Ol' Biddy's Brew House Opening in Lower Sackville

(Lower Sackville, NS) - Ol' Biddy Brew House has been quietly working toward opening a new nanobrewery in Lower Sackville Nova Scotia. Co-owner and brewer Keith Forbes is well known in the homebrewing community in the Maritimes. Although opening is a few weeks off Keith took time to answer a few questions on his operation and upcoming plans.

Ol' Biddy

Maritime Beer Report (MBR): Where are you from?
Keith Forbes (OBB): Originally I'm from Lakeview NS just outside Sackville and before Windsor Junction. My wife, Erin Delaney-Forbes, is from Lower Sackville.  

MBR: What is your brewing experience?
OBB: I started homebrewing about 7 years ago and have 5 years designing and brewing my own recipes. The experience came from a few sit in brews to get a feel for the process early on and involved a ton reading of various books. A much larger part was my involvement with Brewnosers and many friends in the industry who always provided honest quality feed back. 

MBR: What made you want to open a brewery?
OBB: Really I simply love beer. If it's brewing, helping someone through issues, chatting about what we are drinking, etc.  It's a passion and wanted to launch a brewery due to my love of beer.  I love sharing my creations and feel this is the best avenue to do so.

MBR: How big will your brewery be to start?
OBB: We will be quite small starting out at 1 BBL based out of our home and only producing 3 batches every 2 weeks to start.  The first year we don't anticipate brewing over 80 hectoliters or 8,000 liters.  Sounds like a lot but really it's a drop in the beer barrel. To put it into perspective.  We will have enough beer to serve 45 customers weekly if each bought a 12 pack (2 growlers).  

MBR: How do you plan on selling your beer?
OBB: Initially through select tap accounts, in the future we would like to offer growler fills if it's feasible. However, we will wait and see what the next month brings. 

MBR: Do you have bars lined up to sell your beer?
OBB: Working on a few but those are wide open.  Hope to hear from a few in the near future.  Have an account lined up in Lower Sackville but I'll keep that top secret for now. As a note looking for tap accounts 1 each in HRM, Cole Harbour, Dartmouth, Halifax, and Bedford.

MBR: When do you plan on opening?
OBB: ASAP haha. But hopefully before December.

MBR: What styles of beer are you planning to make?
OBB: Initial offerings will be our Funktown American Pale Ale that won a Gold medal in the Brewnosers National Competition in 2015.  Our Even Gooder Coffee Brown which has been referred to as the "Cocaine and Hookers of Beer" along with our Disco Inferno Red IPA which took peoples choice at the Big Strange Brew New Brunswick.  We also have 25 other recipes that you'll see released sporadically throughout the year as seasonals.

MBR: Anything else you would like to add?
OBB: Look forward to launching this brewery and sharing our creations with everyone.  If you see us out, feel free to chat over a pint.

Look for opening details here or follow Ol' Biddy on twitter.