Winnipeggers (in Manitoba, Canada) said a great big cheers to Queer Beer Thursday, snapping up the locally made specialty brew the second it hit the shelves.
Half Pints Brewing Co. produced the beer to celebrate the upcoming Pride Winnipeg festival, but the beer’s launch at two city liquor stores Thursday proved so popular that the festival’s entire bottled supply was gone within hours.
“We went through what we had earmarked for the entire festival in about two hours,” said Nicole Rudge, CEO of Half Pints. “We’re working like mad to get additional beer bottled and labelled.”
Rudge said the response wasn’t just big in Winnipeg, but across North America, in part due to a Winnipeg Sun story Wednesday that touted the beer’s launch.
“I was fielding calls from as far away as New York City and Los Angeles. It’s just been out of hand,” she said. “We were expecting a warm reception but this is extreme. We couldn’t be happier. It’s been a tiny bit stressful, but in a good way.”
Festival goers shouldn’t fear there won’t be any Queer Beer around when Pride Winnipeg kicks off next weekend.
Half Pints put most of its supply into kegs that were set aside for festival events, and those remain.
However, it’s the accompanying bottled supply that the brewery is now scrambling to re-stock.
Rudge said the response won’t prompt the brewery to change its mind about keeping Queer Beer a temporary, specialty product.
“We’re a small, local, craft brewery. We don’t do mass distribution,” she said. “We have plans on coming back to this next year, but we’re known for doing seasonal beers.”
Rudge said she’s simply proud for Half Pints, as well as for the Pride Festival, and said all she hopes is that the people who are snapping up the beer continue to support both the brewery and the event.
