Coldstream's new beer is pouring out of Nova Scotia liquor stores

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Liam Giffen was pleased to hear a description of Coldstream Nova Scotia Lager as a super drinkable, backyard beer.

“That’s what we were going for,” said Giffen, one of three siblings running the beverage alcohol juggernaut Coldstream Clear, which recently plunged into brewing.

The roots of Coldstream go back to a spring water business started almost 20 years ago from the family property in Stewiacke. Water from that spring is still used in Coldstream vodka and some other spirits, produced at their facility in Truro.

Riley, Olivia and Liam Giffen are now the co-owners of an enterprise that employs 100 people.

“We’ve been a part of it since the early days,” said Liam. “It was really a conversation around the supper table that got it started, just kind of joking around because Riley was in chemical engineering, doing a course in organic chemistry, distilling citrus oils. He put together that it’s the same process for distilling alcohol. For one of his projects, his professor actually let him build a still, and after the project was over, we used it for distilling alcohol.”

Clever enough to let somebody else study organic chemistry, Liam has over the years learned a “fair amount” about distilling, but is chiefly involved in production and supply chain.

“I do a lot of the production of the ready-to-drink, all the stuff in cans,” he said. “Riley does a lot of business development, and my sister looks after sales and marketing, and also our retail locations. But when you have close to a hundred people working for you, it’s not really all manageable by three people. We have a lot of key employees, they’re the strength of the business.”

The distilling side of Coldstream Clear makes dozens of products, from vanilla bean vodka to lemon gin soda to salted caramel liqueur.

“That’s been a staple of ours since the very beginning,” Giffen said of the salted caramel. “I think it was one of the original liqueurs we came up with. It’s a solid seller for us, we get lots of good feedback on it. Our best-selling SKU is our peach iced tea, it’s a five per cent, non-carbonated lightly sweetened peach cooler. It’s in all the liquor boards we distribute to.

“The distilled products we sell in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland and Ontario. Our beer, which we just launched in May, is only in NSLC stores and online, and at our retail locations.”

Getting into beer

Coldstream has just one SKU of beer, a light lager purposely made to be uncomplicated. This summer, NSLC stores across the province have been selling just over 20,000 cans of Coldstream Nova Scotia Lager weekly.

And in October, a light beer, at four per cent alcohol, will be introduced.

“We see the sales numbers and what people are really reaching for, and it just seems to be a style of beer that the majority of people want. We’re just trying to make an easy drinking beer that’s made locally, that people don’t have to compromise anything to buy local,” said Giffen.

“It’s going pretty good. Obviously, beer is a different game than we’re used to, canned ready-to-drink cocktails, but we’re off to a really good start, we’re very happy with it and we’re excited to see where we can take it.”

The Coldstream plant in the Truro Business Park has produced “far beyond” a million cans of RTD products. When they bought the building in 2018, it was a 6,000-square-foot empty building.

Since then, “multi-millions” have been spent on two additions to what is now 45,000 square feet of production space, plus offices on a mezzanine level.

So, having succeeded in distilling, and well on the way in brewing, how long before the trio starts planting grapes to make wine?

“Nothing’s off the table, but it probably wouldn’t be our first venture,” said Liam, laughing. “It is a different game, but considering the amount of equipment we have, there’s endless possibilities of where we could go with it … anything from non-alcoholic to healthy energy drinks. Our long-term goal is to be distributed Canada-wide, with strong sustainable sales.”