Halifax Brewing Coop

[NASH]

Forgive me, but a couple of those statistics snuck in there incorrectly... the 4.7/4.9 percent growth figures were for beer's overall growth those years and not for the craft beer segment. Everything else looks correct, though.

These figures are sourced from NSLC annual reports and from information the NSLC has given us.

As for quality of commercial beer vs craft beer I would say that's a judgement call that everyone has to make depending on their tastes or beliefs. If you're asking for a defense of the statement that commercial beer is perceived to be inferior in quality to craft beer then I could site many sources or reasons. Craft brewers not using high gravity brewing, also not using disproportionate amounts of adjuncts, commercial beers being perceived by many as bland, etc.

Did the NSLC send you hard copies of the broken down craft beer sales growth numbers?

Product quality from craft breweries will never be anywhere close to the big boys that spend hundreds of thousands of $$$ on QA and QC, they do everything in their power to ensure it meets guidelines for consistency, flavour, stability and shelf life. Big brewers are known to have some of the highest quality standards of any businesses on the globe, the use of adjuncts or high gravity brewing techniques have nothing to do with it, it's a different type of beer. That's something craft brewers just don't have resources for, batch to batch comparisons are different more often than not and stability / shelf life can be compromised on a fairly frequent basis. The point is, quality and flavour are two different things. I don't like mass produced beer any more than most people on this forum, in fact I quite dislike most of it but as a craft brewer I only wish I could have their quality assurance and control. BTW, more craft brewers than not also high gravity brew to a certain extent. There is a known ceiling on high gravity brewing and the big boys do not exceed it, it will throw compound levels out of whack thereby not meeting their rigid standards.

[HBC]

You're right about the difference between flavour and quality. I shouldn't be too harsh on macro American-style beer because, in all fairness, they're technically as much a beer as any other styles.

And yes, quality control and consistency is famous in macro-brewed beers. Being able to brew the same beer country to country despite differences in local conditions is impressive and noteworthy.

As for high gravity brewing and other techniques of brewing there are always exceptions to the rule, and I'm personally not against high gravity brewing as a technique, but I was painting with a wide brush of generalizations commonly used against big breweries and what defines their "quality" as compared to what most would consider "quality" (in terms of what defines most Craft Brewing practices vs macro brewing) based on methods and ingredients.

In regards to the craft figures from the NSLC we were told that anything too specific to the breakdown of craft numbers of beer from the Halifax area would be too revealing to the individual breweries since we have so few in the area and as private companies they have a right to privacy. We've requested other break downs of the figures from the NSLC, including breakdown by lager/ale, country or province of origin, etc, and hopefully those numbers are forthcoming.

[thirdeye]

Starting a co-op is a great idea! It's the next great trend in brewing, basically a more transparent u-brew with the option of going big if the branding is right.

[Jayme]

3 days left any only 250 bones! Looks like a no-go.

[mr x]

Strange brew from OddBottle

http://www.thecoast.ca/Shoptalk/archive ... -oddbottle" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"I don't want to underplay the importance of soda pop," says Alex Hagen of OddBottle Craft Sodas. A longtime home-brewer, his biz plan was a spin-off of another idea, for beer brewery. "I don't want it to seem like a second-love to beer. Soda has more than eclipsed brewing of beer for me."

Putting beer gear to good use, OddBottle’s evolved into a sweet line of soda pops, sold first at the former Sad Rad and now made right inside Plan B (2180 Gottingen Street, 406-1254)—in a slightly less glamourous "Willy-Wonka style work area"—and sold from its C Cafe (or directly from Hagen, for drinking or re-sale purposes).

"I suppose the desire to turn it into a business stems from my overall desire to get into the brewing world," he says. "Where that desire came from, I'm not sure, honestly. An obsessive love with all things that ferment, I think, and a want to surround myself with that organic activity."

A one-man pop-army, Hagen uses all recycled bottles (read: be a buddy and return your bottles to Plan B after pounding 'em back) and packaging, bottles by hand and makes efforts to use all-natural ingredients in creating his flavours like cinnamon, banana, lime, cherry.

A single pop's sold for $2.50, or you can opt for a six-pack. And take it from us, they taste like more.