SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
NOVEMBER 2017
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2017
To say I was like a kid in Santa’s shop would be pretty accurate. To say I was like a kid on Christmas Eve would be quite spot-on, too. I remember, one year ago, taking notes and keeping an eye on my voice recorder. I remember Andy had the kind of handle on the interview questions I’d sent him the week before that I didn’t have to interject even once. But what I remember most was anticipating the tour. In an earlier email exchange, Andy promised me the complete tour experience at the Spindrift Brewery in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and I knew that meant two things: big steel tanks and beer. I was sold. Last year when Andy Armstrong, the co-owner and managing partner of the Spindrift Brewing Company, led me up steep steel stairs and onto the platform where Brewmaster Kellye Robertson brews one of Nova Scotia’s premier craft beer lines, I’ll never forget looking through the open hatches of two newly cleaned 80-barell fermenters and thinking about all the Christmas cheer that all that freshly canned craft lager would be a part of. If you were on the giving or receiving end – or both –of any of that Christmas cheer last year and you’re looking to toss the same fuel on the old Yule log this holiday season, I’ve got good news for you, or rather, Andy does: “We’ve doubled the brewery; it’s really grown from a year ago. We brewed about 1900 hectolitres last year and we’re on pace to brew about 3400 hectolitres this year. We’re adding two more 80-barell fermenters and an 80-barrel brite tank to the brewery here and that’s part of our second expansion that we’ve gone through in as many years. There’s a huge investment going forward here in Burnside. We’ve invested in our people and we’ve invested in the brand. We’re aiming to continue to stay ahead of the beer and, most importantly, keep the NSLC [Nova Scotia Liquor Commission] in-stock. We’re also looking to get into New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island and we’re hoping to further entrench ourselves in Newfoundland through this expansion.”
By David MacDonald F or a brewery whose laissez- faire motto is It quid quid est! (Whatever it is, it is!), they sure do love adding onto what it is. This most recent expansion is slated to wrap-up in January 2018; Andy is in the process of growing his full-time staff; and for all you thirsty readers in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland the widely popular summertime one-off beer Killick will soon officially join Spindrift’s lineup of core beers. “We’re afforded so many skews with the NSLC and we play around with them,” Andy said. “That brand [Killick] was born about a year ago and it’s only recently hit the shelves – and it’s quickly become our number one selling beer. It is a great beer.” Killick is a great beer. In fact, I can attest to everything in the profile at Spindriftbrewing.com. It is subtly hopped. It does showcase delicate citrus nuances. And it is sessionable. For you beer Cicerones out there, Killick is a light blonde German-style Munich Helles lager made from 100 percent German Heidelberg Malt and Herkules and Huell Melon hop varieties. “Killick is a brand anyone can enjoy quite confidently,” Andy explained. “It’s a session beer, meaning anyone can have more than one – and it’s meant to be enjoyed cold. You don’t get beered-out on Killick; your taste buds don’t get massacred.”
Like the brand itself – a spindrift occurs when a wave crashes
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NOVEMBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
and mist falls off its backend – the newest beer on-tap at the brewery on Frazee Drive in the Burnside Industrial Park and in 355mL can six-packs at NSLC stores across Canada’s Ocean Playground finds its name on the waves – and beneath them. “There’s a dual-meaning to the name Killick,” Andy explained. “A killick is an old wooden anchor that’s filled with rocks. It’s another nautical theme that dovetails very well with who we are. Second, Killick is also a rank in the navy: it’s a nickname for a Leading Seaman. That one honestly fell onto our laps; we had no idea. Forty percent of a ship’s company are, in fact, Killicks. It’s resonated very well with our folks in the navy here, which has played a part in its success.” If you’re seeing a Killick can for the first time and you’re familiar with the history of Canadian Confederation, there’s likely something about the green, white and pink buoy that has your mind atwitter.
“The buoy on the Killick can, that is the Republic of Newfound- land flag. If you look at their pre- Confederation flag, that is their colours. It’s really resonated. The people of Newfoundland grav- itate to that flag and not just in Newfoundland but here in Nova Scotia as well. We get comments on those colours all the time.” “Our principle owner, Andrew Bell, lives in St. John’s, Newfound- land,” Andy continued, “and he very much wanted a beer that
“The buoy on the Killick can, that is the Republic of Newfoundland flag. If you look at their pre- Confederation flag, that is their colours.”
portrayed his homeland. We graciously allowed that to happen,” he laughed.
