(Dartmouth, NS) - The exciting PEI brewer Upstreet Craft Brewing in partnership with Chef Bill Pratt, Founder and Director of the Chef Inspired Group of Restaurants, opened Upstreet BBQ Brewhouse at 612 Windmill Road. The restaurant will be a traditional Southern BBQ experience including in-house smoked meats and jackfruit as well as pub fare and of course Upstreet beers brewed in-house. So far they have brewed Upstreet's 4 flagship beers including Rhuby Social, Commons, Do Gooder, and White Noize that are available as well Major Tom Sour will be available today and Neon Friday Tropic IPA tomorrow. They have the flagships on tap, plus a few more Upstreet beers, 4 flavours of East Coast Craft Soda, and a few guest taps as well.
(Dartmouth, NS) - Upstreet Craft Brewing is coming to Dartmouth and hoping third, or is it fourth, time lucky at 612 Windmill Road. They have teamed up with Bill Pratt of Chef Inspired Group, founder of Cheese Curds: Gourmet Burgers + Poutinerie and Habaneros Modern Taco Bar to name a couple, to create Upstreet BBQ Brewhouse. The new BBQ restaurant and brewery will be opening in September and they say to expect awesome authentic BBQ with Upstreet beer brewed in-house and, of course, the Upstreet experience that they have become known for.
(Dartmouth, NS) - New Scotland Brewing opens Saturday July 14th at 91 Alderney Drive in the heart of Dartmouth Nova Scotia. Kevin and Scott Saccary, of New Scotland Clothing, as well as Mike Gillespie are the driving forces behind the new brewery. Mike will be the brewer on the 5 BBL onsite system and plans a wide range of beer styles to be available on their taps. The space will host a bar with 10-12 taps of their beer as well as other NS beer and cider producers, a retail section for merchandise as well as cans when they become available and a stage as music is very important to the owners, so expect lots of local talent there in the evening.
They will have a Kolsch, IPA, Grapefruit APA, Scottish Ale and Stout available for opening as well as a very limited small batches of Strawberry Peppercorn Mead and Blackberry Chai Mead. The will also have live music Saturday with Willy Stratton.
(Dartmouth, NS) - Lake City Cider opened its tap room, production and retail space at 35 Portland Street in the former Nieforth Furniture building. The bright clean space offers cans and bottles, a sampling bar as well and 1 litre swingtop growler purchases.
The ciders are all made from Nova Scotia apples and currently have three ciders available, District 5, Nieforth Original and Darkside Dry. District 5 is a crisp clean cider coming in at 6 % ABV and available in 473 ml cans, Nieforth Original is a semi-sweet cider and is 6.8% ABV and is in 750 ml bottles and also in a 750 ml is Darkside Dry coming in at 7.5% ABV.
Lake City joins a thriving rival of Dartmouth's downtown following many restaurants and shops. Lake City Brewing will be joined by Brightwood Brewing in the same building later this summer making a unique partnership and space.
(Dartmouth, NS) - As I mentioned back in May, Nine Locks Brewing has recently over doubled capacity by adding three 60 BBL fermentors to its current two 40 BBL and three 20 BBL tanks. The expansion also included a 60 BBL bright tank and four 10 BBL holding tanks.
The demand for beer from the brewery that opened almost five months ago required this expansion but also allowed them start brewing seasonals and one offs right away. The first seasonal will be out this Friday, look for Watermelon Blonde (5% ABV and 12 IBUs) a fun, summery ale in cans and growler fills.
(Dartmouth, NS) - The Darkside brewing community is set to grow again with partners Matthew McGrail and Ian Lawson opening Brightwood Brewery.
They will start selling tomorrow at the Alderney Landing Farmers Market and are bringing their first beer which is an American IPA called "The Big Lift". The brew weighs in at 6% ABV and 71 IBUs. You can purchase either size of their growlers for $9.00 (refundable) and $15 for 1.89l fill $9 for 750 fill. They will fill other clean growlers, clean being key.
They currently have a 1 BBL brew system with 4 - 1 BBL fermenters. They are starting with the one beer this week but will be coming out with another in the coming weeks as their production increases and expanding to the Halifax Forum Farmers Market and ultimately a few taps.
(Dartmouth, NS) - The Downeast Beer Factory (DBF) is opening in the old Brewdebakers location at 612 Windmill Road in Dartmouth. The brewery is paired with Downeast Tap and Grill, a pub that will have 16 beer taps serving the best craft beer from the area. Three of the taps will be for DBF beers that will be produced. This is new for the area that a full restaurant is on site with a brewery other than our brewpubs.
Rod Daigle will be brewmaster, who most recently was a brewer and part owner of Brimstone Brewing, Rod, a Rexton, NB native, was looking to move back to the Maritimes with his young family when this opportunity arose. He will brew on a 15 hectolitre system and will start with three ales. He shared they are a Blonde Ale, Honey Irish Red and a sessionable IPA.
The brewery's short term plans will be selling kegs, growlers on site, merchandise and perhaps some bottles from their current 4-head bottler. Longer term they hope to can their beer and reactivate the drive-thru sales that existed before.
In the short term the Tap room is planning opening around April 30th with DBF beer coming sometime in May. Watch for the details as they unfold on the blog.
(Dartmouth, NS) - Spindrift Brewing released The Abyss, a 4.2% ABV and 25 IBU Schwarzbier.
Head Brewer Kellye Robertson says "This traditional German style black lager combines a layered malt profile and balanced background of German Hersbrucker and Magnum hops. Upfront notes of toasted grains, coffee and chocolate malts leading to an elegantly smooth finish. Conditioned for 6 weeks, this unfiltered style may be big on flavour, but still sessionable enough to keep you coming back for more".
Look for it this time to be only in draft form and will be available in growlers at the brewery storefront in Burnside, and at select bars and restaurants.
Dartmouth seemed to have been left behind as across the harbour Halifax rode a craft beer wave that grew and grew. Let me first go back a dozen and a half years to get a little history.
Back in 1998 when Nova Scotia craft brewing was still quite small Maritime Beer built a very large brewing facility and restaurant on Windmill Road. Unfortunately it declared bankruptcy in 2000 and the assets eventually were purchased by Sleemans later that year. The plant operated for several years until it was shuttered in 2013 and the brewing gear sent to Collective Arts Brewing in Hamilton.
Shortly before the Maritime Beer facility was shut Propeller Brewing opened it new production facility on Windmill Road. This made them the lone craft brewer in Dartmouth until they were joined by Spindrift Brewing in Burnside in September this year with its production facility, retail store and tap room.
Earlier this month North Brewing moved its 5 BBL system to Battery Park Beer Bar, their collaboration with Brooklyn Warehouse. They also put in fifteen taps at Battery Park of which thirteen pour Nova Scotia craft beer for Dartmouthians as well as an outstanding small plate menu.
More good beer coming it 2016, Nine Locks Brewing is opening at 219 Waverley Road in Montebello with its 20 BBL facility, 6 flagship beers and a retail store in January. Harold MacKay, who was a major player in Maritime Beer, is bringing Downeast Beer Factory a production brewery with a taproom back to where he started at 612 Windmill Road.
So needless to say Dartmouth has quickly become a beer city in the Nova Scotia craft beer revolution.
