Sober Island. Yes, it’s a real place.

As they explored our coastal waters, legend has it Nova Scotia sailors would toast the discovery of new lands. As you can imagine, navigating the eastern shore archipelagos led to more than a few raised glasses.

By the time they reached our home, supplies were understandably short and only one name seemed appropriate: Sober Island. But today, warm hospitality and craft ale await all those with an adventurous heart.

Our beer will quench your thirst, warm your heart, and fuel your next trek into the wild blue yonder.

Imagine how easy it’d be to just brew beer in a factory, using ingredients from a catalog. Ugh, we’d rather not. We do things the hard way. Which is usually the right way too. Every 800-litre batch starts with well water, and every ingredient is locally sourced whenever possible. The oysters in our stout are from nearby Pristine Bay. And every can is filled by hand (which is totally as painstaking as it sounds), but it’s worth it. Our recipes are built from scratch and are the products of a full-mash process, which means that you’ll never see us use an extract in our production.

Seas are never 100% calm when you’re brewing in small batches & using high-quality local ingredients, but we only do things the hard way. It’s tastier like that.

There was once a time when “Oyster Stout” wasn’t a term you’d hear over on this side of the pond.

In a Welsh pub where she was born, Rebecca Atkinson knew that Nova Scotia was missing out. Thanks to her deep love of food and drink, this determined woman built the craft known as Sober Island Brewing Co. and set sail in 2015.

Rebecca Atkinson has proven that the historically male-dominated industry of brewing is a welcome space for all. Her influence on the beer industry in Nova Scotia has passed far beyond the Eastern Shore where her brewery resides.

Sober Island’s nearest neighbour is the town of Sheet Harbour. If you were looking for a dot on a map, that’d be it. So let’s start there. It was back in the late 1700s that some no-nonsense folks put down the roots for one of Nova Scotia’s premier logging settlements. You had to be hard-working and tough-as-nails in those times, and not much has changed. (Although warmth and hospitality are more common nowadays). We love our home. We’re happy to venture out into the world, but this oceanside pile of rocks is where we’ll always return. Come visit us sometime.