to the category – there’s always something to experience for the first time. It’s about association. If they’re liking the category, they’re going to experiment within the category. It’s about getting them there to the NSLC. Killick is a beer designed for that effort. We made that beer for all those people who want to support the local initiative but maybe are a little hesitant because they’ve heard all the talk about hops and they’re not familiar with them.” If you currently associate hoppiness with bitterness, you’re not alone. But you should know that they are not the same thing. Hops and malts, quite simply, are all about flavour. If you’re concerned with a beer’s bitterness, look to the IBUs (International Bitterness Units). Guinness – an Irish Stout beer – is 40 IBUs. Your typical English and Ameri- can-style India Pale Ales (IPAs) fall between 40 and 70 IBUs. An Imperial IPA can be as high as 120 IBUs. Forty IBUs is as bitter as it gets at Spindrift. The German-style Festbier Coastal Lager is 30 IBUs. The Bavarian-style Pilsner Knotty Buoy is 20 IBUs. The traditional German-style black lager Abyss is 25 IBUs. Spindrift’s only IPA, Riptide, is 40 IBUs on the buttons and Killick, a Munich Helles, is at the low-end of its category at just 16 IBUs. You could say that Kellye isn’t a bitter brewer. “We’ve also done some pretty interesting seasonal brews this year that speak to our attention to flavour and session- ability,” Andy said. “In the spring we did a Blueberry Chai
“Andrew’s father operated a brewery for many years in Newfoundland, so he has lineage in the brewing world.”
Andy’s respect for the craft brewing world knows no bounds. In fact, to say that he’s a practicing pragmatist might be undercutting it. “The one thing about the craft brewing industry here in Nova Scotia is that it’s very much a comradery,” he explained. “While we all want to grow our businesses on our own, we’re always there to help and do whatever we can for our fellow craft brewers. For me, it’s a numbers game. The more people we can get into that Nova Scotia craft beer section of the NSLC, the better. I’m always telling people who haven’t tried craft beer to give it a go because there are so many advantages to it, whether it’s a Spindrift product, a Tatabrew product, or a Nine Locks product, just come to the category. The variety, the taste profiles in the craft beer category are just incredible. “We brewed about 1900 hectolitres last year and we’re on pace to brew about 3400 hectolitres this year.”
There’s something to be said for the freshness, the newness
Pilsner, which was a great success for us. Now we’ve got Blood Orange India Pale Lager out there and that’s flying – we’re going very well with that one. We can’t even keep the Blood Orange in-stock. That’s going to slowly come off the shelves at the NSLC throughout November and December, so stock-up. Our Abyss beer, our winter seasonal that has notes of toasted grains, coffee and chocolate malts, is making its long-awaited comeback soon. We’ve had a tre- mendous amount of requests for Abyss to hit the shelves again, so we have high hopes for that, too. The NSLC wants Abyss on the shelves right through April and, we think, even longer than that. If it doesn’t stay at the NSLC on a full-time basis, you’ll most likely see it regularly at the brewery here. We’ve had bars asking and asking for it and the latest batch Kellye brewed-up is amazing.” “Thirsty Thursday is, quite honestly, our busiest day,” Andy explained. “If you bring in a Spindrift growler on Thursday you get two dollars off a fill-up on that 1.89 litre growler and one dollar off the one litre growler. We’re already very eco- nomically-priced, so you’re talking 11 or 12 dollars for the big growler and $5.75 for the one litre. There’s tremendous value there for our loyal consumers. Slowly but surely that part of the business is growing. We’re a little demographi- cally challenged because we’re in the heart of the Burnside Industrial Park, but people are discovering us and realizing If you’re planning a trip to the brewery, I’ve got some advice for you: if you can, go on a Thursday.
that there’s great value in these growlers. That growth is going to continue for the foreseeable future.”
“We’re very hopeful that Atlantic Canada’s first Ikea is going to draw-in tens of thousands of people regularly to Burnside. It’s a numbers game. We’re the closest brewery to Dartmouth Crossing. We’re looking into proper highway signage – we want as many signs as we can get – so that we can let people know, ‘Hey, if your wife is going to go into Ikea for two hours, there’s a brewery five minutes away. Come on down, have a flight and chat us up.’ I’d love to put up a big billboard right beside Ikea saying that. Once people come here, they come back and that’s a testament to the beer at the end of the day.”
YOUR BUILDING PARTNER IN ATLANTIC CANADA With offices in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland LINDSAYCONSTRUCTION.CA
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SPINDRIFT BREWING CO.
21 Frazee Ave, Dartmouth, NS B3B
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(902) 703-7438
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as spotlighted in the NOVEMBER 2017 issue of SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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