A group of childhood friends who grew up on the flat farmlands of Delta, B.C. came together through agriculture and have brought that spirit of cultivation into brewing. By embracing hyper-local ingredients in their beer and providing an escape from daily digital dalliances, Barnside Brewing has earned the BC Ale Trail’s 6^th Annual Best Brewery Experience Award.

First things first, city slickers: to get to Barnside Brewing for their ‘farm fresh’ beer, you have to slow down.

Twenty-five kilometres south of downtown Vancouver, at the junction of highways 99 and 17A, you’ll drift down to 50 km/hr or less onto 60^th Avenue. It’s a two-lane road that is not curbed with sidewalks but by a mix of tall deciduous and coniferous trees, waving as you cruise by like onlookers at a parade.

You’ll pass farms that have, at various times over the past 100 years, converted from dairy production to vegetable and food farming. The cattle are gone, but the long red barns have been maintained, so you would be excused if you didn’t notice that one of them housed a brewery. The giveaways: a street-facing patio and a vintage wordmark that reads Barnside Brewing Co.

You can sit outside on that patio, lined with hay bales and planters of marigolds, or head inside to a tasting room featuring family farming photos and century-old maps drawn on the walls. You’ll find tables, walls, beams, and counters all made from reclaimed wood from two local barns, but you won’t find any televisions. Conversation, connection, and craft beer grow here.

The story of Barnside Brewing, which opened in 2020, starts with a reconnection of farming friends who grew up together in the same neighbourhood where the brewery now stands. As kids on the farm, their toys ranged from mini-bikes to full-size tractors. Instead of tree forts, they built hay forts, and the flat landscape was perfect for ball hockey.

Telling the story is one of those friends: hop farmer and Barnside’s co-founder Ken Malenstyn. He’s an energetic, compelling storyteller with no shortage of interests, and serves as Barnside’s general manager (and occasional landscaper). Conveniently, he lives across the street from the brewery and on the same property as his hop farm.

Speaking over the rhythm of an October rain and Shania Twain on the Barnside patio, Malenstyn recalled childhood memories about farming in the same area he’s sitting in now. Different families—from kids to grandparents—came together to help with harvest days, whether with manual labour or by sharing equipment. Coffee breaks involved great conversations, often paired with fresh baking from his mother.

“Cool memories, right?” Malenstyn said. “It was way more community-involved rather than people working, isolated. When we’re doing hops, we get quite a crew together. It’s kind of cool that a harvest still brings people together and that’s what I enjoyed about it.”

Delta remains an important agricultural area today. According to the City of Delta:

• Almost 80% of cereal crops, 62% of vegetables, and 22% of forage crops grown in Metro Vancouver are grown in Delta
• 9 out of 10 BC tomatoes come from only 200 acres in Delta
• Over half of BC’s green beans and potatoes are grown in Delta
• Nearly all farms in Delta are family-owned and operated

As Malenstyn’s generation of friends grew up, they took over their family farms. Unbeknownst to each other, they started growing crops that would cover off all brewing ingredients.

“The whole process of opening the brewery came about organically,” Malenstyn said. He was looking to grow hops as something new to do on the farm while another friend was growing grain. Another was delving into homebrewing. So, they figured, why not pool their resources, skills, and knowledge to open a brewery, since they had all the elements they needed—including an authentic backstory?

“We’re all farm families and have been here at least 70 or 80 years in the community,” Malenstyn said. “Growing the ingredients and making beer, that seemed like it could be a pretty good story. In a day and age where people like going to the farm to buy their food, why wouldn’t they want to buy their beer right where it’s made and grown?”

“We could have opened two years sooner if we had done this in an industrial area,” Malenstyn added, “but it really would have missed the mark.”

Starting a brewery by committee was helpful. Coming up with a brewery name by committee? Not so much.

“Honestly, it was over a year… everyone had a different idea,” Malenstyn said. Favourites like Cultivator and Barnraiser were already taken in one form or another in North America.

“When we finally got to Barnside, it was a bit of a compromise… but I liked the old signage on barns, so Barnside worked for that.” He pointed back to the barn doors adorned with the brewery’s name. “It feels obvious now.”

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Barnside had to shut those barn doors only two months after opening. However, navigating the experience brought some clarity to their service model as the brewery opened back up. Table service, which was not part of the original plans, was permanently adopted and food offerings were improved. The patio was developed to take advantage of relaxed rules about outdoor service. As keg sales to restaurants slowed, a canning line was installed ahead of schedule.

What never changed was the dedication to brewing beer with their homegrown ingredients.

While economies of scale keep the brewery from exclusively using their own ingredients in all their beers, they aren’t far off. Some beers are indeed made with 100% locally grown ingredients; they are referred to as their “one-mile” beers, a little one-upmanship to the 100-Mile Diet. The yeast used in their sour beers, including their core Hop Yard Sour, is their own yeast that was gathered from the hop yard.

“A lot of brewers would find [using only local ingredients] limiting because they want to use hops from all over the world—and there’s nothing wrong with that!” Malenstyn said. “But the one thing I want people to take away is that the beer you’re tasting isn’t trying to be anything else but an expression of the land that you’re standing on: our terroir, our farming practices, our ingredients.”

“You can’t get this anywhere else, and that’s what we want you to appreciate about it.”

Speaking of hops: “We don’t buy any hops,” Malenstyn said. “We use the hops grown across the road. We use as much of our own grain as we can. We grow all of our own base malt and we do some specialty malting.”

If not grown on their own farms, fruit for fruit beers is purchased from other local and BC farms. The tasting room’s food menu features references to nearly a dozen local food providers and farms, and Oughtred Coffee—a BC company with a roastery in Delta—is the coffee of choice.

“The more you can support locally, the more you keep your local community vibrant and your local economy vibrant,” Malenstyn said. “We’re not going to be using stuff that’s grown in Florida. It just wouldn’t make sense.”

The description of the tasting room’s Caesar salad bears this out. Romaine lettuce is from Crescent Island Farms—60 metres down the road—while tomatoes are grown at Windset Farms, nine kilometres away. The crostini? It’s made by L’Aromas Bakehouse, 10 kilometres south of the brewery.

The farming spirit of collaboration can be seen among the brewery employees. Barnside employs two dozen staff, and chances are you’ll be served by multiple cheery members of the tasting room staff while visiting. The tasting room’s kitchen was recently expanded and often features a line of three cooks turning out comfort food and snacks, including Ladner lox flatbread, an in-house hopped cheese board, and—Malenstyn’s favourite—the Farmhouse Grilled Cheese Sandwich (*add bacon).

The brewing is run by a team of two: KPU graduate and Head Brewer Justin Larter (who spoke with Kim Lawton in March for the “Hops Among Friends” series) and Brew Ops Manager Calum Huntingdon.

“Sure, they have different titles,” Malenstyn said, but in the spirit of pitching in on the farm, “they do everything.” He added that the brewers have been given more freedom to work on limited releases and tasting room-only beers, but to always think within a farm structure.

“We really want to share the fact that we’re farming,” Malenstyn said, and referenced their Ladner Clay IPA, named after the productive soil in their region.

“The farm is our canvas to tell different stories.”

Malenstyn is hopeful to branch out into foraging-style beers and to do more farming collaborations. Their second annual Grainstorm Collab, a fresh hop white IPA, was released in early October and included pilsner malt from The Beer Farmers in Pemberton, malted white wheat from Locality Brewing, and Cascade hops from Barnside—all BC farm-based breweries.

The brewery is also collaborating with two post-secondary institutions on special hop projects. At Langley’s Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the Applied Genomics Centre is researching the breeding and development of new hop varieties. With Langara College in Vancouver, Barnside is working with researchers who have identified and collected different types of feral hops from around the province.  The goal is to identify commercially viable hops that have developed farming and flavour traits unique to British Columbia. Malenstyn noted that “[h]aving those new varieties to play with elevates our hop industry in BC when all growers have access to them.”

