Well.. to be honest, this feels weird for us to start when we have no specific space we are moving into… but a bunch of our supporters have messaged, or comments on our posts telling us to just start this, and see what happens.. so I guess.. here we go…

TL;DR: After paying $7300 at the Canadian border in the past year and a half we are no longer able to ‘weather’ this tariff war. Due to the very unique geographical location of our home and business on Campobello Island these new 50% dual-direct tariffs are the final bullet, and have collapsed our business model overnight. Campobello is an isolated island in New Brunswick Canada that sits right on the border of the United States. The only way to access it year-round is via a bridge from Lubec Maine. Because of our reliance on the United States for both customers and supplies our livelihood is now threatened, and our ability to provide for our family, including our new 5 month old son, is in jeopardy! We need help to move our business to Lubec so we can continue serving the community without being impacted by these tariffs.

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When we started the planning of our brewery at the end of summer 2024 we knew we were going to have an uphill battle, but we aren’t the kind of people to just not do something because it’s hard. In starting the brewery we knew we were putting our money where our mouth was, and once we started it, we were then able to advocate for the changes we believed were needed to help new business grow on this island.

In October 2025 we started planning our beer garden, so we could provide the community with a space to gather, talk, play music, and enjoy the beauty of the Campobello/Lubec region. Our goal was to have our one-year anniversary party on our farm property, but instead we landed ourselves in a multi-month long battle with the province over regulatory issues our predecessors were somehow unaffected by, despite also being unknowingly out of compliance when they started their small breweries that have now become the foundation of the craft brewing scene in New Brunswick.

Our sales have steadily climbed since opening, yet we continue to feel kneecapped here with these escalating costs. In the past 18 months alone, under the previous tariff response, we have paid $7300 to the Canadian Government, so this new dual-direction 50% tariff is the final death bullet. Between paying Canada additional fees to bring our goods in, and our American customers, who make up the bulk of our sales, now having to pay an extra $10 per 4-pack when bringing them home, we are crippled.

We want to support the community and thrive, but we can’t in the climate we are currently in.

With the brewery in Lubec now closed (the owners retired), it only makes sense that we move just three miles down the road, over a bridge, and into the community that has already been our main support system since day one of us opening! We have the equipment, experience, recipes, passion, energy, time, and desire to do this… and moving the brewery to Lubec will open up multiple new opportunities for us! Making this move will mean we finally get to have the taproom/community space we’ve been trying to get for nearly a year, the ability to self-distribute our product to retail outlets, something we can’t do in New Brunswick, and more importantly than anything it will eliminate the literal hundreds of hours, and thousands of dollars we spend annually at the Canadian border just to get our supplies into the country.

While all of this sounds great on paper we have to be clear with you, there is no guarantee that we will succeed in any of this, and if you help us all we can honestly promise is that we will try!! This is our livelihood, so we are digging into all every dust-covered corner we can find to try and uncover a space that will work to build a community space in! Our first major hurdle in this move will be securing a place to brew out of. Once we have that it will be around six months of paperwork, licensing, and business start up before we can open. Here is what we are looking at to start:

1) Find a new place to operate out of

2) Apply from a Brewer’s Notice (TTB) with the federal government

3) Apply to various state agencies for licensing

4) Move all our equipment to the space, and get it installed

5) Pass state inspections and get approved to brew

6) Brew beer, can and keg it, and stockpile stock

7) Prepare the space for opening day

8) pour pints!

All of this will take time, and if we start working on it today, we realistically would not be able to open until late spring of 2027. In the mean time we are going to wind down our business on the island as our stock sells out, and try to find some part time jobs to get us through the winter. We are hopeful with community support from the coast and beyond we can get through this tariff war, provide for our family, and keep the tradition of community spaces and brewing alive in Lubec!

Thank you all kindly,

Zoltan, Laura and Baby Hazen.