ELLERSLIE, P.E.I. — Visitors to Moth Lane Brewery were treated to a special ride last weekend – in a 2009 Chevy Silverado.
While perhaps not worthy of the midway at the Summerside Lobster Carnival, a drive in Eric Wagner’s half-ton truck on Mickey Allen’s Road to the brewery certainly feels like a roller coaster.
“She’s a good one,” Wagner, owner of Moth Lane, said of the ride to the brewery on a near impassible road.
“It came in cold in November ... The frost went down into the ground a lot, then that puts a lot of moisture in there. Then when it’s trying to thaw out, it puffs up.”
These days, the road is too muddy and wet for cars to get through.
Even the pavement at the start of the clay section is cracked all the way through “like a Premium Plus cracker” and the road went to pieces in a recent mild spell, said Wagner.
But the brew business is still open, leading Wagner to start a shuttle service.
It with a car full of people from Mount Stewart.
“Okay, jump in,” said Wagner as he took them down to the bar and told them to call his house when they were done.
“I had my grandkids over. I said I wanted to go see them. When I came back up [the road] there was another bunch waiting.”
It went on for most of the day. He called his wife to let her know.
“Either I’m gonna be driving people down or I’m gonna be pullin’ people out,” he told her.
This year is exceptionally mucky, he said.
“But I wouldn’t change it. I built this business down the dirt road for a reason. And for a couple of weeks a year, I have to suffer a little bit, but for the 50 other weeks of the year, this is where I want to work.”
There are a lot of springs in the area, said Wagner.
As well as keeping the water table high, the springs make for some fine brews.
“I think the water’s the key. I’m not a rocket scientist, but I seem to make good beer."