Big Spruce Brewing produces 100% Nova Scotia Beer

(Nyanza, NS) - Big Spruce Brewing is producing its 100% Nova Scotia ingredient beer, One Hundred. This year partnering with Horton Ridge Grain & Malt Company to produce a one-off, canned batch of their beer that features their wild proprietary yeast that they cultivated from a pin cherry near the brewery, organic hops grown on their own farm at Big Spruce, and organic barley and rye grown in the Valley at Horton Ridge and also malted there.

photo from Big Spruce Brewing

One Hundred and will be hosting the launch of this new limited-release beer this week. On Thursday November 16 there will be an all day tap takeover at Westside Beer Wine Spirits in Halifax with a free tasting of One Hundred from 5 PM to 7 PM. On Saturday the 18th there is a tap takeover and official launch at Horton Ridge Grain & Malt Company from 3 PM to 6 PM with live music and Rustic Crust Food Truck at 4 PM. 
The special cans will land in nine select NSLC stores the week of November 20th. Look for the beer at Quinpool Road, Bayers Lake, Tantallon, Sydney River, Sydney Prince Street, Forest Hills, Bridgewater, New Minas and  The Port By The NSLC. 

Horton Ridge Collaborates on New Beer

(Hortonville, NS) - Horton Ridge Malt and Grain brewed a collaborative beer with "The Godfather of Valley Brewing" Randy Lawerence of Sea Level Brewing. The beer is a Marzen and will be their Oktoberfest 2017 special. It is created made with their Pilsner and Vienna malts from Hortonville, locally grown Hallertau hops mashed in with grist and Hallertauer & Maderina Bavaria added during boil with a Nottingham yeast. The 4.8% ABU ale will be released on October 21st at Horton Ridge's Oktoberfest as well as at Sea Level's retail as Hoptoberfest.

Big Spruce to release Special Edition One Hundred Ale

(Nyanza, NS) - Big Spruce Brewing "conspired" with Horton Ridge Malt & Grain Co to produce a special edition canned batch of their 100% Nova Scotia ingredient beer, One Hundred Cape Breton Wild Ale . This beer will feature Big Spruce's wild proprietary yeast, their organic hops and organic barley and rye grown in the Annapolis Valley at Horton Ridge. The beer will be available toward the end of October when more details will be released. 

Horton Ridge Malt and Grain launches new brewery and taproom

Horton Ridge Malt and Grain launched their new brewery and taproom on June 1st. The 1 BBL brewery and taproom are in the maltery on Ridge Road just off exit 10 on highway 101 and will sport six taps. Three taps will be their own beers that will rotate with Big Spruce Brewing and Tatamagouche Brewing each having a permanent tap and the last one being breweries that use Horton Ridge's malt.
Atlantic Canada's only Malt House opened in April 2016 producing organic floor malt and see the tap room as a venue to showcase its malt an the breweries who use it. The venue has a fantastic view overlooking the farmland.
The hours of operation are 11 AM to 8 PM seven days a week for pints and growler fills in 1 litre swingtops. 
The Grand Opening is slated for Saturday June 24th from 11 AM - 10 PM and will include music, food, washer toss, mega jenga, tours and beer!

Horton Ridge is opening a Brewery

(Hortonville, Nova Scotia) - Horton Ridge Malt and Grain Company announced they are planning to open a small brewery at their malt house on Ridge Road. 
Owner Alan Stewart says there are two main reasons behind opening a brewery. He says "We have a gorgeous building located in a prime location, hence we will attract a lot of visitors.  Most folks are not familiar with malt, so a retail experience centered on malt alone will require a lot of explanation as to what malt is.  Folks know beer, so a retail experience with beer is more interesting, and will make the malt explanation that much easier.  Our main goal is to educate visitors on the important role that malt plays in beer production, and on the potential of the agricultural aspect of malt production." 
Mr. Stewart says the other reason is "We should be the first to know how our malt behaves in the mash tun, to provide useful info to our brewery customers. We also want to build beers around our malts with malt-forward offerings".
The plans are to only sell their beer from their facility not selling kegs offsite and competing with their malt customers. In addition to their own beer on tap they will showcase guest beer made from their malt. Mr. Stewart is no stranger to the farmers market and may use it as a wintertime venue for them to sell growlers.  Their brewer is a local home brewer who has been working with their malts from the very beginning of their malting days. 
At the moment they have plans to install a 1 BBL system, hoping that this will be large enough given that they will be only selling their beers onsite and to be in operation by July 1st 2017.