Growers and non-growers alike can get up close and personal with the Barnside hops. During the growing season, Barnside hosts hop yard tours, and culinary fans have been treated to food and drink pairings as part of the brewery’s “Between the Bines” dinner series.

In September, the inaugural Barnside Harvest Festival welcomed more than 23,000 music fans to Paterson Park in nearby Ladner for three days of music headlined by The Sheepdogs and 54-40. Putting together a multi-day music festival was a way to show appreciation for their hometown—one that supported their brewery through pandemic beginnings and growth into a craft beer destination.

And is Malenstyn cool with having a craft beer destination across the street from his house? Absolutely—just pay due attention to the tractors that still chug up and down 60^th Avenue during the harvest. Come by on a weekend and reconnect with friends—chances are he’ll cross the street to join you.

“Sunday brunch [at the brewery] is my favourite day,” Malenstyn said. “Dogs, families, all ages, a real mix of people.”

“These are the days when I can sit here and say, ‘This is the brewery I always wanted to visit,’ and we’ve built it like that.”

Four Barnside Beers to Bet the Farm On

• Batch No. 200 Estate Barleywine: grab one of the few remaining bombers of this silver medal winner at the Canadian Brewing Awards. Aged for 13 months in blackberry brandy barrels and released for the brewery’s third anniversary. Rich and robust.
• Raspberry Hop Yard Sour: BC raspberries pair perfectly with a balanced acidity that comes from a wild sourdough culture. Plus, beauty colour, eh?
• Shingle Mill ESB: a malty pub ale brewed with modern hops and taken to the next level using open fermentation in a coolship in the brewery. (Beer nerds are nodding.)
• Any fresh hop beers: it takes most breweries a few hours to a full day to get freshly harvested hops into their beers. Because their hop farm is across the street, Barnside’s hops go from pluck to pot in about 20 minutes. That’s fresh!
• Bonus: say ‘Dank you very much’ for their new ‘Road Pop,’ a sparkling hop water with no alcohol, sugar, or calories.

Barnside Brewing is part of the South of the Fraser Ale Trail. This trail features nine breweries and seven taphouses in Greater Vancouver communities south of the Fraser River: Delta, Richmond, Surrey, and White Rock.

The brewery is less than two kilometres from the intersection of highways 99 and 17A and, for folks visiting by ferry from Vancouver Island, only 15 km from the BC Ferries terminal at Tsawwassen. Pro tip: the roadways from Tsawwassen to Delta are almost completely flat, so consider travelling by bicycle!

Visit Barnside at 6655 60 Avenue, Delta, BC.

Driving (or Bicycling) Distances

Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal: 15 km

Vancouver: 25 km

Bellingham, WA: 65 km / 40 miles

Seattle, WA: 210 km / 130 miles

Kelowna: 390 km

The BC Ale Trail reminds you to drink responsibly and do not drink and drive.

The post Barnside Brewing Wins the 2023 BC Ale Trail Best Brewery Experience Award appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

That beer and that backyard patio, both crafted with an emphasis on the outdoors and buoyed by friendly staff and next-level campfire food, have earned Langley’s Camp Beer Co. the BC Ale Trail’s 5th Annual Best Brewery Experience Award.

Inspired by the BC outdoors and the mantra that “beer tastes better outdoors,” Camp Beer Co. opened in 2019—one of a growing number of new breweries in Langley, B.C. The City of Langley and politically-distinct Township of Langley, home to about 140,000 people, are about 50 kilometres southeast of Vancouver and are on the traditional territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Matsqui, and Semiahmoo First Nations.

Camp’s highlight space is its patio. You can’t see it easily from the corner of 64 Avenue and 197 Street, but peek behind the two-storey commercial center at that intersection and you’ll find a walkway, lined with cedar trees, wood barrels, and latticed fencing that leads guests to communal tables, tents, fire pits, and great beer. The core lineup of Camp Lager, Upstream Pale Ale, and Anorak IPA is complemented by a rotating series of seasonal and experimental brews.

This patio will transport you from downtown to out-of-town in seconds, and how a space built on a parking lot makes you forget about the monotony of parking lots is part of its charm. It’s led Camp to winning gold (2022) and silver (2021) in the Growler Awards for Best Brewery Tasting Room, and Justin McElroy’s legendary BC brewery rankings lauded Camp for having “a clear sense of purpose with everything Camp Beer that makes the place feel fun and family friendly.”

Looking into the brewery from the patio and you’ll see rows of brite tanks and bright fermenters on the left. To the right, staff in the cozy lodge-like tasting room and retail store could equally welcome upscale tourists as they could Bob and Doug McKenzie. The décor is equal parts camp-y and campy. Canoes hang from the ceiling, skies and snowshoes hang on the walls, and the playful graphics on the bathroom doors are even worth a look. 

The taproom is separated into different zones, including:

• The Woods: a semi-private and semi-formal event space for the glampers among you. 
• The Cabin: a quiet space to kick back on a couch by the fireplace and play boardgames with friends. (Patrons aren’t encouraged to try on the life vests by the fireplace, but they aren’t discouraged, either.)
• Camp Outfitters: browse the double-green merchandise or pick up your favourite canned beer for the weekend.

The story of many successful commercial craft breweries starts with successful homebrewers, and Camp Beer Co. is no exception. Meet co-owner Kevin Larsen, who revels in the act of storytelling, admits to dressing up as Santa Claus, and follows up the occasional braggadocio with a wink and a laugh.

With him is head brewer Dave Henry, an avid fisherman who loves camping in the Shuswap region. Henry is the quieter of the two but is liable to get energized as soon as any conversation turns to brewing.

In the mid-2010s, Henry was interested in starting a homebrewing club in Langley so he didn’t have to drive long distances to meet with established Lower Mainland homebrew clubs like VanBrewers and Fraser Valley Fermentalists. It finally happened in 2016.

“I met a fellow homebrewer at a local beer bar, B’s Craft Beer Lounge,” Henry said, “and we decided to start our own homebrew club in Langley. We named it the Full Barrel Homebrew Club. We started brewing, sharing tips, and it took off really fast.” (That fellow homebrewer was Tristan Stewart, who would go on to create the highly-regarded Temporal Artisan Ales in 2017.)

In that same year, Trading Post Brewing opened in Langley, and this became the main hangout for local homebrewers.

“Because of our Full Barrel Homebrew connections, we got to know Lance [Verhoeff, owner] and Tony [Dewald, brewmaster],” Larsen said. “We got to see what it took to build a brewery. Once they were going, we got our own cask night every three months and we’d fill the place. Trading Post was a great host and a big inspiration.”

Buoyed by the success of those cask nights as well as wins at cask and homebrewing festivals and competitions, the idea of opening their own brewery began to form.

“We always had to go to Vancouver or Washington or Bellingham to go to the cool places,” said Larsen. “We’re all Langley guys and we wanted something here that beer tourists, friends, and beer club members could all come to—something that we thought was cool. Our original concept was that Dave would brew on a 2-hectolitre system and I would sell the beer out front.”

“We started crunching the numbers,” Henry added before laughing. “Oh no. This is a bad idea.”

In the meantime, they and their partners became beer tourists, exploring new regions and visiting new breweries to try different beers and research how professional breweries operated.

“Our typical thing: walk in, check out the tap list, chat up anyone who’s there, then try to see the stainless steel,” Larsen said. “How big is the system? What’s their brewing setup?”

By chance, travelling to these breweries allowed them to meet Jamie Schreder, a fellow beer fan with a background in commercial leasing. It didn’t take too long for Schreder to become the missing piece of their brewery puzzle. 

“We’re at 3 Dogs Brewing in White Rock,” Larsen recalled. “We didn’t know at the time, but down at the end of the bar, Jamie and his wife were observing us wackos mixing beers and staring at the tanks.”

