Beer in the news

[NASH]

Yes it certainly does.

Sent from the Hop-phone.

[canuck]

It 100% happens here in SJ.

[mcgster]

Does this go on around here? I'd hate to think so, but I'm not so naive to think it doesn't. Plenty of lines that are exclusively dedicated to one brewery or another. I know of only one bar that specifically, and proudly, does not have dedicated lines: Stillwell.

I worked at a few restaurants in university and two had dedicated spots but both places were small and in one instance the brewery paid for the draft setup to be installed. The owner didn't want to shell out the money for draft beer and only served bottled beer. The brewery approached them and offered to provide the setup on the condition that it was used only to serve their beer.

A few of the bigger bars trade promotional items for spaces on their taps.. i think you'll find this pretty much anywhere these days. Wine reps have been doing it for years in one way or another.

[mumblecrunch]

A few of the bigger bars trade promotional items for spaces on their taps.. i think you'll find this pretty much anywhere these days. Wine reps have been doing it for years in one way or another.

I strongly suspect that in many cases the "promotional items" of choice feature dead prime ministers on one side and the queen on the other.

Wasn't there a post in this very thread a year or so ago about it going the other way for craft beer? E.g. That enterprising bar and restaurant owners are approaching craft/micro brewers and offering tap space and "valuable exposure" if only they'll agree to sell the beer at something approaching their own manufacturing cost. The worst part was the implication that some of the more naive shops were taking the offer.

I'll try to dig it up when I'm not browsing on tapatalk.

[GAM]

I have been in bars that "bragged" that the system was free. Molsons only. I asked who pays to clean the lines, what's that was the responce.

Sandy

[Jimmy]

I have been in bars that "bragged" that the system was free. Molsons only. I asked who pays to clean the lines, what's that was the responce.

Sandy

And you promptly responded with "that's right".

[mcgster]

In NB Pumphouse does this for a lot of restaurants. I think its actually a pretty solid plan for a local brewery to do. Especially since picaroons tends to dominate "open" taps in NB. I personally prefer picaroons over pumphouse hands down but if i'm going out to eat and they are selling pumphouse on tap and thats it.. it is what i tend to get.

The benefit of this is far greater for smaller breweries, especially in their own "local" market.

[GAM]

I have been in bars that "bragged" that the system was free. Molsons only. I asked who pays to clean the lines, what's that was the responce.

Sandy

And you promptly responded with "that's right".

I'm not qualified to use that kind of language.

Sandy

[chalmers]

It would be nice if (the craft) breweries were all playing on the same even field. When one gives bribes, I think it cheapens the whole industry.

[mcgster]

It would be nice if (the craft) breweries were all playing on the same even field. When one gives bribes, I think it cheapens the whole industry.

I.E in a perfect "beer" world where beer succeeded on quality of product alone.

[chalmers]

It would be nice if (the craft) breweries were all playing on the same even field. When one gives bribes, I think it cheapens the whole industry.

I.E in a perfect "beer" world where beer succeeded on quality of product alone.

You bet! Wouldn't that be nice?

[mr x]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/opini ... -beer.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[the-mailman]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/opini ... -beer.html

Doesn't matter now that I can brew my own I don't have to go to NSLC at all, well maybe for the wife but that's all.

[mcgster]

It would be nice if (the craft) breweries were all playing on the same even field. When one gives bribes, I think it cheapens the whole industry.

I.E in a perfect "beer" world where beer succeeded on quality of product alone.

You bet! Wouldn't that be nice?

Clearly this is already happening, who isn't enjoying a clean, crisp, refreshing miller light right now?

[McGruff]

I rarely go to Ontario's LCBO.

[mr x]

Oland Brewery builds water treatment system

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

Beermaker says $13m plant launched as green initiative, energy saver

Oland Brewery of Halifax is getting a $13-million biological treatment plant.

The Agricola Street brewery, owned by Labatt Breweries of Canada, a division of Anheuser-Busch InBev, is breaking ground this weekend on a biological treatment system that will improve the quality of its waste water and reduce energy costs.

“The catalyst was we were facing a significant increase in our extra-strength waste water surcharge,” Labatt spokesman Wade Keller said in an interview Thursday.

Oland paid a $200,000 a year surcharge to Halifax Water before a 2013 rate increase and was facing a $600,000 surcharge bill in 2016, Keller said.

Even if the company paid the surcharge to the utility, its waste water would only get the primary treatment Halifax Water provides and not the secondary treatment the brewery’s waste water requires, he said.

“We’d be paying the fee but not improving the environment. This project will improve the quality of our effluent flowing into the city system.”

The company considered several options, including trucking its waste water elsewhere, before deciding to invest in its own treatment system, Keller said.

“We only had one option — build the treatment plant or not operate.”

Oland isn’t building the treatment system to save money, noting it would take 21 years, at an annual surcharge payment of $600,000, to cover the costs of building it, he said.

“It’s doing the right thing and improving the quality of our waste water,” he said.

Keller called the investment an endorsement of one of Labatt’s smaller breweries and its staff.

