Cape Breton’s Big Spruce Brewing has lost its permit to sell beer at the Warehouse Market in Halifax’s North End.

“We want the opportunity to correct and keep going here,” said Jeremy White, co-founder of Big Spruce Brewing,” It’s important for us as a brand, it’s pretty important for us as a business and it’s really crucial for the Warehouse Market.”

The issue arose when a competitor noticed that alcohol and groceries cannot be combined in the same bill.

“The beer was driving people to discover these other great local food-movement items, and conversely, people’s discovery of those items was driving them to a market where they could conveniently also buy our beer,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of people who are really into Big Spruce beer who discover the market and then start buying vegetables and other things with their beer,” Greenberg said. “So I know we’ve picked up customers we might lose now,” said Warehouse Market co-founder David Greenberg.

“The profit from selling beer was what gave us the confidence to give a really good health insurance policy to all of our employees,” he said.

The issue was flagged by an inspector from the province’s Alcohol, Gaming, Fuel and Tobacco Division. Others included storing beer on premises while the business is closed, having an employee of the brewery present, and offering beer for sale more than half of the year.

“I think they could have given them a temporary permit to sell at our place and I think it would honour the spirit of the legislation,” he said.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that all producers and all manufacturers are treated fairly and that they’re treated on the same level playing field,” she said.

“I’m optimistic that this will be sorted quickly,” he said, adding that he hopes to see Big Spruce products make “a hasty return”  to the Warehouse Market.

SOURCE: CBC News

Photo courtesy of REBECCA PATE