“A couple of weekends after, we’re checking out Silver Valley Brewing in Maple Ridge and suddenly Jamie is right beside me. ‘Are you guys in the beer business?’ he asks. ‘Oh no,’ I said.”

Who shows up at their next brewery stop? Jamie again. 

“Seriously, you aren’t in the beer business?” Schreder asked.

“No,” Larsen said, “but we do have a plan to maybe open our own place.”

“Tell me more,” Schreder says. 

At the end of their conversation, Schreder hands over his business card. “If you’re serious, give me a call, and I’ll help you find a space.”

Larsen and Henry barely had time to discuss it as they were interrupted by a phone call 15 minutes later. It was Schreder again, wanting to meet the next day.

“Me and Dave are like, ‘Oh shi—this is supposed to be fun, imaginary, stuff!’ But about three months from that, we’re having investor meetings, signing papers, and submitting manufacturing details to Victoria.”

While this would be a big career shift for Henry—who had previously worked as an autobody refinisher for 20 years—Larsen had a broad background in beverage manufacturing. Their original idea for Henry to brew and Larsen to sell was coming to fruition—but on a 15-hectolitre system instead of a tiny two-hectolitre system.

Schreder helped them secure a spot in downtown Langley with the height needed for brewing tanks and, crucially, a back area for a patio. 

“At the time, it was an old bingo hall building, and this [patio] was a just a back alley,” Larsen said. “There was a lot of dirty stuff happening out here, but number one on our list, we needed a patio.”

Visiting plenty of breweries in B.C. and Washington State helped sharpen their vision for their fledgling brewery.

“We’ve always loved the feel and the vibe and the way the beer was all different at Brassneck,” Henry said. “Another was Wander Brewing in Bellingham. When we’re thinking of everything that’s good, we melded things from those two with our own ideas.”

“Field House was another one,” Larsen added. “They had one of the biggest patios at the time we had ever been to. The grassy knoll out front, the cozy fireplace inside… it was cozy, casual, clean, and you could bring your dog.”

As any brewery team will tell you, though, opening a brewery doesn’t come without roadblocks. The first big issue came when Larsen went to register the brewery’s name online. At that point, they were planning to open as Cabin Brewing. 

“The night before we were going to buy all of the Internet domains, we found out that ‘coming to Calgary in Fall 2018 was Cabin Brewing.’ To see the same name for the same time frame, the same region of the world… it was a gut blow.”

After some emergency meetings, the team agreed on Camp Brewing Company, which was one of their original options.

“Everybody has an emotional attachment to camping,” Larsen said, “whether in the back of a pickup or a $200,000 airstream, in Palm Springs or Maple Ridge, as a kid with family or with your college friends. It’s warm and cozy.”

However, they had to adjust things again after the marketing team for Base Camp Brewing in Oregon didn’t give the Canadian Campers a blessing to use the name. With a slight twist and some readjusted branding, they were about to move ahead with Camp Beer Co.

(Base Camp Brewing closed in 2021 but Colorado’s Monumental Beer Works rebranded to Base Camp Beer Works in 2022, for anyone playing Camp Beer branding bingo at home.)

With a location secured, a patio built, the name finalized, merchandise printed, front of house staff hired, and beer in the tanks, Camp Beer Co. opened in December 2019. Unfortunately, three months of momentum was brought to a halt in March, 2020 due to COVID-19.

Despite the good fortune of having a patio, which allowed for distanced outdoor service, restrictions limited the amount of customers they could serve. Beer wasn’t turning over fast enough and it was a nearing a point where staff couldn’t be paid.

“There was one day we closed and I thought, ‘That’s it,’” Henry said. 

“We told the staff to not bother coming in,” Larsen added. 

With draught sales dried up and five fermenters full of beer, the five remaining managers decided to pull a 180-degree turn on their original business plan and start canning the beer. Without the proper equipment, this meant canning by hand, one can at a time, all day long. After failing to keep up, canners were called in to help with packaging.

Thankfully, Langley residents stepped up to support them.

“The public was really good at that time,” Larsen said. “The push to buy local and support your small businesses allowed us to bring back some staff and do some curbside and local delivery.”

Because the brewery was so new and because they expected to face challenges as a new business, they were able to take these challenges in stride.

“We were only three months in, so we didn’t know what we were doing anyways,” Larsen said. “Long hours, figuring out what people are needing to do, then fully closing down, then canning, which was supposed to be a small part of the business but was now a large part of the business… every two months, everything changed whether we wanted it to or not. To this day, we don’t know what ‘normal’ is.”

While canning helped Camp Beer Co. navigate the early months of the pandemic, relaxed restrictions has allowed the tasting room to regain its status as the primary focus of the operation. Fun was back as the name of the game.

Since then, Camp expanded their patio and taproom space and revamped their food menu. What was originally planned to be pretzels and hot dogs has morphed into camping-inspired cuisine from the Camp Cookhouse: creative twists on smokies, spuds, and s’mores. Other highlights include BBQ Brisket Tater Tots, the towering Tin Can Nachos, and brunch waffles with Bourbon maple syrup. 

On the patio, the Camphitheatre (see what they did there?) features live music every Thursday and Sunday from acoustic solo and duo performers. And while dogs are welcome on the Camp patio every day, Tuesday is Dogs of Camp Day, featuring discounted hot dogs, Camp-accinos, and the bliss of being around friendly canines. Water bowls and leash tie-ups are everywhere, and yes, there is a handy poop station for pups. There’s even a regular on-leash cat who visits, and the patio has also welcomed birds and bunnies.

It was also important that kids and families were welcome on the Camp patio.

“Our original business plan was for a social gathering place for friends and family,” Larsen said. “If you can bring your kid and bring your dog, you are more likely to come out. You don’t feel guilty about getting a babysitter or leaving the dog cooped up for four hours. Just bring them!”

Larsen and Henry are proud that they haven’t lost any of their taproom staff, outside of a few who have moved out of the city. How the staff treats customers is a huge part of the Camp Beer experience, and Larsen describes them as “amazing.”

“We always say that you don’t know if a customer has just had the worst day of their life or if they’re celebrating a big accomplishment,” Larsen said. “Everyone here gets treated well.”

To Larsen and Henry’s delight, Camp is now becoming a headquarters for local and area homebrewers, similar to how Trading Post supported them in their early years of brewing. 

“At first, it was guys from the [Full Barrel] club, but I’m starting to meet guys from all over the place who want to say hi and ask questions,” Henry said. 

As for next steps, the Camp crew is looking to host more events. A Hoptoberfest IPA festival in early October was their first ticketed event, and a birthday celebration is in the works for the winter, featuring a full-batch brew of Henry’s Birthday Cake IPA. (The pilot brew actually included an entire birthday cake that Henry baked himself.) 

While the absurdly-warm October of 2022 has kept the patio popular well into the fall, Larsen points out that heaters and rain covers will ensure that the patio will be the spot of choice for craft beer fans, families and dogs year round. The support for their outdoor oasis doesn’t seem real sometimes, he said, but the Camp team is fully appreciative.

“Me, Dave, and Jamie quite often sit here on a beautiful Thursday night, and there’s a guy playing a guitar and singing, and the place is booming and the vibe is electric, and we ask ourselves: ‘How did this even happen?’ We’re proud that we did something we wanted, and it turns out a lot of other people like that too.”

Four Camp Beers to Keep Your Eye On

• S’Mores Stout: Enjoy your just desserts with this milk stout served with a toasted marshmallow on the lip of the glass.
• Camp Lager: Clean, crisp, and it’s Dave Henry’s favourite: “All brewers love making and drinking lagers.”
• Upstream Pale Ale: Voted Best Beer in the World* (*by Kevin Larsen)
• Flannel Pyjamas: a Scottish wee heavy winter seasonal. Some is served fresh while some is aged in bourbon barrels, and all is served at an annual Flannel PJ party for those aspiring to the fashion sense of Bob and Doug McKenzie at their most casual.