The treatment system contract was awarded to ADI Systems Inc. of New Brunswick after a competitive process that attracted attention from around the world.

“ADI Systems Inc., an ADI Group Inc. company, has been offering waste-water treatment, anaerobic digestion, and biogas treatment solutions to industrial customers for over 30 years,” Scott Christian, ADI’s vice-president of business development, said in a news release.

“We are proud to have been chosen to design and build this project.”

Stantec Consulting of Dartmouth is providing project development approval, environmental permitting and engineering support.

Work will begin on the weekend with the removal of the brewery’s security building to a lot across the street.

Keller said the treatment system will include a new brick building that will be integral with the main brewery building and will have four new storage tanks, one 20 metres tall.

The project is expected to take just over a year to complete, with testing to begin in late 2015.

The brewery, a north-end fixture since 1905, employs 160 workers who produce 15 different brands, including Alexander Keith’s, Budweiser, Bud Light, Labatt Blue and Oland Export.

Keller said the brewery recently began producing Rolling Rock lager and is in the process of making Michelob Ultra.

[LeafMan66_67]

Interesting. Figured that the migration of the production of Keith's brand to other locations across Canada spelled the end for the Agricola Street location. Nice to see a bit more construction investment.

[mr x]

I think old Alexander is the saving grace for Agricola.

[mr x]

The alchemy of beer

http://www.ngnews.ca/Opinion/Columnists ... -of-beer/1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Liam McKenna, the brewmaster, is a morning person – a very early morning person.

There’s almost no one on the streets in downtown St. John’s, only seagulls pecking away at discarded pizza crusts. It’s the other side of the bar clock, and the other side of the production cycle, making the beer that’s drunk in the evenings and nights.

At Yellowbelly Brewery, coming in the back door, the only other person in the building is a cleaner. Good mornings all around, and “where’s the coffee?”

The first order of business is lugging eight 25 kilogram bags – six of grain and two of malted barley – to the giant copper kettle and dumping them in, ready to mix with hot water and make mash.

Today’s beer? Wexford Wheat. The mash smells sweet, richer than a hot cereal like oatmeal. It’s got an hour to cook, but there’s plenty to be done: paperwork to be followed up on, preparations to put a fermenter-full of stout into kegs in the brewery’s basement.

There are a legion of vastly different-sized players in the craft beer market now, names well familiar to those who like to experiment with new flavours of beer: there’s Rogue’s Roost, Propeller and Garrison in Nova Scotia; Celtic Knot, Pump House and Big Tide in New Brunswick; Big Spruce in Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island Brewery and Gahan House in P.E.I., Newfoundland’s Storm Brewing – and that’s only a drop in the beer barrel of new and successful small producers.

There’s also a broad range of experience and investment.

Yellowbelly’s tuns and fermenters were originally a million-dollar investment – at least they were when 20 of the systems were built for a series of small breweries in Japan in 1997. The Yellowbelly system was sold to a Portland winery after the original business failed in Japan, and the equipment ended up at a winery in Portland – where it was warehoused until Yellowbelly found it.

And McKenna’s well experienced – more than 20 years as a brewmaster in North America, Europe and the tough beer market of Dublin – and more than a little particular. He points out, repeatedly, that it’s not only a matter of making a good beer, it’s being able to make the same quality beer, to the same standard, consistently.

Other brewers might not be in the same league with equipment and experience, but that doesn’t mean the work is easy for anyone, by any means. If you think it’s just a matter of plunking some wort in a fermenter and waiting for the dollars to come rolling in, you have lots to learn. (Wort, by the way, is the sugar-heavy liquid that drains from steeped mash, and will later ferment into beer.)

It’s hot, heavy and even dangerous work. Shovelling out the spent mash after the wort’s drained out of it and the mash has been sparged (sparging is running water through the remaining mash to essentially extract more wort) is exhausting, as is the constant cleaning and sterilization of equipment. There are kegs to be hauled and filled, samples to be measured for alcohol levels and specific gravities and, along with all that, the heat and noisy of the brew floor itself.

McKenna says his doctor has told him that he has the heart rate of a marathon runner – and that, for his own health, he has to take some time off to escape the stress. After this Wexford Wheat is done, he’ll have four whole days off.

It’s a full day just to get the beer to the fermenter, when the yeast gets to work. I’m tired after a single day; McKenna makes a full 1,000-litre batch of beer four times a week.

It’s exhausting work, but remarkably exhilarating.



Next column: Part 2 – the pitfalls of small brewing.



Russell Wangersky is TC Media’s Atlantic Regional columnist. He can be reached at russell.wangersky@tc.tc; his column appears on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in TC Media’s daily papers. Join Russell in discussion on http://www.ngnews.ca" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Oct. 31 at noon (Atlantic Time) and 12:30 p.m. (NL) time.

[mr x]

http://t.thestar.com/#/article/news/que ... _cohn.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[McGruff]

mr x, Just read the column and comments on the Star atricle. They should all start to homebrew and let the gov't know and especially the Beer Store owners. I did long ago but of course didn't get a reply. I like reading Mr. Cohn's articles bashing the Gov't and those bastards called the Beer Store.

