N.B. Liquor restricts bars, restaurants to buying kegs from 13 breweries during outage

As N.B. Liquor enters its second week with its digital payment systems down, it is limiting bars and restaurants to purchasing alcohol on tap from a small list of breweries.

The government-run alcohol and cannabis stores across the province were hit by what the Crown corporation describes as a "potential cyber threat" on Jan. 7. Stores are still open, but they're only accepting cash as payment.

Since then, Alcool N.B. Liquor has provided the public with little information.

"We are working around the clock to restore our systems, so that we can resume normal operations as quickly as possible," said a statement the company posted on social media on Monday. 

A spokesperson did not respond when asked by CBC News on Tuesday if customer data was a risk. 

It's not just liquor stores that are affected. Restaurants and bars in the province that have taps, known as licencees, are only allowed to buy alcohol kegs through an N.B. Liquor processing system.

An email sent to producers on Tuesday said New Brunswick's 1,400 licencees can only temporarily order alcohol kegs from a corporate list list of 13 producers this week.

CBC News obtained the email sent by Brian Cloutier of N.B. Liquor, who wrote that the company's order-processing system is down, so orders can only be submitted via a spreadsheet.

Six of 13 on list from Fredericton area

"Given ongoing restrictions, you will only be able to order from the highest volume producers to start," Cloutier wrote in the email. All orders need to go through N.B. Liquor, he said.

The spreadsheet only allows licencees to purchase alcohol kegs from Pump House, Graystone, Picaroons, Trailway, Grimross, PEI Brewing, Long Bay Brewery, York County Cider, Half Cut Brewing, Big Axe Brewery, Labatt, Molson and Moosehead. 

"We want to reassure you that we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation and return to our normal processes as quickly as possible," Cloutier wrote.

Craft Alcohol NB says on its website that the province has more than 100 craft alcohol artisans, with products that include beer, wine, mead, spirits and cider.

Six of the 13 breweries on the N.B. Liquor list are based in the capital city, while another three are not from New Brunswick. 

"It's very focused on their backyard in Fredericton," Stephen Legacy, a co-owner of Four Rivers Brewing in Bathurst, said of the supplier list.

"And it's tough because when you look at the smaller markets, Edmundston or anywhere in the North Shore, or Campbellton, the peninsula, we don't have the population base.

"But if you look at the sales at the stores, percentage wise, we could be absolutely dominating the market."

Hard to compete

Legacy also said it's already challenging to get local bars to offer local beers on tap.

He said the three macro-breweries on the list, Moosehead, Labatt and Molson, will sometimes buy an entire new tap system for a bar in order to get exclusive tapping with them.

"So us smaller ones, we can't really compete on that scale."

Legacy said this could have been a perfect opportunity for N.B. Liquor to allow producers to sell directly to licencees, something the industry has been pushing for, without luck, for years.

"So this could have been a lot better situation where they could say, listen, our system is down. Can the licensees, the bars and restaurants, order directly from the producers while we're working on this issue?"

Instead, Legacy said, the wine bar next door that sells his products is not allowed to walk over to restock on more of his beer.

"They just have to wait until this gets resolved."

Despite being New Brunswick's first craft cider producer in operation since 2014, Red Rover Cider in Fredericton also did not make the temporary list.

"It certainly seems that we're not out of the woods in being able to get back to a normal level of service," said Adam Clawson, a co-founder of Red Rover.

But N.B. Liquor's system problems have come during a month that's historically slow for sales, Clawson said. 

"It's not been an issue on my end, it's not been an issue with demand."

In addition to the restriction, Clawson and Legacy both said that recent payments from N.B. Liquor to producers have not been processed.

"No one got any of their invoices paid last week as well, so a lot of producers … are definitely concerned that their normal stream of impact has also been impacted by this," Clawson said.