Four Things to do in Langley, as Recommended by the Camp Team

• Dive into the variety of breweries, wineries, distilleries, and cideries
• Play on some of the best disc golf courses in the world after arguing whether “disc golf” or “frisbee golf” is the correct title [Editor’s Note: it’s disc golf for sure! – JW]
• Pet a sheep, pick a pumpkin, and check out agritourism opportunities
• Get outdoors: walking trails, golf courses, beaches, mountains—Langley has it all!

Camp Beer Co. is part of the Langley Ale Trail, which features more than 10 craft breweries and taprooms in Langley City and the Township of Langley. Camp is only a few blocks off of the Fraser Highway and BC Highway 10 and a ten-minute drive off of the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 1). Drop by at 19664 64 Ave, Langley.

Driving Distances

Vancouver: 45 kms

Bellingham, WA: 50 kms / 30 miles

Seattle, WA: 195 kms / 120 miles

Kelowna: 355 kms

The BC Ale Trail reminds you to drink responsibly and do not drink and drive.

The post Langley’s Camp Beer Co. Wins the 2022 Best Brewery Experience Award appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

BC breweries have built an incredible reputation for their ability to create an amazing experience for visitors — award-winning beers in infinite varieties alongside delicious food, served by proud staff who are the backbone of this warm community. Combined with the unique, modern, classic and eclectic designs of taprooms across the province, they provide you with a lasting impression.

Over the last couple of months, the general public had the opportunity to vote for the brewery they thought deserved to win this award.

Congratulations to R&B Brewing from The BC Craft Brewers Guild in conjunction with WEST COAST TRAVELLER.

R&B Brewing co-founder and Vancouver sales manager Barry Benson — the “B” in R&B—has been there for every sip along the way. He is possibly the youngest 62-year-old you’ll ever meet, full of enthusiasm and conviviality. In conversation, he is able to weave together disparate topics such as punk rock percussion, beer festival streakers, and Conrad Gmoser and Nigel Springthorpe’s beards, at the drop of a coaster.

The staff at the R&B Ale & Pizza House share these traits. They bring energy, whether cracking jokes at the bar, enthusiastically recommending the Mushroom Bianca pizza special, or setting you and your friends up for a patio session in the sun.

With Love Rollercoaster on the stereo, fresh-hopped beer and a jerk chicken pizza in front of us, classic LPs on the ceiling above us, and a taxidermist’s finest hour in the form of a spread-winged raven behind us at the bar, Benson and I chatted about the brewery’s sore spots and soar spots.

R&B Brewing—with its proud moniker, “East Van Original” — was established in 1997. Its East 4th Street location is in Vancouver’s historic brewery district, Brewery Creek. This district is largely centered within the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, Vancouver’s first suburb — southeast of the downtown core. 

This neighbourhood was the site of a short-lived brewing industry in the late 19th century. Mount Pleasant was transforming from wilderness into a residential and industrial hub, with water from Brewery Creek — one of many fresh streams flowing through the area — harvested for business use, including the brewing of beer. With overuse, the creek began to shrink, eventually disappearing from public view in the 1920s. Partly, this was due to urban development paving over waterways, but the breweries in the area slowly shuttered their doors following multiple amalgamations and the introduction of Prohibition. No creek, no breweries, no need to honour the name — at least for another 70 years.

Fast-forward to the 1990s. Two friends — Benson and Rick Dellow (soon to be “The R” in R&B) — were trying to find a path to continue working in the beer industry while not travelling so much. Former Molson employees, they made a jump together to Newlands Systems, a brewing equipment manufacturer. They designed and set up breweries in Japan, Russia, the USA, and Canada (including Mt. Begbie Brewing in Revelstoke and Russell Brewing in Surrey). 

They decided to act upon their desire to stay rooted and start their own brewery, but Vancouver wasn’t the first choice.

“We originally thought we might start the brewery out in Tofino,” Benson said. “We were going to have Hugger Lager and Logger Lager and see which one sold better.”

After briefly considering North Vancouver, Benson and Dellow started looking around Vancouver, when a building in Brewery Creek “popped up.”

“It was perfect,” Benson said, reminiscing on how the site had to be adapted for brewing. “The whole building used to [belong to] BDH Chemicals as a chemical warehouse and distribution site. The brew house was in a safe room with sprinklers. It already had drains, though we couldn’t use them. The old piping was glass-lined so the chemicals could flow to the sewer but didn’t burn the pipes.”

Brewing gear was brought in, the original loading bay was turned into the malt handling system, and Brewery Creek was soon to have its first brewery in many decades. The adaptability of this building for brewing won the day despite the fact that, in the mid-1990s, Mount Pleasant wasn’t living up to its name. It was a run-down neighbourhood where crime, drug abuse, and neglect were readily apparent. Neighbouring buildings housed sweatshops. 

“It was a nasty, nasty neighbourhood,” Benson said, recalling that their back alley was often littered with needles.

Within that context, and shaped by provincial beer production laws of the time, it’s no surprise that their business plan for the brewery focused strictly on manufacturing instead of hospitality. Their beers were to be sold in kegs or as packaged products.

“When we set the brewery up,” Benson said, “you could either be a microbrewery that produced in-house and sold out-house, or you could be a brewpub that produced and sold in-house, like Spinnakers.” 

After bandying about prospective names for the brewery — Vancouver Brewing Company and the tongue-stumbling Brewery Creek Brewing Company were early options — Rick and Barry put their initials in lights. R&B Brewing was off and running with the two of them sharing all brewing and marketing/distribution duties.

Benson said that working at Molson taught them a lot about quality control, and they aimed to bring that level of technical care to their brewing. However, the beers were designed to be the opposite of the ubiquitous macro lager, starting with the malty Red Devil Pale Ale. Later additions to the core line-up included Sun God Wheat Ale and Raven Cream Ale.

R&B were early adopters and promoters of cask ales in Vancouver. These are beers that are conditioned in a sealed vessel (typically a 40-litre metal barrel called a firkin) and often have special ingredients or different hops added, resulting in creative one-off small batch brews.

“We put the first cask beer engine in a restaurant – the Irish Heather – and they were going through about two to three casks a week,” Benson said. Cask nights at legendary venues such as The Whip and Dix BBQ & Brewery followed and cask festivals became a regular part of BC’s craft beer calendar. 

“It got to the point where you could get a glass of cask ale every night of the week at two or three different places.” 

Creating casks proved to be a great way for brewers to experiment and to get feedback from beer drinkers on different flavours. A well-received cask experiment might evolve into a packaged product, Benson said, and casks are still on hand on weekends at R&B today.

Throughout the first decade of the 2000s, R&B grew to a team of more than a dozen employees and followed a rock ‘n roll ethos. The brewery was wired with giant speakers; whoever got to brew got to choose the music.

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver marked a particularly opportune time for the brewery to make big sales as it helped provide beer for a German pavilion.

“Beer from Germany was imported, but they ran out,” Benson laughed. “Beer was brought over from Germany in a large military cargo plane, but there was nowhere it could land in Vancouver. They had to land in Alberta and ship the beer here. During that time, we got orders for 30 kegs, 30 kegs, 30 kegs…”

“The yearly capacity here is about 5,000 hectolitres. During the Olympics, we did 600 hectolitres in one month.”

Unfortunately, this temporary production boost was not a precursor to more immediate success. The Lower Mainland was about to experience a dramatic rise in the number of craft breweries, especially in East Vancouver. 

In 2012, the neighbourhood welcomed Coal Harbour, Parallel 49, and Powell Street; 33 Acres and Brassneck opened mere blocks away from R&B in 2013. Bomber, Main Street, Postmark, and Strange Fellows opened their doors in 2014. Thanks to recently relaxed liquor license laws, most of these breweries were able to build and operate tasting rooms on site, while R&B, depending largely on sales of packaged product and keg accounts, was unable to adapt.

