Petit-Sault Brewers hope to tell Edmundston's stories

An Edmundstonmicrobrewery tapped its inaugural keg this weekend, christening New Brunswicks newest craft brewery amidst concerns the industry will be stymied by new liquor laws.

The Petit-Sault Brewers/Brasseurs duPetit-Sault brewout of an old police station in the citys downtown.

Brewery directorMychele Poitras says thebrewery is trying to involve the entire community and its history.

More than 80 shareholders from the area invested in the beersnamed after people fromEdmundston's past.

"We really wanted our beers to tell our stories. We juggled several ideas and finally came up with these unsung heroes, I would call them. One is a prospector, he never really found anything but worked really hard," she said.

Another beer is named after an Acadian heroine who helped save thepeople of MadawaskaCounty from a famine in the late1700s.

What started out as a few friends who enjoyed making hasbeer turned into a business.

"I've got a Ph.D in plant sciences. Alot of my research was using yeast. Ittranslates well into brewing," said brewer Gavin Anderson.

Hovering around the debut celebration is the news that the laws governing craft breweries are changing.

The new Brewery Agency Stores (BAS) policy requires microbreweries to sell 10,000 litresof beer in NB Liquor stores.A BAS licence allows a brewer to sell beer on-site for consumption off-site.

Poitras says every start-up coming after hers will have trouble.

It's really sad actually. We were lucky in the sense that we started up before this law came about. It seems, from what we gather, aimed at smaller breweries, which is really sad because these smaller breweries are fun and interesting tourism attractions in towns throughout New Brunswick, she said.

Poitras says micro-breweries are also great for jobs. Hers employs four people.

NB Liquor has said the policy has been developed internally and was not meant to hurt small businesses trying to set up in the brewing industry