Diane Crocker/The Western Star
Jennifer Galliott is one of the co-owners of Western Newfoundland Brewing Company Ltd. The company is opening a nanobrewery in Pasadena.
Galliott, who is based out of Woody Point, where she operates Galliott Studios, is co-owner of the Western Newfoundland Brewing Company Ltd. Her partners in the venture are Rocky Harbour residents Norm MacDonald and Jim MacDonald.
“It’s been kind of rattling around in my head for awhile,” said Galliott of the idea of opening a nanobrewery.
Turns out the MacDonalds had the same idea, so together they decided to make the leap.
“It’s something that’s seen a lot of growth all across the country, but also in small areas.” She said all one has to do is look to Nova Scotia and P.E.I. and see that a lot of rural areas are growing through microbreweries.
“It just kind of seemed like the next step in our area,” said Galliott.
The company is classed as a nanobrewery because as a scaled-down version of a microbrewery it will produce around 2,000 barrels of beer per year.
The venture, which has been in the works for the past two years, is now in the process of setting up operation in Pasadena. Galliott said they chose the town because it has a business incubator and for its geographic location for transportation of their product.
Recently the brewery received $74,364 from the Department of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development under the Business Development Support Program to assist with setup.
“Right now we are running on quite a small, little system and this will help us build our production and produce enough to be able to sell.”
After playing with a few recipes the trio of beer makers has decided to start with two varieties of a lighter flavoured beer.
“Just because Newfoundland is dedicated on the lighter tasting beers,” said Galliott.
Norm MacDonald is the chemical engineer among them and has been fine-tuning the recipes to be able to produce them in large quantities.
It takes about five weeks from start to finish and the brewery hopes to have its first batches of Killdevil Pale Ale and Wild Cove Cream Ale out by mid-July.
The beers will be sold on tap at Galliott Studios and The Cat Stop in Norris Point.
As the business grows the plan is to get into the canning of their beers. And Galliott, who likes the darker, heavier, bolder beers, said they might branch out into a few more varieties.
