Ferguson – who incidentally has never brewed beer at home – is the brewmaster at Rudder’s Brew Pub and Seafood Restaurant on Yarmouth’s waterfront, a job he’s held for over six years. This summer has been particularly busy.
“Normally I have seven beers on tap but the summer has been so busy we’re running out of beer quickly,” he says.
And so every week the brewing of craft beer goes on from an on-site 10-barrel gravity flow brewery. Rudder’s beers include, among others, the Blonde Rock (it’s most popular), Rudder’s Red, Yarmouth Town Brown, Scottish Wee Heavy (a seasonal beer) and Raspberry Blonde.
Ferguson notes craft beer is catching on throughout the province and across North America.
“It’s probably the fastest growing part of the hospitality industry right now,” he says.
But Rudder’s isn’t a new kid on the block when it comes to brewing beer. It’s been doing so since opening in 2000. The onsite brewery was built in 1996 when the building was known as the Queen Molly.
Ferguson – who moved to Yarmouth from Ontario after retiring from the Canadian National Railway – took over as Rudder’s brewmaster after Randy Lawrence left the position. Ferguson was Lawrence’s brewery assistant for about five years. The brewing process at Rudder’s is not unlike that of Molson’s or Budweiser’s, Ferguson says.
“Except we’re a small guy and we do it as a craft beer because the only ones I have to keep happy are the people in and around Yarmouth. The big guys, their beer is sold all over the world and it has to be the exact same no matter if you open a bottle in Yarmouth or in Germany,” he says. “But with craft beers we can put a lot of flavour in them, change the colours, etc.”
(NOTE TO READERS: A sampling of abbreviated stories of local breweries is included in the Sept. 8 issue of the Vanguard. You can click here for an online version of the September issue of the Nova Scotia Business Journal, which features the stories in full.)
Inside the brightly painted yellow building, with its beamed ceilings and thick plank floors at 96 Water St., the Rudder’s brewing process starts on the third floor.
“Most people don’t know there’s a third floor in here,” Ferguson says. Brewing usually takes place once a week – or as the need arises. Recently over a two-week period Ferguson needed to brew around 4,000 litres of Blonde Rock as they’d run out of the popular beer.
The brewing prep work takes about half a day. On brewing day the work starts at 7 a.m. and is usually wrapped up by around 3 p.m. Depending on temperature and atmospheric pressure, some days are better than others when it comes to brewing.
Grain is milled on the third floor. Early on in the process the beer is made into a tea bag, of sorts, where it is steeped to capture all of the colours and flavours of the grain. It drips into one of several 1,300-litre kettles where it is boiled for 90 minutes. With the hops added, it needs to be cooled before it reaches the fermenter, otherwise the hot beer will kill the yeast. The beer spends a week to two weeks in the fermenter.
Ferguson says the light beers tend to be more popular, but that’s often because there is a stigma tagged to the darker ales.
“If it’s a dark beer, people think it’s heavy and they won’t like it,” he says. “It's a stigma from years ago that’s hard to get past. But most people, once they try the darker beers, they really like them.”
In fact, Rudder’s encourages people to give all of their beers a try – it’s even part of the ordering process.
“We have the sampler that comes with four beer samples of five ounces. In the summer I find we go through that a lot. People will try them all and then they buy the ones they like,” says Rudder’s manager Janice Saulnier.
She says people are drawn to the house craft beers because of quality and curiosity.
“People like to support local and they like the microbrewery beer,” she says. “It’s a different taste – not the beer you can buy anywhere, it’s more of a specialty that people like.”
Rudder’s doesn’t sell it’s craft beer in or to other business establishments – they rely on the, ‘If you brew it, they will come’ philosophy – although their craft beers have been available on the Nova Star cruise ferry this summer. The business also sells 1.9-litre growlers and 20-litre party kegs.
Meanwhile, as demand continues for Rudder’s craft beers so too does the brewing and Ferguson’s retirement gig.
QUICK GLANCE
Can I take your order?
• BLONDE ROCK: A blonde ale derived from a blend of Canadian two row barley wheat and Munich malt. A light but mellow malty character giving way to the aromatic flavour of cascade hops on the finish.
• RUDDER'S RED: A complex red velvety smooth ale designed with four specialty malts and two varieties of hops.
• YARMOUTH TOWN BROWN: An English Style brown ale with a rich chocolate-like profile accentuated by hints of hop flavour and aroma. A must try if you are an aficionado of brown ales.
• RASPBERRY BLONDE: A golden wheat beer with a hint of raspberry. A light refreshing drinking beer. A nice change from coolers or spritzers.
QUICK GLANCE
Need a growler or keg to go?
• To order in advance call 902-742-7311 or
email: [email protected]
• Growlers: 1.9 litres $11 (5 ½ beer)
Growler Jug $6 (one-time purchase)
• Party Kegs: 20 litres $90 (50 beers)
50 litres $225 (125 beers)
Comes complete with dispensing pump.
