As Canadians chose to vacation closer to home and enjoyed lower costs to use the Confederation Bridge and Northumberland Ferries, Prince Edward Island breweries have been enjoying a banner summer.
Craft breweries have seen such a jump in sales that some have been struggling to keep enough beer on the shelf.
Owner-operator Alex Clark says it’s been “unlike any summer before” at Summerside’s Evermoore Brewing Co.
“We saw it right from the beginning of June — it hit hard and fast,” Clark said. “Every day we talked to different tourists. It was a wide demographic this year … American, Canadians, from all over, young and old.”
Some days, he said the brewery was so busy it had to turn people away.
“We have not been great at keeping up with demand this summer,” he said. “You always assume you might grow with a good summer, but we would have never expected this.”
Evermoore Brewing Co. was not the only local producer scrambling to meet a higher-than-normal demand.
According to Jared Murphy, president of the P.E.I. Craft Brewers’ Alliance, some craft breweries had sales show a double-digit increase this summer.
Murphy is also the CEO at Lone Oak Brewing Company, one of several local producers that ran out of beer as a result.
“It is a problem, but a good problem,” he said in an interview at Lone Oak Brewing Company’s new location, formerly home to Upstreet Craft Brewing.
“People are choosing Canada. And if Canadians are looking for a place to vacation, what better place than P.E.I.?”
Clark was surprised to hear several American tourists coming to Evermoore say they had sought out a Canadian destination because of the trade tensions.
“We heard a lot, you know, ‘Canadians aren’t visiting us, so we are going to visit you,'” he said. “[It] was a really nice sentiment to share.”
Meanwhile, he said reduced bridge and ferry costs in August also brought more day trippers from the mainland into the brewery.
The P.E.I. Tourism Industry Association says it’s been a busy summer. With tolls down, visits to the province seem to be up. But could the lower tolls also have a negative impact on where locals spend their money? CBC’s Sheehan Desjardins asked CEO Corryn Clemence (pictured) about that.
‘A very good year’
Kevin Murphy, chairman of Murphy Hospitality Group and founding partner of P.E.I. Brewing Company, has also seen more people opting for a local pint.
“A lot played into making this year a very good year for tourism,” he said. “Everybody will refer to the whole Trump factor, and how Canadians decided to stay at home, maybe travel domestically … interest rates coming down, you know, the bridge fare being cut to $20.”
Kevin Murphy speculated that the hot, dry summer weather also likely drove tourism up.
Now that September has arrived, he believes there’s still time to get the shelves re-stocked to capitalize on the rush for local beer.
Our spring was busy, last fall was busy. We really haven’t seen the slumps that we’ve experienced in the past.— Alex Clark, Evermoore Brewing Co.
“There’s no reason to think that the season won’t continue,” he said. “We have Fall Flavours, we have Shellfish Festival, we have Sommo Festival. P.E.I. has a lot going on.”
As for Clark, he said Evermoore’s anticipated slow periods have yet to materialize this year.
“Our spring was busy, last fall was busy. We really haven’t seen the slumps that we’ve experienced in the past,” he said.
“We have to stop saying, ‘Oh, the slump’s going to be this week.’ We have to start adapting a little quicker.”
