YellowBelly Brewery & Public House: St.John's NFLD - Part 1

Imagine my disappointment as I stood in front of such a lovely old building at the corner of Water and George street and noticed construction still taking place in the YellowBelly Brewery and Public House in St.John's. I had come so far and was looking forward to spending my entire week in St.John's only brew pub, and it was still not opened for business.

I could have done more research before my trip, but that would have taken the fun out of it. It's all about surprises, and surprised I was. I stood at the front door and said, "screw it, I'm going in anyway," before opening the old wooden door and stepping inside.

I asked one of the construction guys if Liam McKenna was around, the brewmaster and by all accounts a professional brewery start up guy (he has spent 25 years in the industry with over 20 or so breweries all over the world). He wasn't around, but Craig Flynn was, who happens to be the owner. Craig welcomed me deeper into the ancient building and started giving me a small tour through sawdust, 2x4's, drills and saws and showed me two of the five floors he is occupying. Because I was already late for the wedding I had travelled to St.John's for, I had to excuse myself and promised to return the following morning for a more formal tour with Craig and Liam.

Next Day: I woke up with blurred vision from the wedding activities the night before and headed downtown from our place at Memorial University. My head was splitting and the thought of sampling three of YellowBelly's beers was making my stomach curdle. I was glad to hear that Craig and Liam had a rough night as well. Frank MacDonald, a fellow Newfoundlander and reader of this blog, had contacted me earlier and after a brief chat he joined the three of us at the public house much to his pleasure. It was greet to meet a reader so far away, and let me tell you what a stand-up guy he is; he ended up driving my fiance and I to the airport after the tour.

Anyway, back to the brewery. Liam started it all off by telling us that the YellowBelly has been a five year project. Why so long? Some of the building dates back to 1749 and other parts to the early 1800's, so time, patience and extra attention had to be strictly practiced during the construction phase. It took two whole years to rip the inside out, fix the floors, install metal support beams by HAND (all five floors) and a lot more. Liam tells us about the stone walls that withstood the 'great St.John's fire' of the late 1800's and shows us a wooden support beam in the basement that bares scars from that fire. So I'll start the tour here.

Basement: This is one of my favourite rooms in the building. It has the feeling of a dungeon with its lantern style light fixtures dimly lit, the rock foundation and old fireplace remnants. This room will be used for special, intimate functions, out of the way of others. We continue through the room to the fermentation tanks and deep walk in refrigerators.

Main Floor (Street Level): Large windows on the Water street sidewalk let in a lot of sunshine (which is hard to come by in Newfoundland) and create a lovely glow in the main room. This is the pub area. A lovely bar runs down the length of a makeshift wall to the right as you enter from the street. Beautiful old shelving units surround the bar and will be used to hold artifacts that pay tribute to the location. It is also on this floor that passerby's can watch Liam brewing through two of the aforementioned large windows on the street level.

Upstairs #1: Kitchen and dining area. This is another great looking room. The floor boards were put together from old wood collected from the building and it took two solid weeks to lay the old planks. Two large garage door (windows) overlooking the famous George street will roll up during the nicer days and nights, allowing patrons to watch the activity on George. The stone walls, exposed wooden beams and supports and and old press keep the rustic theme to compliment the brand new kitchen. A wood burning pizza oven is the main feature and the Chef has terrific plans for pizza creations.

Upstairs #2: A huge events room with a large space for dancing the jig, playing the fiddle or hosting weddings, work parties or birthdays. Again, large windows overlooking Water street, exposed wooden beams and supports, old stone fireplaces and rock walls make this room as attractive and comforting as the rest.

Upstairs #3: A continuation of the events room, only this room is smaller and will provide more intimacy. A sloped roof is the selling point in this room. It has the appearance of an old hay loft you'd fine in a barn or an old cabin.

Throughout the tour we were walking up the 'staff' set of stairs, the public set is located on the other side of the building. It is an understatement to say this building is huge.

Part Two - Liam, Craig, Frank and I sample the three YellowBelly brews, talk about the name behind the brewery and I'll let you in on when it opens and some fun facts.