Modern Brewer’s Village Green

“When I started working in the brewing industry, I knew it was something that I should be doing” explained Bryan Carver.  Originally a cabinet maker from Ottawa, Bryan began working in the brewing industry a little over a decade ago when he moved to the Island and began building the Gahan House. Feeling the desire to stick around and learn more, he then gained enough expertise to take on the position as Head Brewer in what is now known as the PEI Brewing Company.  

Realizing his dream of one day owning his own brewery, Bryan continued to seek out valuable experience in the industry and even spent a month abroad doing consulting work for a brewery in India.  Upon moving back home, he took up a job with DME Brewing Solutions which had him installing breweries all over North America.  This gave him amazing insight into the market and provided him with a deeper understanding of what goes into establishing a brewery.

Bryan’s entrepreneurial journey accelerated quickly when his employer, DME Brewing Solutions, came to a close.  With little savings and a lot of research, he began toying with the idea of opening a nano brewery, his own twist based off the nano-pub concept.  In that moment, Cornwall was missing a social hub and coincidentally Bryan came across a small space in the community that was soon to be vacant.  This is when he established Modern Brewer’s Village Green, Village Green being the name of the location.

 After a somewhat stressful period of setting up at the beginning of a pandemic, the facility is now a 2-vessel brew house that can produce batches of 250 Litres.  Equipped with a tap room, it provides a space for community members and tourists to come together with friends for a beer.

Being a smaller brewery has allowed Bryan to experiment with different batches, resulting in new beers every 2 to 4 weeks.  Some of the varieties he has dabbled in include English styles, IPAs and hazy IPAs, Belgium styles, and German influenced lagers to name a few.  Producing high-quality products that customers enjoy is the very definition of success for Carver, that and being able to pay the bills to see another day running the business.

The CBDC was happy to help him achieve this success through two different loan initiatives, the first being an Atlantic Impact Loan and then an Urban Mainstreet Loan, both of which assisted with covering construction and equipment costs necessary to set up.  “It is a great resource; I find we are very fortunate on the Island to have organizations like the CBDC”, mentioned Bryan.  Now that Village Green is buzzing with energy and good beer, Bryan looks forward to further growing and establishing the facility as a community space.  “I think there are still some people living in Cornwall that don’t know we are here.  So, making it more of a community hub is a priority” Carver explained.  Bryan’s vision for Modern Brewer’s brand, as a whole, is to one day open another larger brewery where customers can sit down and enjoy food with their beer.  Safe to say, Bryan’s dream of over a decade in the making has now come to fruition and the CBDC couldn’t be happier to watch his business grow.