FREDERICTON -- New Brunswick beverage producers are getting crafty with more than what’s on tap. They’re stocking their shelves to support each other.
Fredericton's Picaroons Brewing Company didn’t just brew sales from their own kegs this year, they tapped into New Brunswick’s wide variety of beer, cider and liquor producers.
“This is great living in a small province, I just contacted all the suppliers and said, ‘I’d like to sell your stuff, send me what you’d like to sell’, and all of this stuff showed up,” says Sean Dunbar, owner of Picaroons Brewing Company.
Now, Dunbar’s business is lending a hand, and shelf space, to other small businesses.
“So it’s all about helping each other and creating our own internal retail channel,” says Dunbar.
That internal retail channel is a reaction to ANBL’s threshold rankings deadline, which is just five months away.
Starting in July, if local craft producers don’t meet a certain sales mark, they may be dropped from the province’s outlet shelves.
“There will be a lot of producers that will no longer have a spot to sell their product, so we’d like to be that alternative,” says Dunbar.
Local producers appreciate the assist, but the province’s association of craft brewers worries it’s not enough.
“If NB Liquor and government doesn’t help our industry, other provinces who do receive help will be dominant in our market,” says Sebastien Roy, President of the New Brunswick Craft Alcohol Producers Association.
In addition to making New Brunswick brews less accessible, Roy says the restrictions will cause an economic ripple effect on local producers and the jobs they provide.
“Is this all from New Brunswick, or is this all local? That’s the first question most people ask, and the second thing they say is ‘wow, I had no idea we had this much,” says Dunbar.
The New Brunswick Craft Alcohol Producers Association is scheduled to meet with ANBL later this month for further discussion.
