{"id":7047,"date":"2024-04-04T18:40:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T21:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7047"},"modified":"2024-04-04T18:49:52","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T21:49:52","slug":"perseverance-hope-keys-to-hell-bay-brewings-staying-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/04\/04\/perseverance-hope-keys-to-hell-bay-brewings-staying-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Perseverance, hope, great beer keys to Hell Bay Brewing’s staying power"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Melanie Perron is the co-owner with Mark Baillie of Hell Bay Brewing Company in Liverpool. The craft brewery recently celebrated 13 years in business. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

They started out small in a barn in Cherry Hill, and have survived an early cease-and-desist order, floods, a pandemic and just recently celebrated their 13th year in business.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hell Bay Brewing Company in Liverpool marked that milestone on April 1.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Melanie Perron and Mark Baillie began their craft brewery in 2011, they were one of only five or six in Nova Scotia. Now, there are more than 50 craft brewers, from nanobreweries to brew pubs to microbreweries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a nanobrewery then,” Perron said in an interview at the brewery on Thursday. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We didn\u2019t know where to start or how to start, so we just started very small in our home and quickly grew out of that space and moved here.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We were just doing it as a hobby, so it was just for fun. And I was on maternity leave at that time. And Mark was always brewing beer and sharing it with friends. And he was to the point where he was brewing so much that we couldn’t consume it all, we couldn’t share it all. So, I just thought, ‘What would it take to do this as a business?'”<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in 2011, they were known as Rusty Anchor Brewing Company and started out with an English Ale. But three months after they started labelling their beers, they got a cease-and-desist letter from Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, telling them they couldn\u2019t use the word \u201canchor\u201d in their name.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the former husband and wife team had to come up with a new name and Hell Bay was born.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of years later, they moved into the old Hoggie\u2019s Buy and Sell space in downtown Liverpool. At that time, Perron says, they were focused mainly on selling kegs and bottles to bars in Halifax.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started out, it was just so busy because we had full reign of everything. It was easy to send 80 kegs to Halifax in a week and then the NSLC, we would send them three or four pallets of beer in a week. So at that time, we were employing probably six or seven staff.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As more craft breweries opened, however, the market changed drastically. And Hell Bay had to change with it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think of all these breweries fighting for the same tap space and then the NSLC there\u2019s only so much shelf space there. That\u2019s why we had to put more concentration into our store and our pub and doing music and trying to attract more local people.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While Nova Scotia craft beer sales increased overall by 6.1 per cent over the past three months, many breweries say the past few years have been a struggle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In early March, FirkenStein Brewing in Bridgewater posted on its Facebook page that it was having trouble paying its rent. The brewery said if business didn\u2019t pick up, it may have to close.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other Nova Scotia craft breweries have closed or announced they will restructure. Uncle Leo\u2019s near Pictou, Serpent Brewing, Off Track Brewing have closed or announced they\u2019re closing. Brightwood Brewery in Dartmouth is closing its tap room, while Harbour Brewing in Musquodoboit Harbour is selling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perron says she hates to see other breweries in trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurts my heart because I know we\u2019re in that boat every day. We\u2019re just like, ‘Do we keep going or do we just sell out and close’, just because it\u2019s not as profitable as people think. I always think it’s a good thing that I’m not a person who needs a lot in life. I don\u2019t need a paycheque. I survive off very little. I have two staff who work here. So, my goal is to get my staff paid first. And my paycheque comes after that.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s a hurting industry and I knew there was going to be a bubble. Everybody thought it was a multimillion-dollar business, adn I’m sure it would be if there were only 20 of us. But the market right now is just so saturated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Perron says that like with other businesses, Covid changed the landscape for microbreweries in Nova Scotia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything went to hyper-local. We lost all our accounts in Halifax, so all the bars dropped us. … So as of now, all of the bars we do have are on the South Shore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Perron says they\u2019ve worked hard over the years to keep on top of what customers want. She says that\u2019s why they started making more ready-to-drink beverages, like their popular hard lemonades, which often outsell their beer in the summertime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And they recently made rum for the first time. It was a small batch but sold 72 bottles in two weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

She says that even though the past few years have been \u201cup and down\u201d, they\u2019ve had great support from the local community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be here without them, 100 per cent, especially since Covid. \u2026 So I am relying a lot on local business.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Perron says she\u2019s looking forward to the summer, when tourists return. The brewery plans to bring back its hot dog cart and offer some specialty hot dogs, and maybe even some food nights.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for the summer because I think it\u2019s going to be super busy. I just have this feeling especially with all the new people moving here. The South Shore, it\u2019s so beautiful and people are finally discovering it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the past three months, sales at the brewery are more than double what they were this time last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perron says the secret to their staying power is pretty simple.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy perseverance. I\u2019m not a quitter. I live a lot on hope. You know, next year can only be better. Since Covid, things are getting better.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust staying true to what you believe, I guess, and what your passion is and lots of hope.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And that San Francisco brewery that sent Perron and Baillie that cease-and-desist letter 13 years ago? <\/span><\/p>\n

It closed last year, but Hell Bay is still going.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to keep our beer natural and true to what beer is. Just keeping the hops and barley and water. We don\u2019t use preservatives. It\u2019s all unpasteurized. It\u2019s just the way beer should be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/hellbayannivapr424.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They started out small in a barn in Cherry Hill, and have survived an early cease-and-desist order, floods, a pandemic and just recently celebrated their 13th year in business. Hell Bay Brewing Company in Liverpool marked that milestone on April 1.\u00a0 When Melanie Perron and Mark Baillie began their craft brewery in 2011, they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2007,2004,1608,2003,2005,1999,39,2001,1721,2000,241,2006,2002],"class_list":["post-7047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-beer","tag-brewing","tag-business","tag-cherry-hill","tag-craft-breweries","tag-hell-bay-brewing-company","tag-liverpool","tag-mark-baillie","tag-melanie-perron","tag-microbreweries","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nslc","tag-rusty-anchor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7047"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7053,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions\/7053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}