PEI Beer Festival a Success!

By: Via Reyes

The PEI Brewing Company held its fourth annual PEI Beer Festival at the Delta this past weekend as part of the Fall Flavours Festival. The event focused on shedding a lot more light on the art and craft of brewing. There were three sessions that people could choose to attend: Friday’s evening session and Saturday’s afternoon session, which were the slower sessions to allow people to take their time and visit all the booths and a Saturday evening session, which essentially became a big party to conclude the incredible weekend.

I attended the afternoon session on Saturday and had the most pleasant opportunity to meet with Al Douglas, the Director of Branding and Community Engagement for the PEI Brewing Company and the event organizer of the beer festival, to talk to him about the weekend’s events.  “One of the biggest parts for the festival are the breweries that come here and offer their time and beer for people to try,” Douglas says. “They’re the rock stars of the event for sure.” Twenty-one breweries were represented at the festival this year with over 80 different beers being poured for attendees to try, including some that have not yet hit local liquor stores like beer from Brasseurs du Petit-Sault, a brewery from Edmunston, New Brunswick. The festival also featured a number of artists from Matthew Hornell to the island’s very own Dylan Menzie, Andrew & Nikkie Waite, Nudie, Zac Murphy & Bridgette Blanchard, DJ HYP3 and the Two Man Big Band. Food was also available at the event, from oysters sold at the Merchant Man booth to delicious potato chips courtesy of Lucky Fox Snack Co.

In a follow-up e-mail, Douglas was asked how he felt the event went compared to previous years. He responded with “the event exceeded all expectations. From the Brewers, to the beer, to the attendees, everything was fantastic. This year just seemed to flow much smoother than previous years and people really understood what the event was about. Compared to other years, this was the first year we had a sold-out evening session. That should say enough!”