as the annual hop harvest takes place.

Runnin’ Down The Roadis available now on tap at the Artisan and to take home in growler jugs while supplies last.

Apparently, they are using wild hops. They said the hops are growing in the wilderness (although likely were there after being cultivated in the past).

[Graham.C]

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1 ... on-the-job" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IT IS A LUMINOUS Wednesday in the incandescent summer of 2012 and, inside Premier Wine & Spirits, a man wearing skateboarding shoes and sipping from a flagon of bottled water has folded his 32-year-old body into a leather chair.

Gord Hutchinson’s fingers dart in quick flurries across the keys of one of the store’s two desktops. After a burst of frenzied typing, he pauses, wrists resting on the uncluttered desk, baby face angled toward the screen.

He has things on his mind. Even if they are not the workaday concerns of you or I.

Hutchinson, who was born in Halifax but came of age in Carbonear, N.L., is thinking about the handiwork of Trappist monks and aging hippies.

He is contemplating his upcoming trip to San Francisco. He is considering the intriguing question of whether a liquid that contains 88 per cent alcohol can properly be called a beer.

As much as anything, he is pondering hops.

“If the word hops is on the label, we can move six times more of it than anything else,” Hutchinson tells me.

I’m here because he, as much as anyone in this city, should know whether this is true.

At Premier Wine & Spirits, there is a wine guy, Oliver Olesen, who is in charge of keeping an alluring selection of the grape moving through the store.

Hutchinson is the beer guy. He orders it. He ships it. A good chunk of his day is spent finding ways to add to the shop’s 120 different brews, a list that he says is the biggest selection in a single private store east of Alberta.

That makes Hutchinson the Sam Spade of Suds. The Sherlock Holmes of Hops.

When I say he may have the best job in all of Halifax, Hutchison gives me a look.

“I’m not a fan of doing things I don’t like. I guess I’m lucky to find a job that pays the bills and I enjoy doing.”

Let me put it this way: Premier Wine & Spirits has just eight employees, including owner Jim Foster, so everybody has to do a little of everything: put out product, deal with customers, man the cash, fill orders for bars and restaurants.

But the beer guy is supposed to scour the net on websites such as Ratebeer.com for leads. He is supposed to talk to folks and visit craft breweries where handcrafted beer is made in small batches for, mostly, local consumption.

In the interests of research, Hutchinson is supposed to — if you can really call this work — test a couple of new brewskies every day of his blessed life.

“The world of craft brewing fits my personality. It’s not mainstream, it’s a niche culture. Most of them don’t take themselves too seriously.”

Hutchinson, whose first beer was a Molson Ultra sipped at 13 on the Rock, tried St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, dropped out and then drifted around for a while.

In 2003, when Foster was opening his private outlet on Portland Street in Dartmouth, Hutchinson started as a combination cashier and stock boy.

That was when beer was a negligible part of the business. Now it makes up some 40 per cent of the store’s volume.

I am not remotely surprised. Nobody I run with seems to drink a Keith’s or a Moose anymore. They are going on about “hop bombs” and beer infused with weird stuff that arrives in bottle-sized works of art.

I tell Hutchinson that I once bought, at his shop, a bottle of Brother Thelonius beer, adorned with the image of Thelonius Monk, the off-kilter musical genius.

“The brewery makes a donation for every bottle to the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz in support of jazz education,” he says, telling me something I didn’t know. “Its pretty cool.”

So is a lot of the brew around here. The beers with the cheeky names (Trashy Blonde, Cutthroat, Brain Blasta, Wilco Tango Foxtrot, Hop Stoopid, Hopsickle, Nit-Wit).

And the suds with the backhanded marketing pitches.

(“This is an extreme beer roller-coaster for freaks, gypsies and international chess superstars” or “It is all about moderation. Everything in moderation, including moderation itself. What logically follows is that you must, from time, have excess. This beer is for those times.”)

There is beer shot through with chipotle peppers, maple sugar, pineapple, hibiscus and peppercorns, There is beer commemorating the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers. There is stuff with so much alcohol that it could blow your head off.

When I ask Hutchinson about his personal favourites, he says, “I like them all,” which I suppose is fitting for a guy with 60 to 80 different beers in the three fridges in his apartment.

Yet he is no single-track obsessive. Hutchinson’s tastes run toward punk rock, Neil Gaiman, cheesy B horror movies and high-end tequila. He is also taking enough economics and sociology courses to qualify as a full-time student at Saint Mary’s University.

But his pulse seems to quicken when he starts talking about local offerings such those made by the Hell Bay Brewing Co. in Cherry Hill, Lunenburg County, or the high-quality ales made by Scotland’s BrewDog or Delaware’s Dogfish Head.

Anyone can see that there is a different look in his eye when the subject turns to beer made at the seven Trappist monasteries in the European Low Countries.

Hutchinson leads me over by the cash register to a stack of six packs in cardboard travel cases.

“Westvleteren 12 is the rarest and hardest to attain of the beers made by the seven Trappist breweries,” he tells me. “It’s the best of the best.”

I think I sense a hint of pride in his voice. That is understandable.

The monks of the Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren, after all, put out very little of this stuff. Most of it is sold in the cafe across from the abbey.

Yet here stands Hutchinson before a pile of those exceedingly rare six-packs. Somehow, his wine boutique in far-off Halifax has managed to score 168 of them.

In the background, the Traveling Wilburys play. The beer guy is happy.

[RobD]

Vacay.ca lists the top 24 Brewpubs in Canada:
http://vacay.ca/2012/10/top-24-brewpubs ... r-is-no-1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I got to visit #'s 3, 5, 13, and 17 this summer. Both great locations.

[hogie]

Vacay.ca lists the top 24 Brewpubs in Canada:
http://vacay.ca/2012/10/top-24-brewpubs ... r-is-no-1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I got to visit #'s 3, 5, 13, and 17 this summer. Both great locations.

Nice list but I don't know what the fuck #22 is doing there!

[ryantr0n]

http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2012/09 ... onal-beer/

Shiretown Releases First Seasonal Beer

DALHOUSIE, NB – Shiretown Beer, the small brewery Dalhousie’s Artisan Cafe & Brewpub, has announced via Facebook the release of tis first seasonal beer.

Runnin’ Down the Road Amber Ale is described as being made using “locally grown wild hops.” Assuming that “wild hops” means freshly picked hops, this would make the beer one of a number of wet-hopped ales being made by breweries across the country as the annual hop harvest takes place.

Runnin’ Down The Roadis available now on tap at the Artisan and to take home in growler jugs while supplies last.

Apparently, they are using wild hops. They said the hops are growing in the wilderness (although likely were there after being cultivated in the past).

I might be able to find out about this. Derek is my GF's cousin. I'll see if I can get a growler sent down over thanksgiving for the meeting next week ^_^

[GAM]

Only been to...
3-Dieu du Ciel, Montreal, Quebec
7- Clocktower Pub, Ottawa, Ontario
14- The Pump House, Moncton, New Brunswick
15-Rogue’s Roost, Halifax, Nova Scotia
22-Alexander Keith’s, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sandy

[NASH]

That's quite the list!