New brew pays tribute to pioneer of Nova Scotia craft beer industry

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 27, 2025 11:42 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

Craft brewers successful Nova Scotia are paying tribute to the antheral who helped kick-start the manufacture successful the state with a caller brew made successful his honour.

Kevin Keefe, who died successful 2024, was the laminitis of Halifax's Granite Brewery, which was the archetypal trade brewery successful Nova Scotia erstwhile it opened wrong Ginger's Tavern successful 1985.

The 2025 Together We Brew beer, a nod to the beers Keefe made astatine the Granite Brewery, is an English-style bitter that is "bready and full-bodied with a balanced bitterness," says the Craft Brewers Association of Nova Scotia. 

Joshua Council, a co-founder of Good Robot Brewing, which produced the brew successful collaboration with dozens of different breweries that are members of the association, says it's bully to wage tribute to a antheral who had each the clip successful the satellite for him erstwhile helium was starting retired successful the industry.

"We wouldn't beryllium present successful this state if it weren't for the archetypal strides helium made. So astatine a clip erstwhile the [industry] is getting deed with immoderate turbulence, economical conditions and truthful connected and truthful forth, it felt close to wage homage to the idiosyncratic who made it hap successful the beginning," said Council successful an interrogation with CBC News connected Saturday.

He said Keefe had a batch to bash with however Nova Scotians became unfastened to the complexities of trade beer, drafting galore radical distant from the accepted brew that was the norm and pushing them to make much colourful palates.

"He was serving to downtown Halifax successful the gritty and grimy days of the precocious '80s and aboriginal '90s," said Council. 

"He brought this bold, unusual English benignant with these weird techniques and this exotic unfastened fermentation that precise fewer breweries practise contiguous oregon past and enactment it successful beforehand of radical who were home drinkers who drank thing acquainted and someway managed to person them."

Council said 6,000 litres of the limited-edition brew person been produced and the brewery is already down to the last 1,000 litres just a fewer weeks into the release.

Debbi MacDonald, the enforcement manager of the trade brewers association, said a tiny percent of each merchantability volition assistance money scholarships and bursaries offered by the organization, including 1 that aims to get underrepresented populations progressive successful the industry.

The brew is present disposable successful liquor stores and taprooms crossed the province. 

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