Prince Edward Island will be seeing fewer beers in their future thanks to a pandemic-related supply issue.

Due to a shortage of glass beer bottles, P.E.I. Brewing Company’s Gahan Beer won’t be available in the 500 ml bottles once the current inventory runs out.

“The good news is, the product is still available because we also produce in cans, so the 500 ml format has been interrupted, but all products are still available,” said Jeff Squires, president and CEO of the P.E.I. Brewing Company.

“It’s not unique to the brewing industry. I think there’s a number of industries experiencing issues with getting some of their materials from that corner of the world,” said Squires regarding his supplier in China.

“I think it’s one of the challenges of the pandemic, is interruptions, and I would only be guessing if I could predict (when it they will be available).”

Based in Charlottetown, Red Island Cider also uses 500 ml glass bottles but luckily, hasn’t had the same problem.

“The only problem we’ve had is increased shipping costs, but we’re not on the same scale as the P.E.I. Brewing Company, so two to four pallets goes a long way for us,” said Robert van Waarden, co-owner of Red Island Cider.

The two main reasons are due to their sizing and style.

P.E.I. Brewing Company uses a more traditional, longer necked bottle, while Red Island Cider opts for a less common stubby bottle. However, the company did have to change the style of its one-litre refillable growlers.

“We constantly get people saying ‘oh, this is a great bottle,’ and it fits in with our brand identity, so if we had to change the style, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but a lot of people would not be happy about it, myself included,” he said.

Photos courtesy of P.E.I Brewing Co./Facebook and Michael Robar