Drink like a Nova Scotian

Brewers Use Local Hops, Malt, and Yeast to Craft Atlantic Ales

Drink local is a refrain familiar to beer fans far and wide, motivating many to travel to the source to try a favorite ale or lager. But what does it mean to drink local beer when the grains and hops come from thousands of miles away? As beer businesses proliferated over the last decade, forward-thinking producers throughout North America began incorporating a taste of place into their recipes as they sought ways to stand out. Today, a number of Nova Scotian brewers are making creative beers with native ingredients, such as wild yeast from Cape Breton Island and malted barley from the Annapolis Valley. So for flavors as distinct as the secret sauce on your favorite donair, seek out these breweries in the Bluenoser province.

Nearly an hour north of Halifax, on 186 acres of land, the Bailey family runs Meander River Farm & Brewery (906 Woodville Road, Ashdale) out of a red-roofed barn that overlooks fields of hops and lavender. The peaceful farm is populated by pigs, chickens, turkeys, and a pair of friendly Labrador retrievers, and visitors can hike to a waterfall, tour the brewery, or even help with farm work. Meander River’s small brewhouse and rural location keep production levels low, although a membership program modeled after community supported agriculture has helped the brewery thrive.

“Having a local focus still sets us apart from the others who are focused on quantity over quality,” says sales and marketing manager Campbell Bailey. “Consumers love to see the people behind the beer experience, [and] in most cases it’s an experience they’ve never had at another brewery.”

That local focus comes across in many of Bailey’s beers, from Ashdale Honey Brown Ale, which features honey collected from the farm’s hives, to Surf and Turf Scotch Ale, made with smoky peated malt and seaweed from the Bay of Fundy. And with Homegrown, the family has a liquid expression of its almost three-acre hopyard. Homegrown is a fresh-hop beer, meaning the fragrant oily cones are used within 24 hours of the harvest. “Our brews tell a story and they promote many other small businesses in our community through those stories,” says Bailey. “We are also Nova Scotians. Our roots are so important to us and who we are, where we came from. Why wouldn’t we want that to reflect in our passion?”

Half an hour away, near the Grand-Pré National Historic Site, Alan Stewart has created the province’s singular Horton Ridge Malt & Grain (2504 Ridge Road, Wolfville). Here, just east of the fertile Annapolis Valley, Stewart has run Nova Scotia’s oldest certified organic farm for more than three decades. Five years ago, he saw an opportunity to diversify his fruit- and vegetable-growing business by building a malt house and creating a local market for barley. Over time, Horton Ridge began steeping, germinating, and drying other grains such as rye and wheat, and in the summer of 2017, Stewart added a small brewhouse.

Each house beer on draft in the cheery taproom champions malt character, from the silky and spicy complexity of the malted rye in Rye’s Up Pale Ale, to the rich and roasty notes that chocolate malt contributes to Bar Dog Stout. But the one beer that captures the essence of Horton Ridge’s Raked. The intriguing ale is made with barley that hasn’t been kilned or dried, a product commonly called green malt.

“It started as a joke,” says head brewer Stephen Mastroianni, explaining that the idea arose out of a conversation about making a green beer for St. Patrick’s Day. The funny thing about Raked is how well the notes of cut grass and fresh cucumber in the green malt marry with the citrus and tropical fruit character provided by Citra, Mosaic, and Cascade hops. Mastroianni says it’s a challenging beer to make, due to the fact that it takes longer to extract fermentable sugars from unkilned malt. Yet the resulting beverage is easy to drink with a slight haze and a moderate 5.5 percent alcohol by volume. Each pint will deepen your appreciation for local beer.

Across the province on the south shore, another small producer is pushing the boundaries of brewing by experimenting with beer’s third main ingredient: yeast. Dan Tanner launched the “traditionally different” Tanner & Co. Brewing (50 Angus Hiltz Road, Chester Basin) out of his garage in 2017 after spending close to five years on recipe development. The sommelier-trained, former food and beverage manager originally wanted to start a small winery, going so far as to plant a vineyard in his front yard. Nova Scotia’s fog and frequent periods of heavy precipitation had other plans, leading him to choose a beverage that takes weeks, not years to produce. Instead of forsaking grapes, Tanner has released numerous hybrids that bridge the gap between wine and beer, including fermenting a Belgian-style saison on Riesling and Voignier grape skins.

He has also introduced a beer called Sauvage with terroir as its raison d’être. The proudly Nova Scotian ale is made with malt from Horton Ridge and fermented with wild yeast isolated from a pin cherry tree on Cape Breton Island. Brilliant gold with aromas of honey, sage, and sourdough bread, with a touch of pepperiness on the palate and a semi-sweet, lemony finish, it would fit right in at a seafood boil or a summer picnic. Such yeasts are a “true expression of our terroir,” Tanner says. “We see huge potential in the local yeast we use for our Sauvage and are excited to play with it.”

Beers such as Homegrown, Raked, and Sauvage represent a fraction of Nova Scotia’s burgeoning brewing output, but ales with authentically provincial roots have as much growth potential as the region’s hops and grains. For brewers like Tanner, that’s exactly the kind of future they’re working to build.

“Sourcing local is getting easier by the year,” he says. “Horton [Ridge] is adding more malt styles, more local hops are popping up, and others are working to find local yeast strains. Our long-term goal is to incorporate as [many] local ingredients as possible.”

About our guest writer:
Ben Keene writes about travel, craft beer, music, and outdoor recreation for a variety of publications including TimeOut New York, DRAFT magazine, World Hum, Transitions Abroad, Wend, Edible East End, and Rails to Trails. Formerly a touring musician and an atlas editor, he has appeared on National Public Radio, Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio, as well as other nationally syndicated programs to discuss geographic literacy. Currently living in Brooklyn, NY, Ben visited Nova Scotia in 2019, with his visit targeting on creating content on our ever-expanding brewery scene.