Halifax Brewery Goes ‘Commercial’ With The Bud Light Of Craft Beer
HALIFAX — A new beer from Halifax’s 2 Crows Brewing Company is putting a hyper-local spin on commercial lagers.
Made entirely from Maritime ingredients, 2 Crows hopes its AC Light Lager can pull the Bud Light drinkers of the world into the craft beer universe.
2 Crows’ Andrew Simpson says the brewery’s new, flagship brew is made with Shoreline Malting Co. barley, Lakeview hops, and Halifax water.
Even the label is local, with print art by Alexander MacAskill of Midnight Oil Print And Design House.
Simpson says the new brew is 2 Crows’ spin on the traditional, North American commercial lager. Think Molsen or Coors, except made by a local company from local ingredients.
“The style is nothing out of the ordinary. But what we wanted to do was emulate some of those bigger brand lagers and put our own take on that,” Simpson said.
“A lot of big brand lagers still use adjunct grains like rice and corn and sugar syrup… so we wanted to make a very traditional, anyone-can-enjoy-this [type of] beer. But actually brew it properly with good, local ingredients,” Simpson says.
Craft beer is most often associated with hipster taprooms stocked with hoppy IPAs and heavy stouts.
Traditionally, 2 Crows fit the stereotype fairly well. Simpson says AC Light Lager is the brewery’s attempt to bring the world of craft beer to the more casual beer drinker.
I think anyone who’s into craft beer, they don’t just start at the weird niche end of the spectrum. If someone drinks Bud Light their whole life, it’s hard to entice them into the craft world with a barrel-aged sour. So this is a way to kind of bridge the gap a little.”
But AC Light Lager is about more than capturing some of Molson Canadian’s market share.
Simpson says its focus on local ingredients is a way to both highlight and cope with the ongoing supply chain issues disrupting the craft beer industry.
Craft Beer is, in many ways, a very local product. But even the smallest local brewery will rely, to some degree, on grain from the Prairies or cans from Asia.
Beer is also a production business; brewers need enough ingredients to arrive at the right time, or they can’t make their product. The Covid-19 pandemic has splintered the systems that supply those ingredients, causing massive headaches for local brewers.
“The idea of crafting this beer is to not rely as much on shipping, and getting ingredients shipped from elsewhere, when we have beautiful ingredients that we can use in our own backyard,” Simpson says.
Starting on January 28, anyone interested in tasting those ingredients can buy AC Light Lager by the glass or can at 2 Crows’ Halifax taproom.
This spring, six-packs will also be available at Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation stores.
Trevor Nichols is the associate editor of Huddle, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].