Thanks, McGruff

[mr x]

Monopolies: They’re not just for beer anymore

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-de ... e21203894/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is on to something. She says she is prepared to shake down the Beer Store in exchange for maintaining the government-enforced monopoly it enjoys on most beer sales. The idea comes from Ed Clark, the CEO of TD Bank. He led a panel that looked, on Ms. Wynne’s behalf, at ways to squeeze money out of government assets. The Beer Store isn’t a government asset – it’s a private, provincially legislated cartel, owned by three foreign multinationals. Which is worse. But anyway, “We’re saying to the Beer Store: You’re not getting this monopoly for free,” said Mr. Clark, and Ms. Wynne said she is “absolutely willing” to take a look at ideas like charging the Beer Store a franchise fee or raising beer taxes – costs the Beer Store would somehow not be allowed to pass on to customers. “End the monopoly” has somehow morphed into “milk it.”

We thought free market competition and consumer choice were the way to go. But maybe we’ve got it all wrong. And if so, why stop at The Beer Store? Why not offer the same deal to other companies that wouldn’t mind cornering their markets? How much would you pay for a monopoly in your line of business? Think of the opportunities.

Take fast food. Ms. Wynne could auction off the sole right to sell burgers, tacos and pizza in Ontario to the highest bidder, and then ban all competition with legislation. That has to be worth at least $1-billion annually to somebody. Maybe more. And just think of the benefits to public safety. The Beer Store says its monopoly keeps costs down and prevents minors from buying beer and harming themselves under its influence. The Fast Food Store could accomplish as much social good, surely, by being given a monopoly on the warehousing, distribution and sale of all of the province’s quick service meals, which could be delivered through a hole in the wall on rollers – just like at The Beer Store.

Behold the future: The Beer Store. The Fast Food Store. Lattes and espressos only available at The Coffee Store. Shoes on sale at only one retailer: The Shoe Store. You get the idea. Each would be a monopoly granted to the highest bidder, with the freedom to operate untroubled by the forces of the market, in exchange for the payment of billions of dollars to the government.

Alternatively, Ontario could end The Beer Store’s monopoly. But that’s crazy talk.

[mr x]

Local brewery and community builds trebuchet for pumpkin launch

http://www.ngnews.ca/News/Local/2014-10 ... n-launch/1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

LYONS BROOK - Karl and Patrick Whiffen grasp the rope, ready to send a pumpkin flying through the air and into the field behind Uncle Leo’s Brewery.

Rebecca Whiffen and staff stand by, recording the first test run of a newly finished trebuchet, a type of catapult that uses weight rather than spring action, that they built for the first annual Big Spruce Brewing pumpkin launch.

“It’s been a neighbourhood initiative, a West Pictou initiative. People are so willing to help here,” Rebecca said.

When the Lyons Brook brewery owners and staff haven’t been making and bottling beer in the past two weeks, they’ve been readying for the competition in Port Hawkesbury this weekend that will see breweries and others launch pumpkins into the Canso Strait, enlisting help from locals Benoit Claveau, Colin Russell, Trevor Tracey, and George and Liv MacLellan.

Lyons Brook Piping and Welding was happy to help, too, donating materials as well as the use of their trailer for the transportation.

“It’s been a fun, group effort,” Rebecca said, adding that they had been challenged by Big Spruce and were more than willing to join the list of competitors.

“When Jeremy (White, owner of Big Spruce,) asked us, Karl’s eyes lit up. (I said,) ‘You’re going to do that, aren’t you?’”

Indeed, they have, and even received a donation of pumpkins from Bob Parker.

“I hope it works,” Karl laughs as they prepared to try it out on Wednesday.

Karl and his son, Patrick, count to five and pull the rope away, sending the wooden arm and pumpkin into the air, only for it to remain in its rope basket and break open on the bottom of the structure – not the big send-off for which they hoped.

Alas, the first try wasn’t the last. A second send-off sent the taped-up pumpkin into their field, proving their work hadn’t been in vain.

They’ll continue to perfect it, in it for the win.

[mr x]

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

Nova Scotians like their booze and they like it local.

Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation profits totalled $69 million and sales totalled $169 million in the second quarter.

Profits are up 3.2 per cent over the same quarter last year, NSLC said in a news release issued Wednesday.

Local product sales continue to rise:

Local wine is up 9.4 per cent ($3.5 million);
Craft beer up 28.9 per cent ($1.5 million);
Cider up 62.8 per cent ($400,000);
Spirits are up 0.9 per cent ($300,000).

[Jimmy]

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1 ... s-add-fizz

Nova Scotians like their booze and they like it local.

Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation profits totalled $69 million and sales totalled $169 million in the second quarter.

Profits are up 3.2 per cent over the same quarter last year, NSLC said in a news release issued Wednesday.

Local product sales continue to rise:

Local wine is up 9.4 per cent ($3.5 million);
Craft beer up 28.9 per cent ($1.5 million);
Cider up 62.8 per cent ($400,000);
Spirits are up 0.9 per cent ($300,000).

Just imagine if they had a good beer selection!

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