While a growler station was shoe-horned into the front of the building, a lack of wheelchair access hampered any attempts to redo their space. Plunking a tasting room into their office and lab space while bringing in guests through a delivery dock lift wasn’t going to work. The old chemical warehouse that allowed them to get started was now a toxic deterrent to new business.

“This brewery was built on a 1997 business plan,” Benson pointed out. “Our sales were plummeting and we were trying to decide what to do. It was too late for Rick and I to restart or put together a new business plan. The crunch was coming and the cash flow wasn’t.”

“We thought we’d sell the brewery.”

Enter Howe Sound Brewing. The Squamish brewery, opened in 1996 by the Fenn family, was looking to expand its footprint in Vancouver. After opening the Devil’s Elbow Ale House on Beatty Street in 2014, Howe Sound successfully purchased R&B in 2015 but kept the brands separated.

“They recognized that Howe Sound has a unique Sea-to-Sky feel, outdoorsy, while R&B is more funky, rock ‘n roll,” Benson said. “I think it was a really good decision.”

There was a complete turnover of staff at R&B except for Benson and Dellow — and Dellow eventually left as well, returning to work with Newlands Systems as a senior project brewer. (Dellow is currently the head brewer at PoCo Brothers Brewing.)  Benson, no longer a co-owner but now a sales rep for the brewery, had to grit his teeth as the new owners enacted changes to the core beer lineup he had co-developed 18 years previously.

“I went through half a year of resentment,” Benson admitted. “They chopped the Sun God, they started [messing] around with the recipes … but after about six months, I went ‘You know what? You guys do what you need to do, and I will sell it. I’ll be the B in R&B, and I’ll be an ambassador.”

And what Howe Sound did was put an influx of capital into the brewery, leading to two major developments: new brewing equipment to increase capacity, and the ability to expand. Adjacent space was acquired and plans were set in motion to open a tasting room and kitchen.

In 2016, with R&B Brewing’s refreshed production space taking up the rear of the building, the new R&B Ale & Pizza House opened up front, welcoming craft beer fans into a comfortable and laid-back 60-seat tasting room. 

“When this first opened, I was sitting here with Trevor [Magee of Howe Sound], just looking around — can you believe this?” Benson said. “It was frickin’ packed. Everyone was enjoying themselves.” 

There’s synergy but not always symmetry: light fixtures don’t necessarily match, much of the signage is hand-written, and the vibe is undeniably East Van. There’s nothing that could be described as cookie-cutter, and for an 800-square foot space, it really rewards exploration. Sit at a wooden table and peruse the packed bookshelf behind you during one visit; come back on the weekend for a cask ale and watch a soccer game on a giant pull-down screen, or grab a window seat on a long padded booth to listen to a local DJ.

Speaking of music: the tasting room is purposefully designed to be a music-forward space. How many breweries feature a reel-to-reel as part of the decor?  Many of the vintage speakers that used to blast out the brewers’ favourite tunes in the brewery were brought out to the tasting room, re-wired, and mounted on the walls. You might hear soul, funk, ska, or rock – no matter the genre, the music sounds great in here.

At this point, it should be noted that Benson himself is an accomplished drummer, performing in a jazz band (The Jazzholes) and with punk outfit Aging Youth Gang.

The bar — guarded by a stuffed raven — has a dozen taps, representing six core beers and filled out with experimental or seasonal brews and the occasional cider or guest tap. Benson acknowledges that the one-offs and specialty beers drive a lot of return business, so the brew team and kitchen team are given free rein to experiment and develop new recipes. A dill pickle gose might not be for everyone’s tastes, but it’ll certainly grab your attention.

“We’re putting out one specialty brew every three weeks, so the [brewers] experiment a lot,” Benson said. “Let’s see how charred oak works in a cask — would it work in a larger thing? How does this syrup or this flower work? We are continuously re-establishing ourselves with our [one-off] beers.”

Fast-forward again to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. R&B’s production facility returned to the forefront to help the business navigate the first few months of closures. While the Pizza & Ale House was closed, the business survived on “crazy” amounts of off-sales and sold take-away pizzas. When the taproom re-opened, self-service switched to table-service and reduced capacity indoors was balanced by an expanded patio space outdoors.

Benson was even laid off for three months, which he described as a potential early look to what retirement will feel like: “My wife was the happiest, happiest person around and I got so much stuff done around the house.” 

He’s back at work now with the rest of the staff, and they are already scheming for R&B’s 25th anniversary next year. Some of the brewery’s original beers might be resurrected; a Brewery Creek collaboration beer and a Brewery Creek block party have also been discussed. 

These plans are at the forefront of a recently-renewed independence. Howe Sound Brewing was purchased by Solterra Development Corp. in December, 2020. As Benson tells it, there was also interest in purchasing R&B Brewing, but Solterra wanted the building as part of the sale. The owner of the building refused, so R&B entered 2021 as its own entity under the direction of the Fenn family.

If you think that Benson might lament his position as a former owner, think again. He’s absolutely at ease with his sales and spokesperson role as part of a talented team. 

“I get to do what I really like, which is going out, selling beer, meeting new people. The brew crew we have is the most amazing brew crew ever. The front of house staff is great. It’s a pleasure working with this group.”

R&B Three To Try

Dude Chilling Pale Ale: a classic West Coast pale ale and an ode to the prank art re-naming of a nearby park. The can label is a great example of the revamped hand-drawn label designs by Saint Bernadine Mission Communications.

Märzen: gold-medal winner at the 2019 BC Beer Awards. This German lager has all the bready maltiness appropriate for the Oktoberfest season.

Green Screen IPA: a canned IPA with a partially-blank green label that renders itself invisible during Zoom meetings. Admit it, a surreptitious beer would make these meetings much more bearable.

R&B Brewing is part of the Vancouver – Brewery Creek Ale Trail, along with 10 other breweries and four taphouses. The pizza and ale house is a 15-minute walk from the Olympic Village (Canada Line) SkyTrain station or an 11-minute walk from the Main Street-Science World (Expo Line) station.

Please travel conscientiously, arrange a designated driver, and do not drink and drive. As of October 24th, 2021, you must show proof of double-vaccination for COVID-19 to be permitted entry. Please respect public health orders and hospitality workers. Thank you for your kindness!

The post R&B Brewing Wins 2021 BC Ale Trail Best Brewery Experience Award appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Do you think your town is tough? Consider Port Alberni, B.C. In the past century, this Vancouver Island community within the traditional territories of the Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations has survived and rebuilt from a three-storey-tall tsunami (1964) and the largest on-shore earthquake recorded in Canada (7.3 in 1946).

Tough people have called Port Alberni home: Rick Hansen, the Man in Motion and Kim Campbell, the only woman to serve as Prime Minister of Canada (and the only Prime Minister born in B.C.). Port Albernians making it to the NHL included Paul Cyr, who scored 101 goals, and referee Rob Shick, who officiated more than 1,400 games.

Tough industries have historically reigned supreme, primarily commercial fishing and forestry. This is a mill town. The National Historic Site in Port Alberni? It is also a mill. But as the natural resources sector has endured recurring challenges, the city has struggled to find new ways to diversify and attract new people and new industries.

“It was always a challenging town as far as reputation goes,” Twin City Brewing owner and brewmaster Aaron Colyn said during a Zoom conversation. “It was really stuck with big industry and when things started to trickle off… It felt like a town that couldn’t find out what it wanted to be, or it was lost from what it was and trying to find what it can be in the future.”

“Port Alberni needed something to bring the community together. I always said it didn’t have to be a brewery — it could have been a diner, or a coffee shop, or the right kind of little hangout spot that brought people together. A space that was comfortable and welcoming and relaxing and let people connect and build relationships together with each other.”

