Canada, NS: Expansion plan on the mind of Big Spruce Brewing’s founder

An expansion plan is on the mind of Jeremy White who founded Cape Breton’s first small craft brewery three years ago, Cape Breton Post reported on April 29.

His Big Spruce Brewing facility in Nyanza, Victoria County, has reached capacity. To grow the business and to fulfil new orders coming in, he said another building would need to be built.

Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking, on behalf of the federal government, announced on April 29 it would provide a loan through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency of C$350,000 to assist in the construction of a 5,000-square-feet building and purchase of new processing equipment and the installation of a product holding system.

“It will have a separate brew system in it. Our existing brew building will remain and will be the welcome area and specialty brew area for some of our one-off seasonal beers,” White said.

“But we’re going to move the production of our big brands especially the two we started out with — Cereal Killer (Oatmeal Stout) and Kitchen Party (Pale Ale) — and two or three others up to a bigger brewery that’s more capable of moving it out.”

The expansion includes adding a canning facility to meet the retail demand for its “big brands” and is expected to sell those brands to the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation beginning in the first quarter of 2017.

The microbrewery is the only farm-to-table brewery in Nova Scotia. It uses its own water source and is certified organic.

White said Big Spruce produced 140,000 litres of beer last year.

“We are literally producing four times what we designed our building to produce in its current form. That’s not long-term sustainable for such a small space,” said White.

Over the next two years, he said he would like to ramp up production to 400,000 litres a year.

“In the summer, we just can’t keep up,” he said, adding one busy Saturday in the summer saw the sale of 180 growlers with live music on the tasting patio.

02 May, 2016