This past long weekend was the first real test drive for six domestic discount beers inside New Brunswick liquor stores.
The six varieties stand about $5 cheaper when compared to the standard 12-pack.
Collectively, the discount beers sold more than 9,400 12-packs over the Victoria Day weekend alone.
In comparison, the province's most popular beer, 12-packs of Budweiser, sold close to 16,000 boxes during the same stretch.
Despite the wide gap, NB Liquor is calling it an encouraging start for the discount suds,
"It's nice to get change back from a $20 bill," says Marcelle Saulnier, spokeswoman for NB Liquor.
Positive feedback for cheap brew, garnered from a recent public survey, also boosted confidence in the Crown corporation offering low cost liquor.
"Sixty-six per cent of respondents said they wanted better value and better pricing on beer and this is our way of providing that," says Saulnier.
It's also a way for NB Liquor to offer something new in their most important category – beer – which fell 15 per cent last summer.
Still, it may be too early to say if this cheap beer will buoy revenues or just fall flat.
"I'd be willing to try it, but my partner, I don't think he'd try it,” says customer Gail Doherty. “He's been drinking the same beer for years.”
Local brewers are also watching the discount beer phenomenon, but aren't too concerned about it cutting into their piece of the pie.
"We concentrate on the special and peculiar characteristics of our beer," says Picaroons Brewery owner Sean Dunbar, based in Fredericton. "For us, the concentration is on our products and not on the price of it. We try to keep our prices as low as possible."
The discount beer is scheduled to stick around until the end of September.
In another bid to attract customers, NB Liquor announced today it will stop charging five cents for shopping bags inside their stores.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore.