Twin City Brewing—named after the distinct municipalities of Alberni and Port Alberni—opened in 2017, 50 years after those communities amalgamated and took the Port Alberni name.

Colyn describes the taproom experience as “the ultimate way we want people to try our beer.” The interior of the city’s first hot spot for locally brewed craft beer and creative pizza is full of wood and metalwork—blacks, browns, greys, and the amber of bricks and rust—that pairs perfectly with Port Alberni’s industrial identities.

Large windows brighten the lounge and rows of lights dangle over the outdoor patio beside COVID-era tents—when they aren’t being discarded like napkins by coastal winter windstorms. Even the weather can be tough here.

Customers sit apart from each other now and the communal tables aren’t as communal due to public health recommendations, but there’s still a convivial vibe to the place. Masked staff members are friendly (and funny!), the kitchen staff holler orders and flip pizza dough high above their heads, and the sound system bounces between eras: modern dance pop at one moment, Fleetwood Mac not long after. This warm spirit is something Colyn and his team of 20 at the brewery have worked hard to cultivate, but he believes it’s a spirit shared by the community-at-large.

“We are huge fans of Port Alberni,” Colyn said. “In the past, growing up, Port Alberni had a reputation that wasn’t great, but I never subscribed to that. We’re raising our family here. It is a microcosm of what BC has to offer — it’s a valley by the water — and it’s still a community that has a heart. If you want to never wave to your neighbours and just live a solitary life, then Port Alberni’s not for you. But if you want to connect with people you live with and find out what’s going on as a community, this is that kind of place.”

BEGINNINGS

Colyn grew up in Port Alberni and met his wife Michelle when they were in high school. After spending a year studying at North Island College in Port Alberni, they moved to Nanaimo to study at Vancouver Island University. The plan was to get a biology degree, go to med school, and become a doctor, but Nanaimo’s access to craft beer, compared to Port Alberni, unlocked a new passion.

“Longwood’s IPA was one of the first [craft beers] that I had and took that leap towards more hoppy beers. You took a sip of Red Racer IPA, you were like…’Whoa!’ Why do I like this? Why do I crave this? I’m one of those people who wants to know how this stuff works.”

After jumping into all-grain homebrewing, Colyn realized that brewing was worth pursuing — at the expense of his original career plans.

“I was surrounded by other students who were so passionate about what they were doing. I’m passionate about something — but it’s not this! These are excellent people who are going to make excellent doctors, but I have to do something for my community.”

This “something” was to start a brewery. Aaron and Michelle moved back to Port Alberni and, before deciding to take the plunge, launched a crowdfunding campaign.

“Our goal was to raise money for our pilot system and see if people would put their money where their mouth is,” Colyn said. “It was a huge success! We had over 100 contributors in less than two months and raised over $7,000.”

Almost immediately after the campaign ended, they found their brewing space: a one-story brick-fronted building on Margaret Road, one block from the Somass River, that previously housed a printshop. Colyn developed a 30-page business plan (“A lot of people will tell you it is the best piece of fiction you’ve ever written,” he laughed) and he and supportive family members worked nights and weekends to clean, design, and shape their fledgling brewery.

“When I spoke to people that were involved in the industry, they brought up a lot of the red tape. At least, for us, the City of Port Alberni was in a position where they were like ‘Oh, what’s this, a craft brewery?’ They were very much open to the idea of a whole new industry coming into the community. The municipality was one of our biggest proponents.”

The look, feel, and business model of Twin City Brewing was developed in part based upon great experiences at two BC breweries in particular.

“In the years leading up to opening, Brassneck was absolutely my be-all-end-all brewery. I thought their beer was fantastic, I thought the way they presented themselves was fantastic, and I loved the cozy, close nature and the atmosphere they provided.”

“Cumberland Brewing Company is one of the original Island destination community breweries, where it’s all about that experience. What you have in the glass is only one aspect of the experience. It’s sounds, smells, atmosphere, and interactions with people.”

Aaron credited the Cumberland Brewing team for pushing them to include a kitchen as part of their brewery.

“We didn’t have a kitchen in the plans. It was Mike [Tymchuk] and Darren [Adam] who said, ‘You’re spending so much time making the beer perfect, and you want to pair it with something that’s not?’ And it made me think: I was dodging that work and that responsibility. If you’re making amazing beer, don’t serve it with not-amazing food. It won’t feel balanced.”

“We have a team that pours themselves into making beer the best they can, but at the same time, twenty feet away, is a kitchen team doing the exact same thing and they are just as excited about releasing something to the public that is made from scratch. Now, it feels balanced.”

With a brewing team, kitchen team, and front-of-house team established, Twin City opened in 2017 in an understated way: going on social media and saying, hey, we’re open today, NBD.

“[I remember] a blur of bodies and things going wrong and questions that we were never faced with until this moment,” Colyn said. “‘What do you want to serve this in?’ Uhh…we didn’t think about that!”

“By the evening, we had a full room, and it was just… smiles and an opportunity for you to share a beer with someone you don’t know and share some stories and hear some interesting stuff about the community. That was what rewarded all of the staff—that’s what we wanted from the beginning.”

From this quiet, understated opening, word began to spread about this great, little brewery in Port Alberni. And then at the 2018 BC Beer Awards, Twin City hit the big time by winning two second-place and one first-place award, and taking home Best in Show for Late Bloomer, a strawberry-hibiscus sour ale.

TWIN CITY TODAY

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Twin City shut its doors for a month and a half. To keep providing work for the staff, the brewery adopted delivery and beer subscription services, provided takeout food, and started packaging beer in cans for the first time. Colyn designed beer labels at home, featuring historical Port Alberni photos licensed from the Alberni Valley Museum. Delivery service slowed as the brewery opened back up for dine-in service, but Colyn plans to continue canning and recently started shipping Twin City beer and merchandise via Canada Post.

Even with all of the responsibilities of running a brewery—and the stress of having to change operating rules seemingly every week as the public health situation develops—Aaron continues to be a hands-on brewer and loves planning new seasonal brews. More tanks are ordered for the brewery, leading to additional production capacity including more properly aged and conditioned lagers on the docket for 2021.

The kitchen continues to churn out creative pizzas that unabashedly lean on punny names, such as Strawbrie Fields, Wurst Place to Live, and (ahem) the Texas Cheese-Sauce Massacurd. Sometimes, the recipes come first; sometimes, the puns come first, and the cooks have to figure out how to make that pizza a reality. Dough is mixed in-house and fermented for three days, resulting in a flavourful, airy, and chewy base. Local ingredients are often used—including buffalo mozzarella and pepperoni.

During our conversation, Colyn spoke proudly on a number of occasions about his front-of house team and how they contribute to the Twin City experience through warmth and authenticity—two elements that are even more important during this unstable year, and essential to earning considerable loyalty.

“Everyone’s been to a restaurant where they’d have a server who is half-paying attention, and it rings of untruth right away. I think we really empower everyone on our team to have the ability to make people’s experiences great. We have a diverse team with different personalities and you want those to show.”

The beer, the food, and this congenial, friendly approach have led Twin City to become an important tourism generator for the region. Craft beer fans from across Vancouver Island (and beyond!) have travelled to Port Alberni specifically to visit the brewery. And, to Colyn’s amazement and in vindication of his original dream, some never left.

“Everything we do—even putting beer in cans now—is really to lure people in and get them to have an amazing experience in Port Alberni when maybe they didn’t realize they could. But we’ve had people come in and ask ‘Do you remember us? We just bought a house in Port Alberni, and it was coming into the brewery that made us buy it.’ And that is something that we did not expect.

“It’s not just people passing through to get lunch before going to the West Coast. It’s people who crossed through Port Alberni and loved this space and what the community had to offer as a whole so much that they moved here, or said ‘We’re raising our family here,’ or ‘We’re able to work from home remotely, and if we can do that anywhere, we want to do that here in Port Alberni.’”

