Atlantic Canada Beer Blog

 New Beer Festival Pairs International Brew with Island Food and Entertainment 

This September 28th and 29th downtown Charlottetown will come alive as the Prince Edward Island Brewing Company hosts a vibrant mix of world-class brewers, Island chefs, and a variety of late night entertainment as the 1st annual Prince Edward Island International Beer Festival kicks off at the new Charlottetown Event Grounds.

As an official Fall Flavours Culinary event, this new festival will showcase Island ingredients from land and sea prepared by local chefs as each culinary offering is created to pair with some of the most prestigious beers of the world.

Over sixty varieties of International beer are confirmed to date from the following breweries: MolsonCoors, Labatt Breweries, Pumphouse Brewery (Moncton), Picaroons Brewing Company (Fredericton), Garrison Brewery (Halifax), Erdinger Weissbrau (Germany), RockBottom Brewpub (Halifax), Stiegl (Austria), Fruii (Belgium), Affligem (Belgium), and many more yet to be announced.

In addition to the world-renowned beer, some special tastes from around the Maritime region will be making an appearance including Picaroons Maple Cream Ale and their distinct watermelon flavoured Melon Head; the sweet Raspberry Wheat Ale from Garrison Brewery; Blueberry Ale and Special Old Bitter (SOB) from The Pump House Brewery; all of the Prince Edward Island Brewing Company brews including a couple of new creations currently in development which will be featured only at the PEI International Beer Festival this September 28-29 at the new Charlottetown Event Grounds.

When asked why he would launch a new beer festival when another exists earlier in September, festival host and President of PEI Brewing Company, Jeff Squires, responded, “As a brewery ourselves, we understand how beer consumption has been changing in North America in recent years, with a growing interest in craft beer. Established beer festivals in the Maritimes are hosted by breweries. For example,Garrison Brewing Co. hosts the Halifax Seaport Beerfest in Nova Scotia while Pump House Brewery hosts Atlantic Beer Festival in New Brunswick. We have been working with our regional craft brewery counterparts for some time to establish an International level beer festival on Prince Edward Island. As an official culinary event in the Fall Flavours festival, the pairings of these unique brews with fresh Island ingredients from land and sea will create a unique festival that can only be offered in Prince Edward Island.”

In addition to the beer and food sampling sessions, each evening will culminate with a variety of entertainment within two distinct tents, each offering a genre of entertainment different from the other. This eclectic mix of entertainment will bring the flavour of many different events together in one convenient location on the new Charlottetown Event Grounds on the corner of Grafton St and Water St.

Tasting sessions will take place on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening with tickets ranging from $45 – $55. Late night entertainment only tickets are available for $20. All tickets are available at www.peibrewingcompany.com/beerfestival.