Some P.E.I. craft brewers struggling to keep up with demand

Some of P.E.I.'s craft breweries say they are selling more beer than they can make.

"It really has been the past month that things kinda got crazy. We call it the dog days of summer out here," said Upstreet Craft Brewing general manager Bradford Rooney.

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Upstreet has had several of their brews run out for at least a few days during the summer, and Rooney said he doesn't expect things to lighten up until October. 

"It seems to be a heavy traffic of tourists," he said.

Rooney said the brewery tries to anticipate and plan as much as possible, but can only brew so much without sacrificing the quality of the beer.

"The reality is it's never exactly perfect to what you planned," he said. "It's a very fine balancing to try and make it all work."

Working overtime

It also takes two weeks to produce beer at the brewery, and with so much demand, Rooney said brewers have been putting in extra hours to try and keep up until the slow season.

"In some ways you want that to come sooner than later but of course, you know, the longer the season lasts, the busier we stay, the better that is for the company," he said.

Rooney said the brewery will likely try to expand its equipment to keep up with demand for next year, but that might not be easy.

"The reality is, is that it costs a lot. There's a lot of space required to have that capacity so it's just a matter of being strategic," said Rooney.

'Trying to just keep our head above water'

For Don Campbell, owner and operator of Barnone Brewery, he said demand this summer has been overwhelming.

"Crazy would be the best way to sum it up," he said.

Campbell said Barnone has been operating beyond capacity for the entire summer and has also run out of beer several times.

"[We're] trying to just keep our head above water," said Campbell. "As soon as the tank is empty it's being filled again."

Struggling to expand

Campbell said the brewery builds its stock based on previous years' sales, but said this summer has surpassed anything they could have planned for.

The brewery is only able to brew 1,015 litres a week but could easily sell more if it were a bigger operation.

"It's kind of sad because we could probably in the summer months be four or five times the size that we're at and easily have the market there for it," he said.

"But seeing as that we are small and on a shoe string budget, we're kinda just choked off by what we have for equipment at the moment."

Campbell said he's encourage by the interest in his brewery but wishes he was able to keep up with the demand.

"People tell me it's a great problem to have but there are many a day that I think it's not such a great problem to have."

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