Thanks in part to Twin City Brewing, it would seem that this tough city is not such a tough sell after all.

To finish off our conversation, Aaron spoke about why receiving this award meant so much to him and his team and included an impassioned call to support fellow small businesses safely at this time.

Watch for This Trio of Twin City Beers

Swedish Gymnast Blonde Ale: Twin City’s best-seller; ‘nuff said

Late Bloomer Strawberry & Hibiscus Sour – awarded Best in Show at the 2018 BC Beer Awards

Vanishing Act Pineapple and Coconut Sour – if you like getting caught in the rain, you’ll surely enjoy this brew, reminiscent of a tart piña colada

Twin City Brewing is part of the Vancouver Island Ale Trail along with fellow Port Alberni brewery Dog Mountain Brewing. Alberni Brewing Company is planning to open in 2021, marking the third brewery opening in the Alberni Valley in four years.

Driving Distances

From Nanaimo: 85 km

From Comox: 110 km

From Victoria: 200 km

Please travel conscientiously, arrange a designated driver, and do not drink and drive. Respect public health recommendations and orders regarding travel at this time. Thank you for your kindness!

Please Note: Travel Restrictions & Recommendations

Until at least December 7, there are travel restrictions throughout British Columbia. At this time, all non-essential travel should be avoided. This includes travel into and out of B.C. and between regions of the province. Do not travel for a vacation, and do not travel to visit friends or family outside of your household or core bubble. Stay close to home, and socialize only with those in your immediate household or core bubble. Enjoy beer from your local breweries and stay close to home.

The post Twin City Brewing Wins 2020 Best Brewery Experience Award appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

In May, 2019, my intrepid partner Jocelyn and I set out from Vancouver Island on a road trip to visit new-to-us craft breweries in the southern Kootenays with minimal use of the Trans-Canada Highway. British Columbia has approximately 719,000 kilometers of roads. Even though fewer than 58,000 kilometers of those are paved, many of them, as you can discover, lead to beer–with few other vehicles to interrupt your journey.

Day 1: Nanaimo to Penticton: 475 kilometers

This isn’t a story about the Okanagan, but I’d be remiss not to mention a few spots on our first day travelling east. After an early morning ferry ride and a drive through the Fraser Valley to the light AM radio crackle of the CBC morning news, we left the Trans-Canada for good at Hope and took Highway 3 (aka the ‘Hope-Princeton’) the rest of the day. This is the route I take each spring to attend the Okanagan Fest of Ale, and while it takes a bit more time compared to the Coquihalla Highway, the exchange in time is more than worth it for the scenery in E.C. Manning Provincial Park (named after a B.C. forester, not the former premier of Alberta), an opportunity to raid fresh B.C. fruit from the fruit stands of Keremeos (pop. 1,500), and for a short detour to the Twisted Hills ‘cider dome’ in Cawston (pop. 1,000).

Once we reached Penticton, we left the car at the B&B, ran sockless through the sand at Okanagan Lake, and put shoes back on in order to be appropriately dressed for a few brewery visits. For more information on breweries in Penticton, let the Penticton Ale Trail be your guide.

Day 2: Penticton to Nelson – 325 kilometers

One of the best outcomes of travel is getting the chance to meet up with old friends. I’ve had the chance to work with DJ Shakes — the gregarious resident Okanagan Fest of Ale DJ — for a number of years at that iconic Penticton festival, and he loaded us up with homemade steam buns for the next portion of our trip. With the aroma of barbequed pork in the trunk and a recently unearthed “Matt’s Rock Mix ’98” CD ready to go into the stereo (road trips are great for rediscovering music), we headed south on Highway 97. The road hugged Skaha and Vaseux lakeshores, and we tried our best to harmonize along with Thrush Hermit and The Watchmen.

It wasn’t long until we hit Oliver–the town, not a pedestrian–and dropped into the Firehall Brewery right as it opened for the day. Firehall ‘Chief Visionary Officer’ and co-owner Danielle Hutton ushered us in. She’s a fantastic host, and we chatted about local beer festivals and laughed at tales of their hapless beer league ball team (of which she was a proud member). I’ve experienced a lot of ‘eureka’ moments while hunched over a bartop, and this day’s epiphany was that a beer league team’s success is inverse of how much fun the team members have before, during, and after games.

The beer was as delicious as our conversations, the downtown downstairs tasting room is funky and fun, and a bottle of Holy Smoke Stout was purchased to bring back to Vancouver Island. Don’t miss this craft beer outpost hootin’ and hollerin’ at you from the middle of wine country.

South of Oliver, Highway 97 meets back up with Highway 3 at Osoyoos. Osoyoos is situated in Canada’s only desert: the Okanagan Desert. We stopped for a quick gelato break in order to tell friends and family that we avoided getting our just desserts by not deserting dessert in a desert.

Continuing east, parallel to the Canada/US border, we stop for a snack in Grand Forks and order a voreniki: a pretty substantial Doukhobor take on the perogy.

We arrived in Nelson in the early evening–plenty of time to park the car at the hotel and stretch our legs with a walk down to the waterfront and up main streets lined by stunningly maintained heritage buildings. Add in a dynamite South Indian dinner and visits to three breweries, and it’s pretty easy to see why Nelson is such a draw. The story of craft beer in Nelson was shared recently by the BC Ale Trail, so take a moment to enjoy Roslyne’s deep dive into the Queen City. Nelson is a gem of a town with a ton of recreation opportunities and support for artists, there are fantastic beers brewed here, and I really think you owe it to yourself to visit.

Day 3: Nelson to Cranbrook & Kimberley – 260 kilometers

Road trips on secondary roadways and highways give you the opportunity to explore a number of smaller communities–many with interesting histories, some with intriguing names. Our trip from Nelson to Cranbrook took us through Porto Rico, Salmo, Ymir, and Yahk. (Go ahead, read them out loud and see how the person sitting next to you reacts.)

We’re in Rocky Mountain territory now, with a sizeable ascent into Stagleap Provincial Park followed by a descent into Creston, by the Kootenay River, and past Moyie Lake as part of the day’s drive.

By this time, it has really sunk in how little of our province is developed and settled by humans. We switch our car’s clock into Mountain Standard Time shortly before reaching Cranbrook: the easternmost point on our trip.

If the craft beer revolution sprung out of coastal cities such as Victoria and Vancouver, it’s fair to say that you can judge how effectively it has spread by taking in the beer scene at the other end of the province. We’ve got friends in town who offer to chauffeur us to a trio of their favourite beer spots: Fire Hall Kitchen & Tap, a taproom in a refreshed heritage fire hall offering 20 taps of craft beer from around the province; Fisher Peak Brewing at The Heid Out Restaurant & Brewhouse, where I let tears of joy flow down my cheeks upon reading the words “Bourbon Barrel Aged Scottish Ale” on the menu; and, in nearby Kimberley, Over Time Beer Works, which is mere minutes from the Kimberley Alpine Resort. Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals was on above the bar, so we joined in with the locals to cheer on the Toronto Raptors to a series-clinching victory.

Day 4: Cranbrook to Kaslo – 225 kilometers

There are a couple of routes one could take from Cranbrook to Kaslo, but one involves taking a ferry. You better believe we Islanders weren’t going to miss out on giving an inland ferry a try.

After driving back from Cranbrook to Creston, we headed north on Highway 3A. It’s not a quick road, but it’s a fun one, snaking through forested hills alongside Kootenay Lake. If I had a motorbike, I’d be bringing it back here the split-second summer hit. This highway ends up at the Kootenay Lake ferry, which goes between Kootenay Bay on the east side of the lake and Balfour on the west side. It’s quite a nice cruise, and I’m smitten by the homemade treats in the coffee shop–a vastly different culinary experience from the ferries to-and-from Vancouver Island and the mainland.

