Nova Scotia's craft beer industry seeing 'unheard of' number of closures

In his almost three decades of working in Nova Scotia's craft beer industry, Brian Titus says he's never seen so many breweries shut down in such a short period.

While the industry saw huge growth in the number of craft breweries, growing to as many as 60 breweries with some having additional taproom locations, the number of breweries has decreased to around 50 in just the last two years, he said.

"It's certainly unheard of what we're seeing right now," said Titus, the president and general manager of Garrison Brewing Company in Halifax, which opened in 1997.

And while it's been normal for a couple of breweries to shut down most years, these closures were usually met with some new openings.

"Honestly, the last couple of years has pretty much just been backward movement … which is frustrating because historically this industry for a decade has seen nothing but growth," said Titus.

The latest casualty is Halifax's 2 Crows Brewing, which announced on social media Feb. 18 that its last day of business will be March 7. The business, which employs around two dozen people, opened in 2017.

One thing that made the 2 Crows closure so surprising to many is it's one of the largest breweries in the province, while other craft brewery closures in recent years were for smaller operations.

Co-owner Mark Huizink said there were several contributing factors behind the closure. One was that the costs for seemingly everything had gone up, from raw materials to the software they use to run the business.

"Everything has just chipped away at our margins," said Huizink.

He said the brewery had initially expanded to selling in Quebec, but a problem with a distributor there led 2 Crows to pull out of the market. Another deal selling beer in New Brunswick through their provincial Crown liquor retailer also never took off, leaving the business to sell mostly in Nova Scotia, although it has done some sales in provinces like Alberta and B.C.

"Getting your beer in front of people is a difficult thing in Nova Scotia," said Huizink, noting it requires a lot of spending on marketing.

Andrew Tanner, the president of the Craft Brewers Association of Nova Scotia, called the closure of 2 Crows sad and unfortunate. He told CBC Radio's Information Morning that while local craft beer continues to get a bigger piece of the market share for beer in the province, most craft breweries are struggling.

"No one has raised their hand saying, 'You know, that I feel like I'm next,'" said Tanner. "But we certainly know the pressure is on, and the spring, summer season can't come quick enough."

That's because those months are the busiest for breweries, with the profits earned keeping them going through fall and winter, said Titus.