Brew Donkey Tours gets on board with alcohol-free options in response to changing tastes

Brew Donkey Tours is now offering alcohol-free tours as consumer tastes evolve. Photo provided by Brew Donkey Tours.
Brew Donkey Tours is now offering alcohol-free tours as consumer tastes evolve. Photo provided by Brew Donkey Tours.

As demand for its craft brewery tours began to dry up in the early months of each year, Ottawa’s Brew Donkey Tours decided to try something new in response to evolving consumer tastes.

The bus tour company, founded in 2013, pairs visits to Ottawa craft breweries with various activities. Now, it has extended its offerings to include alcohol-free tours. The “Brew Donkey AF” tours are a response to the dip in interest that the company has seen recently at the beginning of each year, founder Brad Campeau told OBJ. 

“We put together the alcohol-free tours for this year specifically because, over the last couple years, we’ve seen a bit of a drop – actually, a marked drop – in January and February tours. This year, we thought, ‘Let’s just create a product that will offer people one or the other,’” Campeau said. 

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A 2023 report from Statistics Canada shows that, although Canadians have been spending more money on alcohol since the pandemic, they’re drinking less, with about 22 per cent of those polled reducing their overall consumption. 

At Brew Donkey, while tours will offer alcohol-free options, breweries will still have regular beers on tap.

“It’s our first year doing (these tours) and the promotion for them only started in November. The first one we did had a decent amount of people on it, with 50 per cent alcohol-free and the rest were just accompanying someone who was alcohol-free. It hasn’t moved the needle, but it’s something we’re happy to offer and hoping it gets busier in the future,” Campeau said.

The company’s tours include an activity, ranging from skiing to virtual reality to watching a wrestling match. Each activity is paired with a tour of one or two local breweries, where participants can learn more about the beer-making process and have a snack or meal.

“You get a behind-the-scenes look at the brewing facility,” Campeau explained. “You hear the story of why they started their brewery. Generally, it’s why they quit their government or tech day job to make a fun and engaging brewery.” 

Brew Donkey was born of Campeau’s wish to be a tourist in his own city.

“I had just gotten back from a trip to Spain and I wanted to do something that felt like a vacation in your own city. We always assume that you have to wait for vacations to do any tourist-based things; exploration, playing around and getting that element of enjoyment out of a city,” he said.

When he started the business, Campeau said people at the different breweries thought he was crazy, but eventually decided to try it after “weeks of pestering” at events and festivals. The tours provide the breweries with a slew of potential new clients, Campeau pointed out.

Over the past 11 years, Brew Donkey has helped to support about 35 breweries in the National Capital Region, from Orléans to Carleton Place to the Quebec border, helping to “drive the craft beer boom” in the nation’s capital, Campeau said. 

Curating the experiences is done in tandem with the breweries, with the choice of beer left up to the brewers, he added. “With every one of those partnerships, it’s trying to find out what they need out of the partnership.”

One of the most popular offerings is the “Hops and Elbow Drops” tour, which takes customers to different breweries and then to watch a wrestling match. 

“We found there’s a crossover sometimes. The people that love wrestling will usually love beer, and those who love beer will probably also enjoy watching some wrestling,” he said. 

Campeau said the tour is offered three to four times a year. He’s currently working with Remix Wrestling in Orléans, which is paired with a tour of east-end breweries.

Campeau said he is keen to challenge the “Ottawa is boring” narrative. 

“Our city is fun, but it’s fun in its own right. We’re not going to be Montreal, we’re not going to be Toronto, but we’re as fun as we can make it,” he said, adding that the only way to truly quash the negative narrative is when we “forget to talk about it.”

“People call it the city that fun forgot because we continue that dialogue,” he said.

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