P.E.I.'s newest craft brewery opening soon

A beer making hobby has turned into a new brewery business for Mike Hogan.

His partners are two friends that encouraged him for eight years by taste testing the dozens of beers he made.

"Just through that, they gave me a lot of confidence that maybe the beer was worthy of selling, or giving out, or producing for the masses," Hogan said of Joey Seaman and Mitch Cobb.

The trio are converting a building on Allen Street in Charlottetown to openUpstreet Craft Brewing.

Seaman said the craft brewery industry has a lot of room to grow in Prince Edward Island.

"I think if you look right across the country or North American, craft beer is just exploding, but we only have two breweries right now, as compared to Nova Scotia with twenty and then look at Ontario or BC with hundreds.So we felt there was a demand there," said Seaman.

The Prince Edward Island Liquor Control Commission agrees and has changed some policies to get more people into the business.

It offers free ad campaigns, a higher profit margin and more venues where craft breweries can sell their product.

Upstreet Craft Brewingowners plan to sell their product at their new location in bottles and on tap. They also plan to make it available to buy in Island liquor stores and restaurants and bars.

"Specifically with the tourist market, the first question anyone asks when they sit down at a table is 'What do you have that's local?' So every restaurant and bar we've talked to is really excited to be able to carry more products," said Seaman.

Even the Island's other two breweries are excited to have another craft brewery opening.

The PEI Brewing Company and BarNone Brewery both predict Upstreet will just get more Islanders interested in craft beers.

"What happens is the share of craft beers increases, and the domestic beers will either remain stagnant or drop off," said Hugh Campbell of BarNone Brewery.

The owners of Upstreet Craft Brewing plan to be opened by May or June.