"We’ve always been big craft beer fans since day one," says Bishop's Cellar (1477 Lower Water Street) general manager Matt Rogers. The booze boutique, and its staff, celebrate bringing that fandom to the next level with the launch of its new state-of-the-art, straight from the keg, growler filling station—it launches today.
"Right now we make an effort to stock every craft beer in Nova Scotia on the shelf, but that doesn’t include the brewers who aren’t big enough, or haven’t chosen to go into package yet," says Rogers. "This gives us an opportunity to have even more selection from Nova Scotia on tap, as well as feature speciality and experimental brews."
With the help of what he calls "the trifecta"—Breakhouse for design, Five by Five for renovations and Beer Tech's Ken Greer for draught tap wizardry—Bishop's Cellar's custom walk-in fridge/keg room now offers up five taps, to fill two growler sizes (1 and 1.89 litre). "It's the first of its kind, a tap system specifically for growlers," says Rogers, adding that custom-made growler filling tubes and flow regulators "pour the perfect growler".
The starting line-up for Bishop's taps includes Garrison's Coast to Coastless collaboration, Good Robot's Crown on the Ground steam, Granite Brewery's Hopping Mad IPA, Propeller's Halifornia Common and Tatamagouche Brewing Company's red, but watch for many other local breweries, as well as special one-offs along the way. The primary focus is of course to highlight Nova Scotia's breweries, but you'll be able to get a taste of some other Canadian craft brewers as well. Stay in the know about what's on tap via bishopscellar.com/beer, the list will be updated as soon as each keg runs dry.
