Craft beer revolution

It’s a great time to be a craft beer drinker in Canada. Just this week, Halifax’s seventh microbrewery, Bridge Brewing, opened its doors. The same day in Toronto, the trendy new Bellwoods Brewery on Ossington Avenue opened its retail store. Last week, Halifax’s largest microbrewery, Propeller, announced it was consolidating operations at a new Dartmouth facility, having outstripped capacity at its digs on Gottingen Street. With all of the development in the industry, it’s hard to ignore craft beer’s impact on our drinking lives.

Craft beer is made in small batches of a few hundred (or thousand) litres, and generally adheres to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1516, meaning it contains only water, hops, and barley. Modern craft brewers have added yeast, which hadn’t been discovered in 1516, to the list of ingredients. What else do you find in mass-produced beer? Rice and corn are but two common adjuncts. The government limits micro-breweries to 15,000 hectolitres (hl), or 1.5 million litres of production per year, and brewpubs are limited to 2,000 hl. While the NSLC’s beer volume slipped 0.6 per cent last year, craft beer sales were showing impressive growth.

Craft beer’s primary advantage is in the wide variety of flavour available to the consumer. Rather than generic lagers, craft breweries put out a range of styles and flavours to appeal to any taste. As a fan of hoppy beers such as India Pale Ales, or IPA (Keith’s is not an IPA), I particularly enjoy Propeller’s IPA and Double IPA, as well as Greg Nash’s jaw-dropping and bitter concoctions at the Hart & Thistle and Rockbottom Brewpubs. In the winter, the avid beer drinker can pick up the aptly named Winter Warmer, from the Picaroon’s or Beau’s breweries, or a hefty Russian Imperial Stout such as Propeller’s Revolution. Seasonably-appropriate lager is also available in summer.

The old guard of the craft beer industry is made up of homebrewers, many of whom started brewing as a way to save money. They’re constantly pushing the boundaries of flavour, including a group of locals who purchased discarded whiskey barrels in which to condition a Russian Imperial Stout, imparting an oaky richness and hint of whiskey to the beer’s vanilla and molasses-based boldness. In Halifax, the Brewnosers are the major homebrewing club, discussing their passions at brewnosers.org and hosting regular tasting nights throughout the city. Ottawa’s Members of Barleyment play a similar role in that city.

Craft beer is now available at almost any popular drinking establishment, and can even be found in the NSLC’s agency stores in villages around the province. This Friday, instead of hitting the Grawood for Molson and Bud’s swill, head over to the Grad House or the Wardroom for a much finer tap selection, or take an adventure out to Agricola and North to experience Bridge Brewing. You won’t look back.