Fredericton craft beer fest attracts Maritime beer lovers

Craft beer enthusiasts from across the Maritimes will be descending on Fredericton this week to savour more than 200 microbrews as companiesand connoisseurs continue to tap into the growing interest in the industry.

A week-long series of beer-related events started on theweekend and will continue untilnext Sunday.

Lloyd Chambers, the craft beer festival's organizer, said ticket sales for the signature tasting event on Saturday havealmost tripledin the three years since the event started.

"It's gone from like 558 the first year and we're close to 1,500 right now," he said.

Chambers said tickets have been sold across theMaritimesfor the event.

He said the annual festival has grown tremendously alongside the craft beer industry since 2013.

NB Liquor has indicated it has witnessedan increase in the amount of craft beer sold in the province.

The Crown corporation introduced a growler program into selected stores, which was designed to meet the growing demand of craft beer drinkers.

Not only is there more interest in tasting craft beer, there are more products for beer lovers.

"Our first year, it was a struggle to get 90[beers],said Chambers.

"I think we had 90 on paper, but I don't think we really did have them there. So it was a challenging year to get people to come and have lots of beer. Now this year we have over 200."

Thefestival is best known for the Saturdaytasting event at the Fredericton Convention Centre, but Chambers said he wants to broaden the craft beer festival to attract more people to the city.

"Last night, we did a pub crawl, which was a fund-raiser for a local brewer that's battling cancer," Chambers said.

"We have a rock-paper-scissors tournament. There's some dinners, beer dinners.There's Atlantic Canada Beer Blog trivia, then we have our main eventon Saturday.On Sunday morning we have a down-the-keg 3K run."