By Amy Woolvett
THE COAST GUARD
What do you get when you cross two chemical engineers and a passion for making superior quality beer?
Beer lovers everywhere will be cheering the future of Shelburne’s newest business plans, the Dock Street Brewing Company.
What started out as talk around the kitchen table and years of perfecting recipes of ales, stouts and lagers has now become a determined goal of opening its doors this coming spring.
Chemical engineers, Emily Tipton and Henry Pedro hope to carve their niche in the Shelburne business community.
“We would like to collaborate with other vendors in the community,” said Tipton. She said that they have plans to sell their product to local bars, the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission as well as offer growlers or 1.9 litre jugs and min-kegs to the general public from the microbrewery.
While it is not set in stone, they hope to lease the Cox Warehouse as their prime choice of locale.
“We are very hopeful of being able to set up our brewery there but there are a lot of things that first have to fall into place,” said Tipton.
They are working on recipes that will be widely appealing to most but will also open their creative flair by producing some specialty beers throughout the season that will be a bit more challenging and exciting for the avid craft beer connoisseurs.
“We have one beer that we call dessert in a glass,” said Tipton. A stout beer with enhanced flavours of vanilla and coffee.”
They will launch with a good India pale ale sure to please, a citrus lager, amber ale and perhaps a specialty rye beer both complicated and hoppy.
“There are segments of the market we want to target, particularly women,” said Tipton.
Tipton said that they have plans to open a mail order beer club as a part of their services.
“Our location can be a disadvantage because we are not in Halifax,” said Tipton. “But this way we can reach people from further away.”
Tipton said that while she has been living in Shelburne she has been trying to find the perfect fit for what type of business to open.
“I’m not looking to get rich,” she said. “Just to be able to create a job for myself and a few others and to live here and raise my family…I am aware of the economic issues but feel a brewery would work. People have always drank and enjoyed beer and will always drink and enjoy beer and that has never been impacted by recession.”
Both Tipton and Pedro have excellent education and experience as chemical engineers to understand and produce their beers.
But Pedro said the most important thing they are bringing to the table is a passion for making a great beer.
“It helps to have the knowledge and experience Emily and I have but the most important part is passion…but it is good to have both.”
Pedro said that while they have only been able to make great tasting beer, they are constantly tweeking their recipes.
The ingredients in the beers will be all natural with no chemicals or additives.
“We want something that is really going to knock your socks off,” he said. “Everything that gets bottled will be the best that we can possible make it.
