More breweries and growing sales mean the tap’s not yet run dry for the provincial craft beer sector | CBC News

The growth of the craft beer industry in Newfoundland and Labrador hasn’t slowed yet — as indicated by the addition of more businesses and a significant increase in sales in recent years.

With two new businesses having opened this year, and two more on the way, more provincial microbreweries than ever before are pouring beer for their customers.

One of them, the Bay de Verde Brewing Company, opened its taproom on June 16.

Its owners, Kim Sutton and Reg Gervais, say they saw the industry as the perfect bandwagon to hop onto — despite the town’s end-of-the-road location about two hours from St. John’s, and an industry that’s home to a growing number of businesses.

“Craft beer in Newfoundland is just trending,” said Sutton.

“We get a lot of people that come from St. John’s and other places on the island, and tourists…. Even the locals have said many times that they get to sit down with people that they don’t normally get to have a chat with.”

And they’re not the only ones seeing the trend. While Little North Brewhouse in Baie Verte also started production this summer, new breweries in Salvage and Bonavista are still being worked on.

The growth they see in the sector is confirmed by numbers provided by the N.L. Liquor Corporation.

While overall beer sales in the province have stayed at around $38 million since 2018-19, apart from a dip during the peak pandemic years, craft beer sales more than doubled over the same period — from $7.5 million in 2018-19 to just under $18 million in 2022-23.

It’s those numbers Sutton and Gervais want to be a part of soon.

“Selling beer in the taproom is one thing, but we’re also going to shortly, very soon, focus on distribution,” said Sutton. “That’s what, I think, makes the craft beer companies viable.”

“The microbrewery allows us to have a local operation, but we can put beer in cans and sell it all across the province,” Gervais added.

While their brewery has just started off, at Landwash Brewery in Mount Pearl, beer has already been running through the lines for almost five years.

Co-owner Christina Coady agrees that different avenues of product sales are crucial to ensure that businesses are successful despite a growing number of players on the market. When taprooms had to close during the pandemic, she said, the focus shifted to selling canned beer — with a noticeable impact.

“When we were in a situation where we had to can 100 per cent of all of our product and put it on shelves across the island, we started to feel the strain of all these different breweries,” said Coady.

“As long as we have a strong hospitality sector with excellent tourism, we can definitely take on more breweries.”

While the provincial craft beer sector was slow to start, she said, it has started to catch up. Landwash Brewery itself started off with just over 1,000 hectolitres of beer in its first year — a number Coady is hoping to triple in 2023.

“In 2018-2019, we saw a big explosion of craft breweries here, which was phenomenal. And because of COVID, that slowed down a little bit, unfortunately,” she said.

“Now, that we’re seeing the hospitality industry rebound, we are seeing more and more breweries start to open, which is very exciting.”

Going forward, she said, she would like to see more provincial businesses catering to breweries, which still rely on imports for most components, like glassware and brewing ingredients.

“There are grain producers and hop growers in Ontario and the Maritimes. It’d be wonderful to start seeing that here,” said Coady. “That’s kind of the future of what this sector can do in Newfoundland.”

Shelves getting crowded, but ceiling not reached yet

For Phil Maloney, a board member of the N.L. Craft Brewers Association and co-owner of St. John’s brewery Bannerman Brewing Co., funding is another crucial factor to continue the industry’s growth.

“There was … a big body of funding through [the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency] when everybody was getting started that had since slowed down,” said Maloney.

“But now, it seems that the governments are looking forward to kind of seeing what they can do for the sector again.”

He said the addition of new microbreweries is a clear sign that craft beer continues its rise in popularity — provincially and nationally.

“I think overall, the market segment’s growing,” he said. “The number of breweries that are starting up are maybe a little bit less than what there was five or 10 years ago, but it still seems strong right now.”

While this growth is “amazing,” Maloney said the effect of more provincial craft beer at stores can be felt by small business owners like himself.

“The shelves are no doubt getting crowded. I don’t necessarily think we’ve reached a ceiling yet but certainly, it’s noticeable,” he said.

“Anybody who walks into an NLC or Marie’s can see the walls and walls of craft beer. So, we’re definitely feeling it a bit. So, we’re just trying to stay as current as possible.”

Yet, he added, seeing that breweries’ taprooms are still busy, he is hopeful for the sector’s future.

Back in Bay de Verde, Sutton and Gervais share that hope. They’re already planning expansions, like additional storage space and a deck.

“The more the general public gets exposed to craft brewing and the different tastes of beer and the potential that beer can be, the market’s getting bigger,” said Gervais.

“It’s not one small pie that everyone’s divvying up. The pie is getting bigger and bigger.”

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador