Afternoon Pint
Afternoon Pint is a laid-back Canadian podcast hosted by Matt Conrad and Mike Tobin. Each week they meet at at a craft brewery, restaurant or pub with a surprise special guest.
They have been graced with appearances from some truly impressive entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, entertainers, politicians, professors, activists, paranormal investigators, journalists and more. Each week the show is a little different, kind of like meeting a new person at the pub for a first, second or third time.
Anything goes on the show but the aim of their program is to bring people together. Please join in for a fun and friendly pub based podcast that is all about a having a pint, making connections and sharing some good human spirit.
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Afternoon Pint
Dana Jones - aka Pints of PEI Shares Heartfelt Tales of Beer, Passions & Province (Beer Ambassador, Instagram Influencer)
Join us as we uncover the intrigue behind Prince Edward Island's vibrant brewing culture with our special guest, Dana Jones—better known as Pints of PEI on Instagram. Dana shares his thrilling journey as an ambassador for local breweries and his recent recognition at the Canadian Brewing Awards.
Embark on a flavorful journey with us as we reminisce about some of our favorite spots in PEI and Halifax. From the exceptional red ale at Gahan House to the innovative brews at Lone Oak Brewery, we celebrate the unique character each brewery brings to the table. Dana offers insights into the creative approaches of Halifax's Two Crows and Unfiltered Brewing, where offerings like bourbon-infused vanilla mint stouts push the boundaries of traditional craft beer.
In a heartfelt segment, we follow a couple's journey from a long-distance relationship to expecting their first child, and how they navigated the shift to non-alcoholic beers during pregnancy. We highlight the evolving market for these beverages, featuring brands like Libra, and ponder the practical benefits for parents. The conversation wraps up with a toast to the joys of balancing day jobs and passion projects, the camaraderie fostered through shared interests at local breweries, and the simple pleasures that bring cheer to our lives. Don't miss this episode if you want to be inspired by stories of love, creativity, and the endless possibilities within the world of craft beer!
Kimia Nejat of Kimia Nejat Realty
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From far and wide. We drink tonight with folks from all around, so, for one, enjoy your life at New Friendship. Okay, we're going to do a virtual cheers Ready when everybody's got their beers poured.
Speaker 2:I'm feeling the pressure of everyone watching me pour this on a zoom call now let's just check the head there.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's a little heavy.
Speaker 2:No, it's okay, I'd like to leave a couple, a couple fingers there. That's perfect, cheers cheers.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the afternoon point. I'm mike tobin.
Speaker 2:I'm matt conrad, and who do we have today? My name is Dana Jones, also known as Pints of PEI on Instagram. Pints of PEI nice to meet you man. Nice to meet you too. Thanks so much for having me today.
Speaker 3:So, dana, you are the representative of PEI for the afternoon pint for us drinking across the country.
Speaker 2:Amazing. So yeah, I don't know if that was a democratic or a mera merocratic kind of thing, but uh, yeah, out of the a couple dozens of people here, I am honored that you chose me. So fantastic that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, you do some great stuff and honestly, you're, you're, uh, you're a proponent to, for craft breweries, uh, in, you know not. I mean, yes, obviously for pei, but beyond that too, actually so yeah yeah. So it's uh, I think. Yeah, I think you'd be a pretty good chat.
Speaker 2:You're also a recent award winner uh, yes, I, I am, it happened. It actually happened in halifax. Uh, with the canadian brewing awards, their um inaugural, uh ambassador of the year award the only person who is not a brewery or a beer not that people are beers to actually bring home an award that's awesome, man. That's really really yeah, thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Thank you yeah congrats on that we gotta start the show with what are you drinking? The beer choice that you brought with us yes, so, um, there are.
Speaker 2:You can count the number of breweries on PEI on both hands, which is great. So I'm actually today drinking one of a fairly certain. It is the smallest brewery here on Prince Edward Island. It's Village Green in Cornwall, pei, I think. Technically it's what can be classified as a nano brewery. It's actually set up in the old post office in town, so I think a very small kind of squat square building. But all of the brewing equipment in there was actually hand designed by the founder owner, head brewer, literally everything for the brewery, brian Carver, and everything he designed was like on the back of a napkin. He like drew it to the specifics of the room it's all in, and that man works magic out of that little back room, I gotta tell you but, specifically today I'm drinking their sabro single hop pale ale, which is a a classic that he he brings around every now and again.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Keeps it simple too. Eh, nothing's much special in the can.
Speaker 2:No. It's what's on the inside, it's what's on the inside that really matters with these ones.
Speaker 3:Well, you know what? There's something to be said about that. Like some of the best beers in the world, they don't even have labels. They just let the beer speak for itself. It's true.
Speaker 1:They're just made in a tub. Yeah, yeah, okay, that's, that's moonshine. That's a whole different thing, I think. Okay. So, uh, the previous guest, the one I missed because I had pneumonia henry uh hussy, yeah, okay, so he sent some beers down from us from uh banished brewing in newfoundland.
Speaker 2:Invisible beer. The can's banished, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Amazing stout, though this is my first taste of it. It's a 9%, which is crazy for a stout dude, but man, it tastes amazing and you would not know that this was a high-alcohol beer. And, as you can see also, I have my new bar I just installed behind me, so I'm going to be really busy after this show. My new bar I just installed behind me, so I'm going to be really busy after this show. Yeah, let's go back.
Speaker 3:Matt, what do you have, buddy? I am not drinking a beer, so what I am drinking? My wife is a teacher and she's getting close to the end of the school year and she said to me today I feel like having a drink at suppertime. So there's a liquor store not far from me, so this is the crushable, very, very crushable thing right now from blue lobster. We'll give them a good shout out because they're awesome. They do sodas and lemonades, and all this is a raspberry lemonade. It is taking everything in me to not down this entire can in about six seconds, because I feel like I'm 10 years old again and it's a six percent beer or six percent uh, lemonade or whatever vodka beverage, and you would never know it. It honestly just tastes like kool-aid. So the blue lobster.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's it's actually it's tart too like it has a sounds amazing. Oh, it's actually it's tart too Like it has a little bit like lemon and raspberry. It's yeah, cool, yeah, it's a must try this summer. You could probably get six of them down before you even realize what hit you.
Speaker 1:Are they doing this up your way, man Dana? Are they doing the seltzers? Some of the microbreweries? Are they getting this up your way, man Dana? Are they doing the seltzers? Some of the microbreweries Are they getting involved with those? Now, blue Lobster is just seltzer, sorry, but a lot of the other microbreweries have kind of jumped on the seltzer thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, certainly, there's definitely some of the breweries here on the island that have kind of looked to diversify their portfolio. Right, get into seltzers, they're super popular. Especially if you want to bring in that clientele to a brewery who like don't drink beer right, it's super smart. So just here on the island we've got like the pei brewing company who like also involved with kahan um, they have the colliding tides brand, that's, that's from here. Um, bauxite brewing, uh, in montague, have their snap series of vodka seltzers and Copper Bottom, also from here in Montague, has their series as well, called Bantam, and I think, oh, and Upstreet has recently dabbled with a local business owner to create some, some sparkling vodka beverages. The first one was kind of a spin on a, uh, um, the the raspberry cordial from man of green gables, so it's kind of like a vodka version of that. And they, they just came out with a, uh, a lime breeze, kind of lime version of it too. Um, it's a, it's a brand called salty poet, it's, it's pretty nice I like the name salty poet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool, that's. You told me I'm a salty salty.
Speaker 2:I was going to say you, you fit the bill. I mean, like when I did that, when I did a little Instagram reel for them, I made sure the beard was huge, put a hat on nice sweater down by the water and just was spitting bars.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, See, Tobin was. Tobin was really into hip-hop at one point, and hip-hop is just poetry.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah, that's it, there you go, salty poet.
Speaker 3:I love that name. So, pei, you mentioned Upstreet. I love Upstreet. Those guys are great. Their white noise, their white IPA is like a go-to when I can get it.
Speaker 3:They're your favorite, I've said that before yeah, when I can get it. I said that before yeah, yeah, yeah it's, it's really really good, so they're a staple. But I mean, I've been liking uh, I've been liking, craft beer for a long time. I don't know what the oldest one is in pei, you might know, but I do know that gahan's been around for a long time. I mean, they've blown up, they're everywhere now yeah, how long has gahan been around?
Speaker 1:I didn't know like. I mean, I remember when they popped up and got popular.
Speaker 2:The early 2000s, from what I remember. Yeah, so PEI Brew Co for sure is the brewing company here on the island that has been around the longest. Okay, do you know when they started Roundabout Early 2000s, I think.
Speaker 3:I feel like I just looked this up a couple weeks ago and should know this.
Speaker 2:I'm not being a very good ambassador for pei craft beer.
Speaker 3:That's fun don't stress man, no, just yeah, dates are hard to remember, especially when you drink lots of beer.
Speaker 3:Exactly, that's it don't matter, we can drink enough beer I'll tell you gahan house, though I don't know what, uh, uh, you know if you uh, you know if they're one of your favorites. But I can tell you at one point in time, back when they were, and it's been it's been a couple of years since I've been to EI, but I do know that are they still in that old building that they were in, like just down from the church?
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, they are.
Speaker 3:So it right there, yeah, yeah, so they, uh, I used to love that and like, just almost like, adjacent up the street is the uh, what is it? Um, the irish pub there, what's?
Speaker 2:the name of it. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. Um, I?
Speaker 3:used to go there all the time. It was an irish pub and oyster bar and it's just escaped me, but I used to go there all the time when I used to do trips over to pei oh my gosh, that's killing me.
Speaker 2:I can't believe. I can't remember the name of that.
Speaker 3:Either way, but I I mean going to Gahan. I used to like, I used to make special trips just to go there because at one point in time Gahan's red, like their red, was probably my favorite red to drink. Red's a style I'm really weird and picky with. Even though it's not my favorite style like it's, it's a style that, like you know, I just you I can hate it real quick and I can instantly love it when it's really really bang on and be I like or the uh gahan was. I used to come back with growlers with it from it all the time, just the red alone yeah, well, they certainly have a beautiful spot in halifax here.
Speaker 2:Uh, I'll tell you that I was I was gonna say because, like, yeah, the the gahan beer here is great, but I I hear that there's a lot of great stuff coming out of the nova center, one that's where a lot of like the photo aged uh stuff that they're doing is is coming from, like the table beers that they were experimenting with a little bit there.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, a lot of cool stuff is coming out from halifax yeah, yeah, and they're all owned by the murphy's group, which are there. I mean, they're a huge, huge uh organization, uh in pei and and and parts of nova scotia as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah so what's the?
Speaker 3:uh, do you happen to know, like, if you're, if someone had, if they were coming to PEI and they were like you have to? I mean, I know you have, you know you said two handfuls, but what's like a, I can't miss beer like. Or brewery, what's your go-to? Oh?
Speaker 2:that's a really good question and that's it's a tough one too, because it's like each of them is just so incredible and special in their in their own ways and is like I don't know they all have things worth visiting for.
Speaker 2:And I mean, I guess if I'm talking to somebody who's like looking for recommendations, I think it really kind of depends on, like where are they going. Like if you're going just to charlottetown, then I would probably recommend something from there. Or like, if you're doing some more exploring, like if you're going down east to montague, if you're going up west to like tignish or o'leary, like there are different ones that I would, I would recommend, right. But the one who's like it's so hard to pick to pick just one um man, I gotta say special shout out to lone oak and a lot of the work that spencer galant is doing as head brewer there. They I mean I'm going to let you in on a little secret, not that it's much of a secret, I've talked about this on my account before, but I'm not actually from Prince Edward Island and they let you stay there.
Speaker 3:I know.
Speaker 2:It's wild Because my wife's from here so I had to marry in. It's all good, I got grandfathered in this is a nice yeah yeah, um.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I I'm technically a come from away, uh, or like I I like to call a islander by choice, um, but uh, yeah. So I I noticed that as being someone from ontario. Like the beer styles here on pei were just like not quite the same as what you would expect to get in, like on the ontario craft beer market, right, but I have to say that lone oak's been doing a lot of really cool stuff. That is like, I think, maybe not necessarily catching up to trends, but is like going in different directions and experimenting with, with really cool things, whether it's like um bringing in experimental yeasts from escarpment labs and testing those out in like super, super piney west coast ipas, uh, you know. Or like um barrel aged beers stouts with coffee, like they're doing all kinds of of really cool, experimental and fun stuff well, that does sound.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that sounds right up my alley. That's definitely something that I would like to go. I like small batches and weird things and yeah, just, you know, we have some. We have a lot of breweries, obviously in Nova Scotia, but there's some. There was definitely I miss we used to have a Gahan moved in there, but it used to be called before Gahan moved in. Then they moved up to where they are in the Nova Center, but it was Heart and Thistle.
Speaker 3:And shout out to greg nash, who works at, uh, or like owns, and works as a brewmaster at unfiltered brewing, because he was a brewmaster there and he used to come up with some weird, weird stuff like bourbon infused vanilla mint stouts, and you'd had the choice to go with you get either CO2 or you get nitrogen, whatever, and you could choose between the two. And yeah, well, well, well crafted beers, and you could, you know, and I had that kind of choice to tell the difference between CO2 and nitrogen. It was it. Honestly, it helped with the beer, the beer experience, to know what a beer tasted like with using a different form of gas. So it was. I love that stuff. So that's definitely one. If I make it over to PEI. I'll I'll definitely have to hit that up for sure.
Speaker 1:Two crows here. I think you're pretty cool with the experimental beer.
Speaker 3:They do some experimental stuff too, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and Lone Oak has done some stuff with with two crows, like they've collab, collabed on a couple things together. Most notably, I believe, was the Beard de Mie, french Pilsner, that I think they also did with Tadamagush, which was really nice. But yeah, lone Oak, they got four different locations on the island. So whether you're coming over from the bridge or if you're coming over from the ferry, you can easily get to a Lone Oak location.
Speaker 1:Matt, can you get to Nova?
Speaker 3:I, I don't think so, but yeah, they're actually, oh, sorry, sorry to interrupt.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say they just announced that there's some beers available at bishop cellar.
Speaker 3:I was good, I was just about to say, if anything, it's going to be a bishop cellar, because their eyes, they, they carry some of the stuff they carry banished, they carry some places from around the like atlanta, canada. So that's exactly what I was gonna say. Is, if they're anywhere, it's got to be bishops. They're, uh, bishops is is. You know, they bring some interesting things in, so I, uh, we'll have to make a journey down there, that's for sure, and, uh, check out some of the other beers that we can't normally get in the nslc or some of the other private ones. But so, if you're not from pei, where are you?
Speaker 2:I'm originally from a small town in Ontario called Blind River. It's halfway between Sault Ste Marie and Sudbury. We call it Northern Ontario, but really it's the middle, Because basically anything north of Barrie is Northern Ontario. But we're really most famous for being in the opening lyrics of Neil Young's Long May you Run.
Speaker 2:Yeah our town is mentioned in those first lyrics of Neil Young's Long May you Run, yeah yeah. Our town is mentioned in those first couple of lyrics. He at the time, back then in the 60s, he was touring across Canada in this old hearse and the hearse had broken down of all places in Blind River, ontario, and so got a, got a shout out in his, in his famous song there. So what brought you to Odeast, like anything else that brings us anywhere or compels us to move? A and his famous song there? So what brought you to Oat East, like anything else that brings us anywhere or compels us to move? A fantastic local craft beer scene no, I'm just kidding, it was love. It was love my wife's from here. That's awesome. So did you meet her in Ontario? No, we actually met in New Brunswick, of all places.
Speaker 1:Oh, you met in the middle kind of thing right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty much. So yeah, she was living in New Brunswick at the time and we met there and then I was on this East Coast road trip that just kind of corresponded or ended up with us spending more time together in PEI and we did long distance for a little bit. She moved to Ontario for a while and then I moved out here to put down roots. That's awesome. So how long have you been been together now, if you don't mind me asking uh, about five years.
Speaker 1:We, uh, we started dating just a couple months before the pandemic started okay, okay, yeah, you had the true test of love getting through the pandemic together. That's great, yeah yeah much holy smokes yeah any kids, or are you planning on any, or what's up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is coming out in August, right, yeah, yeah, we've actually got one on the way.
Speaker 1:Oh, awesome Congratulations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, do you in October or first child?
Speaker 3:So she's, she's off the craft beer right now.
Speaker 2:then I guess, yeah, so we've been spending a lot of time drinking non-alcoholic beers, which has been a really fun journey and it's been kind of something I've been trying to promote a little bit more myself on my account. Um, yeah, yeah, and like, especially during the week, like I try to stick to uh, to non-alcoholic beers, but it's not every day you get to chat with the afternoon pint podcast so I'm dipping into one of, uh, one of the the higher ABV beers in the fridge. But, yeah, like a couple a couple months ago I had a someone who followed me on Instagram, shot me a message and was like you do a lot of really great stuff. But, like, as someone who has been sober themselves for like a number of years, was just curious about perspective or like showing off more non-alcoholic beers, and I thought that's a fantastic idea. Like I mean, everyone could use a little bit more balance in their life.
Speaker 1:Right, uh, for all kinds of, do I mean, even if you're not uh, calories, because I'd be the beer thing. When I got sick there a month ago I was sick with ammonia, uh, for I don't know matt what like half a month or almost a month. So anyways, I lost a bunch of weight and I think most of it was beer dude. When I was getting healthier I was afraid I didn't have any beer for the first like two weeks. I was kind of getting back to work and stuff. I just wanted to get focused and the weight stayed down. It stayed completely off me and as soon as I started saying, okay, I'm back, oh my, let's have the pints I have for this show, the weight just started coming right back, and it's so quickly.
Speaker 2:So there is something to say about pints and weight. Yeah, totally Lots of calories in beer. So, whether it's just for, like, that aspect of your health or just to kind of lower the amount of alcohol that you consume at any time, right, yeah, it was just something that I never really had thought about and figured, why not? Now non-alcoholic beers have come to a place where they could be on par, if not sometimes better than, actual craft beers. Right, just here on the island we've got the Libra brand.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that. I talk about that all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fantastic yeah, and they're expanding like nationwide. Now they just announced, uh, that they're available in like costcos, uh like in ontario and new brunswick and nova scotia. It's like that's a huge brand, um yeah. So it's like it's just really awesome to see that there are, if not like low or like no no to low alcohol beverages that are just as good as regular, not regular time.
Speaker 3:It was garbage for a long time what? Oh, just for a long time. It was absolutely garbage. Like non-alcoholic beers yeah, they were. Just, I don't know, maybe just because it wasn't being taken seriously, there was no effort being put into it. It was like this kind of tastes like beer. And here you, because it wasn't being taken seriously, there was no effort being put into it. It was like this kind of tastes like beer. And here you go.
Speaker 1:It wasn't a craft market thing then either. It was just more of a generic thing like your Bud Zero yeah.
Speaker 3:If you wanted a non-alcoholic beer five years or more ago, realistically you had to go and pick up a German beer, because German beers have been making craft non-alcoholic beers for a long time, because they have to. You can't make a beer that's not properly like crafted in germany. Basically, they have a law to do it right. So, uh, you really had to go to germany in order to get a good non-alcoholic beer.
Speaker 3:Now everyone's kind of catching on because, yeah, as much as it's great to sit back and have a, you know, a drink and stuff like that, there's also times, especially I you know, I've been young, I have a young one, and not easy for me to just get a drive home, because it's not like you're gonna wake up a two or three year old to go pick up dad who's had, you know, six, seven beer and can't drive home, same here and all that stuff. But you can go. I could go and grab a six pack of non-alcoholic beer and sip away and enjoy it and drive home yeah so it's good.
Speaker 3:and also I agree with you, like my we my wife and I like we have a near three year old it'll be three in august, so um he uh, when my wife was pregnant, that's when we started to discover non-alcoholic drinks more, and that's honestly because I never looked at it before. It's actually when I discovered how well the scene has come along and how much better it is, because not and not just beer, like there's, there's other, like there's non-alcoholic drinks. There's a particular non-alcoholic drink from Quebec. That's a rum and coke and if I gave that to you you'd think I served you a stiff rum and coke and there's no alcohol in it at all. Bring one of those with you would?
Speaker 1:you Sure? You just have that illusion.
Speaker 2:That'd be great. Oh, I was about to say too, like and it's not just craft stuff, like, even now, macro, uh brands are like getting good, not like. Have you guys had the corona sunbrew? Yeah, I totally love it. I love it. If you, if you just gave me, like, if you somehow took the labels off of those glass bottles and you put a lime in each of those and you handed it to me, I don't think I could tell you which one was the real Corona and which one's the sun brew.
Speaker 3:On a hot summer day it's just the same. You're not selling it for me. I don't like regular Corona.
Speaker 1:He's not going to like it. But he also doesn't like hot tubs or fun or the sun. Yeah For hot tubs or fun or the sun. Yeah, for those who know they, yeah, but no, I like it. You know what? You know, really, my dad got into it. He was so excited when they had the two fours at costco and he started. He started feeding them too and they'd go over the house because I'd have a beer and you know, like a driving home thing, right, but also, I mean, I matt I don't know if we touched on this in another episode, sorry if we did, but like the other thing about the non-alcohol beers now is like generationally, dare to say, that I think the younger generation are choosing pot over beer.
Speaker 1:Right, so they don't want to have alcohol as much as, pardon I say, our generation might have desired, right. So I think that's changing a little bit Right. Might have desired, right, so I think that's changing a little bit right. I said before on the show, I've been out to bars on the weekend and having a drink with a friend and I look over and the kids are on a date and they're having coffee and it's nine o'clock on a Saturday night, right, and you're like well, that's different and I think You're not gonna sleep, but that is different.
Speaker 3:Well, hey, anyways not going to sleep, but that is different. Well, hey, anyways, I mean, if the day goes well, I mean so. So, dana, uh, what's your? What's your craft beer story? Everyone kind of has one because, you know, for the most part people didn't, weren't raised on it because it wasn't really popular as much 20, 30 years ago. So, what, what made you discover it? And, uh, you know what, how'd you fall in love with it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So my my drinking journey, like in high school I was not one of those party kids Like I didn't go out or drink much at all. If I ever did, it was like it was like Coors Light Like's what started with um, and then went to university you know lots of Coors Light Canadian, moved up to Moosehead, you know, slowly worked your way up the rung of domestic beers, um, and it wasn't really until, like a local pub just kind of had like a craft beer on tap and I was like, oh, this kind of sounds interesting. So I tried it and you know I would every now and again maybe have one. And then once I finished university and like I started getting into a little bit more and uh, like anyone in ontario, the, the lcbo, would be like the place to go for craft beer. Weirdly enough, because we have a beer store, but the place for craft beer would be the lcbo, the liquor store, um, so we'd walk in and just kind of starting it would just be like what's got the coolest label, I'm going to grab this one. This one looks kind of fun. What's this Now? A lot of trial and error. With that approach. You find a lot of good things. You find a couple bad things too, but again, it wasn't until the pandemic hit.
Speaker 2:I was living in Ottawa at the time and a lot of breweries started offering local, free, local delivery and I think that this was something I was listening to, the episode that um y'all did with james mullinger and um you were chatting a little bit uh, about how places were like delivering beer to you during that time and I was like it was the same thing for me where it was an opportunity to like.
Speaker 2:I can't leave the house, I can't anywhere, but I can get craft beer brought to me. Well, why not try as much as I can? I'm not doing a whole lot else right now, so that's that's really kind of where it started. And then, in terms of like, talking about it on Instagram, I would like see that other, you know, I would start following breweries myself and I would see that they would like reshare content done by other people. And then I found this whole other kind of community of people who talk about craft beer on Instagram and I lurked in the shadows for a while. I just kind of watched what other people did, learned a little bit, liked, you know, shared things. But yeah, after a while I started kind of like doing it myself and then ended up moving from Ontario here to PEI and I just found it was like a really great opportunity to get to learn more about my new home and get connected with people in the community and support local businesses and get out and go from tip to tip.
Speaker 1:So you take it very seriously. What's your day job?
Speaker 2:My day job. I work in health tech so I do like customer support, sales kind of stuff. So you probably tell by the headset here that I have a work from home setup. I'm on the phones pretty often but yeah, so during the day I'm able to, you know, work from home and work for that job. And then, you know, on the, on the evenings, on the weekends, like to make content and talk about it on Instagram.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I mean, that's not really much different than us. We have day jobs and then we just talk to other people and have drinks.
Speaker 2:Well gosh, how else are people our age supposed to be able to make friends? I mean, what else are we supposed to do? No one's scheduled playdates anymore.
Speaker 3:I mean you got to go to the local brewery. You just wait, you just wait. You're about to get scheduled for playdates you just wait, you're about to get scheduled for play dates it's going to be a real drop off in Pines to PEI content over the next couple of years.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But it'll still be nice. Keep it up, man, because it's fun to keep. You got to see something going for yourself as you're raising a child. 100%, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So like this whole the award thing, so like what did that like kind of look like, what did that feel like, kind of thing. You know, how do you even get considered out of all the people, how's Dana the one who's like, hey, that's the guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a. That's a great question. I'm still not a hundred percent sure myself. Just kind of early on in in this journey as Pines of PEI, I received a message from the canadian brewing awards and they had asked if I wanted to be involved as an ambassador for them. And uh, working as an ambassador, which just kind of involves, like you know, helping make content, promote awareness um for for the canadian brewing awards. There there were a couple of us who were chosen um. Shout out to fellow uh canadian brewing awards ambassador from nova scotia, ryan gully, craft beer gully himself.
Speaker 2:Uh was an ambassador as well yeah, um, so yeah, and you know it, it was our job to like, reach out to breweries, help kind of get the word out and see if folks would be interested in going to the conference. So I got started with them in 2024 no it, it is 2024, 2023, when it was in Halifax. So I came down for the awards. It was at the Convention Center, which is right around the Cajon Nova Center, and yeah, so it was a bit of a surprise because they had never done anything like that before. But I guess they just liked what I was doing for them and uh, yeah, so made made a little award for me which was very kind it was, it was. It was a very nice surprise that is very cool.
Speaker 1:Did they pay you or was this volunteer work?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, there there was a. There was a payment involvement to it. Um, yeah, so it was it's. It's. It was all based on us like trying to to drum up word for for breweries, right, so we would have like a link that would allow people to to buy tickets and, you know, if they bought tickets through our link, it would, you know, it would help, it would help for us. But, yeah, they, they, they took care of us. Uh, so yeah, it wasn't it wasn't all just free time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the main, thing, yeah, yeah good for you.
Speaker 3:They could.
Speaker 2:They could have paid me in beer and I would have done it for them well, that was, that was a huge aspect of it too, like, uh, you know, there's there's a lot of beer that gets submitted to the canadian brewing awards and, uh, if a couple, a couple cans or bottles go missing, and uh, you know, I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, but I did like, if they want, like mike and I will will be judges anytime they want. They're always looking for judges if you guys want to.
Speaker 1:I'm really not a weird guy, though. I just enjoy drinking it. I'm like a thumbs up, thumbs down. I'm not going to give you a whole bunch of exposition. It's like I enjoy this or I don't. That's it.
Speaker 2:Do you guys use untapped I don't you know what.
Speaker 3:I tried it one day. I don't you know what I tried. I probably should, and I should have for a long time. I actually at one point had a paper journal that I was actually writing everything down.
Speaker 1:There's this little hello kitty notebook he carried around all the time. I'm sorry, I'm coming. That's great. That's a 9% beer I'm starting, it started to kick in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, seriously no, I I know it was just a plain black leather notebook, but I was uh keeping track of a lot of for a while and like I see what I've uh people who've listened to the podcast probably know I've actually been drinking, uh, craft beer since 2005, roughly kind of thing, and uh.
Speaker 3:So I wish I would have kept track of everything, because I'd probably be in the thousands and it would be really really thick. But at one point I had this idea that I wanted to keep track and maybe even almost like write a book about it or something, um, but then what happened was like I forgot my notebook and I hit up a couple of breweries on a trip and then I was just like I got it in my head. Then I'm like I missed all this, like it's all spoiled now, and I just kind of gave up on it. So you know, maybe someday I'll kick back into it, but at this point it's like I don't know. I've had so many beers that it's like it's I guess it's just in here and that's where it'll stay let's switch up the conversation a bit.
Speaker 1:So, uh pei, uh, people that are from away that are going to hear this podcast, yeah, across canada, what's some of the funnest stuff to do in pei?
Speaker 2:in your opinion? Yeah well, I mean, when you live on an island, you're not too far away from the beach. Uh, and honestly, just like again, as someone from Ontario, I'm still adjusting to saltwater. I'm, I'm, I'm a freshwater guy. You know Northern Ontario, lots of beautiful lakes swimming in their Lake, huron, so still getting used to saltwater. But I mean, I feel like when I was, when I was younger, like you know, 10 years ago, I probably wouldn't have been as excited to just sit on a beach and not do anything for a couple hours. But now it's like sign me up, man, I, I'm, I'll bring a book, I'll just sit, I'll chill. It's, it's great.
Speaker 3:Oh, pretty warm though In PEI, though, like you guys have fairly good, like fairly warm, waters compared to what we're used to in Nova Scotia, at least on the Atlantic side. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again, maybe I'm just an Ontario coward, but I put my toes in the Atlantic ocean and I just shrivel up. I'm still working on it.
Speaker 3:Well, that Northumberland Strait's all right, it's all right.
Speaker 2:I just got to swim on the other side. That's it, on the other side of the island.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. So Mike and I both went over to pei for a bachelor party. One time we went to spikes paintball is that still around?
Speaker 2:maybe. Uh, I'm not.
Speaker 3:I'm not much of a paintballer myself, but it sounds kind of familiar, I I think it is we like we're not either, but we just went over there and we went for a bachelor party and and we had a blast in Charlottetown. It's, just outside of Charlottetown, one of the best honestly one of the best paintball round ranges or whatever you want to call them that I've ever been to.
Speaker 1:It's pretty wild. What was the name of that bar we went to down there, matt? It was like a lot of decks, peaks, key, peaks, key. Is that still there?
Speaker 2:decks. Like what is key pete's key, is that still there? Pete's key, yeah, pete's. Pete's key is a pretty cool spot. Um, I've, I've I've never been up into so because there's like there's the bar or restaurant called pete's key. Um, I, I think that's where a lot of the younger folks like to hang out on the weekends, but there's for for folks who have never been there.
Speaker 2:So Peaks Key is like downtown Charlottetown, right by the water, and it's a restaurant and bar and nightclub itself.
Speaker 2:That's on the second level of a building that has like a deck up there, but then when you come down and you're on like the ground level, there's a lot of other kind of little shops that you can go into. There's a cow's ice cream there, but there's also a floating dock that you can walk onto that has more food options available. There's, um, there's like the nimrod's pizza hut with an actual like wood, uh, wood fired pizza oven on there. I don't know how you can fit something like that on a dock and still have it float and not sink. I I don't know what's going on there. There's like lobster rolls. There's, um, it's actually a tiki bar there who just this, just this summer, it's called jc's tiki bar this summer. There's they actually put a lot of sand on, like their section of the floating dock, so you almost kind of feel like you're you're on the beach and they got these swings that are kind of cool to sit on.
Speaker 3:Oh, and you know what I just remembered? Old Dublin Pub. That's the pub, that's it. Old Dublin Pub, that's the.
Speaker 2:Irish pub there.
Speaker 3:Fantastic time I've ever been there. It's always been a blast.
Speaker 1:Did I have oysters there with you, or was that somebody else?
Speaker 3:No, we had oysters there. We had oysters there.
Speaker 1:That was the first time I ever tried oysters was a bei. Oh, there you go, great place to try them. I became a big fan. Yeah, they're fun, yeah, but uh, yeah, it was the first time I was ever brave enough to try them, because they're scary, the first time same same thing for me.
Speaker 2:It was my first place trying oysters too, here on the island. It was that when I met the rest of my wife's family it was kind of like a introduction to the island. You gotta eat these oysters us Really.
Speaker 1:They just wanted to watch us squirm for a minute.
Speaker 3:They're pretty good, though they're pretty good. I love oysters. They're one of my favorite things to eat. Honestly though, oyster with a if you're talking beer, have it with a stout If you're not talking beer. An oyster and a bloody Caesar Love that combination.
Speaker 1:Right, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a bloody caesar love that combination right, right, yeah, yeah. So the uh, and then obviously anna green gables and all that stuff is like the big touristy stuff. Um, what you'll have to do actually is go over to surrey and take the ferry up to the magdalene islands. I did that in 2013 and that was amazing it's.
Speaker 2:It's on our list. I um, my old roommate from uh, from ottawa. He's married now to um, to a girl who's from quebec and she's like up from near chukotomi. But they somehow knew someone who lived on the magdalen islands and they like went over there and stayed at the house over there and just like all the pictures it just looks so incredible, it just looks like such a really cool spot to visit. But I hear there's one craft brewery on the magdalen islands but it's so busy you can never get in it it's so good.
Speaker 3:They have a couple beers that are absolute, like absolute bangers. Oh, yeah, yeah it's. Uh, there's. One of the best brown beers I've ever had is from this place.
Speaker 1:So we can find what it's called on Google. Do you know what it's called?
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, it's something Le Temps. I can't remember exactly, but I know exactly where it is. It's on the west side of the island and, yeah, it's pretty good. I'm actually going to be to quebec here pretty soon. Uh, I could probably grab some, because I'm pretty sure you can pick them up in quebec city. So I'll, uh, I'll grab. I'll grab you a beer or two there, tovin, and you can try. It sounds good to me thanks, man that's what, friends are for that's right, exactly so.
Speaker 3:Our so honestly, like we honestly. We can probably start to even wrap this up a little bit, but you're now officially the afternoon client. Ambassador from DEI.
Speaker 1:You have been anointed my friend, so thank you so much yeah.
Speaker 3:So is there anything like people are going to tune into this last three minutes of dust chat and like, what are you going to sell PEI on? Like, what are the must haves, the must eats, the must drinks, like anything like that. Just give it to us.
Speaker 2:Totally Well.
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously, the local craft beer scene here is, is is quite great.
Speaker 2:You know it's, it's. I will say that there's something about islanders that is deeply ingrained in them, this thing about protecting and supporting local, and it's like you can, you can feel it in just about everywhere you go, whether it is the food or the drinks, like the pride of being able to with pei potatoes, pei seafood, pe beef, pei grown hops, malts, right. So it's just like, yeah, there's this huge thing about promoting, protecting and supporting local businesses that you just feel it everywhere you go and it's a really cool feeling. So, whether you're going all the way up west or down east, or you're just right downtown in Charlottetown, you're going to find something pretty, pretty incredible, whether it's a bar or a restaurant or a brewery, or even just a park or like a live band or a coffee shop, like there's so many incredible things to do and see here. And it's not just all in Charlottetown too, right, like I said, there's beaches all over the place. There are small towns everywhere that full of charm, and, yeah, it's really quite the spot.
Speaker 3:Any must eat places that you can think of.
Speaker 2:So one of my main recommendations to everybody and for folks in Nova Scotia might be familiar with it as well, but Hop Yard is the craft beer bar here in PEI and they had a Halifax location for a little while. That shut down a couple of years ago I think. But Hop Yard will always be one of my top places to recommend, not just because there's lots of great craft beer there from the island or from abroad from Nova Scotia. You know it's not uncommon to see Tatamagush or Two Crows or Pump House you know from New Brunswick on tap there, but fantastic food and the food menu like changes every month so you can go in every four weeks and have something new every time. I like that yeah, last question.
Speaker 1:I know we're wrapping up in this. Hopefully this isn't unpack a big thing. How is the cost of living in pei these days?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's uh, that that's a that's a great question. So I mean, like, compared to ontario, I mean, the housing market definitely isn't as like high or as crazy as other places. Like we just bought a house ourselves here, uh, in the montague area a couple months ago, and like comparing what we got for, like what the prices might be in ontario for something similar, like definitely definitely not the same. Um, but I mean the taxes are a little bit higher out here in in pei, right, um and uh. Yeah, I mean I don't know. I think everywhere everyone's kind of feeling, feeling it right, whether it's at the grocery store or uh, or at the pump not that I'm going to unpack too too many things, but um, yeah I, I think lots of folks across canada, canada, are feeling the pinch on their dollars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think for the most part, at least from my perspective- it hasn't been too bad living here on PEI.
Speaker 1:Well, that's awesome. Yeah, cool man. Well, I'm really happy to hear about you having a new baby soon, so congratulations on that. We're hoping to be A little pint, a little pint.
Speaker 2:A little pint of PEI.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Congratulations. Thank you so much for agreeing to chat with us. We really do appreciate it. And and one last cheers to you, Dana.
Speaker 2:All right Cheers to you guys. Thanks for having me on here today and listen next time we share a drink hope maybe it's here on this side of the bridge. We'll go to the old dublin we'll get some oysters, go do some paintball. You'll be one of the first people that know 100.
Speaker 1:We'll let you know. Definitely cheers, gentlemen. Thank you, barley. Hops and yeast Makes our days full of cheer From far and wide. We drink to the
