Kevin Keefe started his small brewery in Ginger's Tavern on Barrington Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1985. He later took over the historic Henry House further up the street to open one of the first brewpubs in Canada, if not North America in 1987. With his focus on British and European ales he fell in love with while training in England as a brewer, his beers brought something unique to Halifax, the land of Alexander Keith and Moosehead and Oland's Export. His work was exemplary - my British professor at Saint Mary's often said his Best Bitter was better than the bitters he grew up with, and his Olde Peculier scored only 2 points behind Theakston's legendary Old Peculiar, which he modelled his own after.

In trying to reopen his old Ginger's in the 90s, he ran into city bylaws that forbid brewing in one location and shipping to another without being a full fledged brewery, which his capacity was smaller than. He fought, and won against the city, but the court bills were more than he could afford as two other craft breweries - Propeller and Garrison - were now taking away some of his profits. So he sold his Henry House brewpub and closed Gingers, and had to set up shop out of the downtown core, and focus on selling growler fills. The market had kind of passed him by, as he was focused on the beers he knew and liked, and he didn't like the super hoppy and crazy beers the industry was gravitating towards.

Eventually, he was forced out of even that location, being given cheap brewing space inside the old brewing location of Propeller, his first competitor. Keefe, now 70, has decided to hang them up. The isolation/quarantine has robbed him of his entire business - growler fills and selling to bars, since he never got into bottling/canning.

This is a sad day. His peculiar was an absolute mind blower when I found in in the early 90s - dark, malty, slightly sweet and intensely quaffable. I downed my first pint in about 20 seconds and instantly wanted more. It was my first non-macro brew, and I was instantly hooked and never looked back. Very sad. He was a legend. The Toronto location his brother opened will still be open, but Kevin himself is heading to a long retirement.

He was a pioneer. Very few people in North America were doing what he was doing in 85. And in tiny Halifax, he was far from the centres of other small brewers, so he certainly wasn't copying or piggy backing.

Pour one out for one of the originals, even if you never heard of him. Kevin opened minds in Halifax, paving the way for Halifax and Nova Scotia to be a real big player in craft brewing to this day, despite our small size and distant location. Halifax has a fantastic craft scene - one of the best in Canada - thanks to Kevin laying the groundwork and fighting the early battles so others didn't have to.

Had my first ever beers from Off-Track delivered, because their requirements for delivery were the lowest of the ones I saw (two four packs of bottles). Solid and drinkable, but nothing outstanding.

Got two deliveries from Good Robot - cans of Diablo, and grunters of Scottish Ale, Bahamian Lager, Kentucky Common and the Cranberry Sour. All really good. Sadly they mixed up my Bahamian with a Tom Waits, and while good it wasn't what I was after.

Then got a big delivery from Propeller. They don't really have anything new available, but got some Rye, ESB, Pils, and Stone Fruit. Stone Fruit remains my crushable favorite. Damn I can pound that back.

I'm sad Garrison ran out of Lemondrop just when this all hit or I'd be getting that delivered like nuts.

Also got some cocktails from Middle Spoon. They were really good.

Hello everyone,

Brewing my second ever West Coast IPA from Festa Brew and I decided to introduce some frozen mango after 8 days of primary fermentation, with the ambition on making something close to Mango IPA, but didn't think to use a cheese cloth...so now there are a billion little bits of floating mango pieces and I've just bottled them all. I'm worrying that the Mango bits might spoil the beer while carbonating in the bottles, am I overthinking this?

Thanks!

Style or specific brew.

After this year's Advent Calendar (which, by the way KILLED IT - last two have been stellar after many years of "meh"), I am obsessed - and I mean that - with Garrison Lemondrop Sour. Never had it before, and other than Good Robot's Goseface Killah, I haven't been a fan of sour beers. This one totally surprised me and was exactly the beer I didn't know I needed in my life. Everytime I go to Westside, it's hard not to get just nothing but this beer.

Another is GR's El Espinoza Del Diablo, their Mexican lager. Holy cow, this beer hits everything I want right now - crispness, clean, crushability, sessionable. I've been drifting away from super hoppy beers, and high alcohol malt bombs. Now I want hops carefully considered and chosen to accentuate the brew, not just a bunch of hops crammed in the bottle. I've enjoyed high alcohol Imperial whatevers since Propeller first released Revolution, but I'm drifting away from it now.

Recently, I find I'm more picky about what I buy - though I always have a "oooh, that's new, never tried that" problem - but what I do buy, I get several of. I'm also going back and deliberately drinking the beers that got me into this whole scene in the first place - Propeller ESB and Porter, Garrison Nut Brown and Irish Red, and Granite Peculier. They all still remain classics.

Today is the 1st Annual Canadian Beer Day, as announced by Beer Canada. I hope everyone gets out to a local brewery/pub and hoists a pint or two of their favourite. local, craft beer!

https://seaportbeerfest.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HSB_BeerCiderList_2019.pdf

Looking forward to the Maine Beer Box pouring, as I won’t get down to Maine this summer.

Drop by the Brewnosers table for some Niche from Fredericton (all sessions), Big Spruce Tim’s IPA (poured by Tim himself!) Friday and Saturday evenings, and Tata Crack of Dawn Breakfast Porter (poured by me because I assisted with recipe and brewing) Saturday afternoon.

Beers ahead or after? Lemme know!

Does anyone grow their own hops? Curious to see what people have tried planting, and how it worked out.

Last year I planted fuggles and kent goldings outside, and willamette inside. The fuggles grew fantastically. The goldings got demolished overnight by aphids(I think). The willamette grew great for a month and then just stopped. Nothing would get it to grow again. When I dumped the pot at the end of the season, i found the entire root structure had disappeared. I presume some kind of insect ate it, but I didn't notice anything.

What have you tried?

Many new/unique beers, not just seemingly a "box up stuff from our shelves" thing.

Not every beer was a winner for me (Roof Hound's "Chocolate banana bread hef" was a "pour most down the drain, and their "egg n rum Golden Stout" was not great) but I give them credit and enjoyed trying new and different things. Now the wait for Garrison to make more Spruce Beer.

I hope you are all enjoying a glass of what is my favourite style of beer today my friends!

Cheers!

Hello!

As mentioned before I'm the Beer Geek at Picaroons and part of what I do is order in beer from all the other amazing craft breweries in New Brunswick. I'm aiming to get 99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall (well actually in our fridges) by the NB Day Long weekend and I'm well on my way to doing just that!

If you're looking for NB Craft beers check out our Picaroons locations as we have beer from Big Axe, Bogtrotter, Brasseux d'la Cote, Four Rivers, Flying Boats, Grimross, Hammond River, Long Bay, Loyalist City, Maybee, Petit Sault and Think Brewing! We have new beers coming out every week! And of course we have any/all of the Picaroons' beers you'd like to try!

Cheers!
Marc