The 30-minute drive from Balfour to Kaslo–Highway 31–follows the west side of Kootenay Lake, passing the popular Ainsworth Hot Springs on the way.

I’m a big fan of the Village of Kaslo. The population (around 1,000 people) supports, in my opinion, one of the best music festivals in the country: Kaslo Jazz Etc Summer Music Festival. Now, they also support one of the best new breweries in the country: Angry Hen Brewing.

It’s a claim I’m happy to make because of the career accomplishments of head brewer and co-owner Shirley Warne. She’s been brewing and working in the craft beer industry for more than 30 years, including in Toronto (Amsterdam Brewery), Halifax, and Vancouver (Steamworks, Big Ridge). Highly-respected BC brewers Conrad Gmoser (Brassneck) and Harley Smith (Longwood) were just two of the brewers mentored by Shirley. Now, the craft beer scene that she had such a hand contributing to is, in a way, paying her back. It’s a scene that has expanded to the point where opening a craft brewery in a village of 1,000 people is a viable proposition. She traded in opportunities to ply her trade in traffic-jammed metropolises for a chance to brew in a community that features only one traffic light. We had the chance to share some beers on the patio with her, and if you get the chance to as well, it’s a peak-BC-craft-beer experience.

The Kootenays in all their splendour

Open roads, forested mountains, fish-full lakes and rivers, creative cuisines, countless recreation opportunities: it’s pretty easy to slip comfortably into the pace and natural wonder of the southern Kootenays. Thanks to a growing collection of quality breweries, craft beer can be added to your list of reasons to visit. Dig out those 90’s-era mix CDs and get your motor running!

For trip planning information and further research, consult the Kootenay Rockies East Ale Trail and Kootenay Rockies West Ale Trail.

The post My Way is the Highway: Road Trips for Cold Sips in Small-Town Kootenays appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Historic Townsite

The neighbourhood has a remarkable number of unique features: the longest running movie theatre in Canada, the world’s largest floating breakwater of WWI and WWII ships, and St. Luke’s Hospital, where the first medical plan in BC was introduced, to name a few. The area has undergone a revival in the last few years, with upgrades to the theatre’s sound and projection systems, new restaurants, permaculture gardens and a must-see Federal Building-turned-Craft Brewery.

Tourism Powell River

This must-see Federal Building—established in 1939—houses the must-see brewery and taproom of Townsite Brewing, established in 2012. The brewery and taproom stand five kilometres north of Powell River’s town centre and less than 200 meters uphill from a paper mill—the first newsprint mill in western Canada. If you tipped over a keg at the front door of the brewery, it would roll all the way straight to the mill, and you’d have many new friends.

It’s rewarding to dig into Powell River’s history, but it’s not as easy to traverse the geography. Powell River is located on the northern Sunshine Coast on mainland British Columbia, but coming from afar, it can feel like an island. If travelling from Vancouver, expect to take two ferry trips. (Or, if you are an optimist, two ocean cruises.)

It is in this outpost where Townsite Brewing has melded past and present, where young entrepreneurs have revitalized worn bricks and mortar, and time-tested European brewing traditions march forward in the modern craft beer revolution.

The three managing partners are Michelle Zutz, Director of Sales; Chloe Smith, General Manager; and Chloe’s husband, brewer Cédric Dauchot—the only Belgian-born brewmaster in British Columbia. I met him in the Townsite taproom on a Sunday evening after a quick BC Ferries “ocean cruise” across from Comox on Vancouver Island. It was December 2nd, and Christmas music was already playing.

“I wanted to hold off on the Christmas music until December 6th,” he said with a smile, his Belgian accent rolling and lolling off the tongue in stark opposition to a table of four people in the corner singing semi-accurately along to Feliz Navidad, “but the staff overruled me.”

The affable Cédric may have ceded control of the stereo, but he’s made his mark with the beer. Staff served glasses and samplers to young couples at tables and a group of older men at the bar. Christmas lights framed the chalkboard bar menu, growlers and bombers and merchandise lined the opposite wall, and a vintage video game machine blinked and blooped from the centre of the room. I’m surprised to learn later on that the arcade machine is free play—a great way to entertain the kids so Mom and Dad can have some of their own time.

Upstairs, we sampled a cherry beer early in the aging process straight from his barrel room (Cédric claimed it may be his best beer yet), peeked into offices with vintage furniture and tall windows overlooking the Salish Sea, and marvelled at his current repair project: two classic pinball machines.

We returned to the tasting room to enjoy two brewer’s choice flights and delve into what brought Townsite to its level of success today. He’s incredibly proud of this space, and through our conversation, I discover that this community and this brewery can’t stop hugging each other.

In a small town like Powell River, especially during those tough economic times with the pulp mill in jeopardy, the news of a craft brewery opening up was huge. It signalled another possibility when the town was having a hard time seeing its future with the possible closure of its primary economic engine. Since Townsite opened the first brewery on the Sunshine Coast in 2012, the craft beer scene has blossomed in the region. As evidence, both craft beer festivals (Powell River Craft Beer Festival on Nov 3 and Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Festival on Feb 15 in Gibsons) have grown exponentially and have sold out every year. Craft breweries are small artisan businesses that are having big impacts on our local economy and our sense of place.

Paul Kamon, Executive Director, Sunshine Coast Tourism

The heart of the Townsite story begins with Cédric and Chloe. They met more than a decade ago while working in the brewing industry in Quebec.

How did Cédric, a Belgian, sail the seas of beer on his way to Canada? His interest in the beer industry started as a youngster.

“My neighbour was a beer distributor. During the weekend, I’d go to play with my friends and we’d get to take the empties off the truck, lift the kegs, play with the forklift. At the end of the day, we’d usually have a tiny glass of whatever was in the returning kegs.”

In 2004, Cédric graduated with an engineering degree in the science of brewing and worked with Stella Artois in Belgium before managing brewing operations for French brewpub chain Les 3 Brasseurs. Soon after joining the company, he was given an opportunity to work overseas.

“The person they were going to send cancelled last minute,” he said, “and I was given two weeks to decide whether or not to move to North America.” He took the opportunity and moved to Montreal to develop new brewpubs and train the local brewers.

Chloe, born and raised in Saskatchewan, was travelling Europe in 2001 after earning a chemistry degree back home. The life of a lab rat loomed large until she saw an employment advertisement for a brewing chemist.

“That’s…a thing?” she asked herself, and a new path was clear. Already a fan of craft beer thanks to a recurring friendship with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale during her university days, she channeled her chemistry expertise into a four-year stint with McAuslan Brewing in Quebec—working in filtration and advancing to brewing—before meeting Cédric at Les 3 Brasseurs. A professional relationship soon blossomed into a personal relationship.

“It sounds funny,” Chloe said, “but the first time I laid eyes on him, a voice in my head said ‘this is the one.’ But then,” she said with a laugh, “I said to myself, ‘no, he’s my boss!’”

(When I asked Cédric about this moment, he claimed that Chloe was his boss.)

The couple married and made plans to move to Saskatchewan to start their own brewing operations. For a variety of reasons—including Cédric’s claim that the prairies were “too damn cold”—their new enterprise never got off the ground. With Chloe expecting their first child and the couple needing solid employment, Cédric applied for brewing jobs, including Brewdog in Scotland and Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles. However, their business plan was always to open their own brewery in a smaller community, and they found an opportunity in a town Chloe had visited once, and Cedric had never been: Powell River, British Columbia.

“The offer was to take over this beautiful old, open heritage building with an opportunity to design the brewery ourselves and design our own recipes,” Chloe said.

“I worked in lots of breweries—Stella Artois, 3 Brasseurs—where the business is a bit disconnected from brewing,” Cédric said. “I wanted a small-scale, manual brewery, where we could do small batches and everything’s done by hand. The community will have an impact on the brewery, the brewery will have an impact on the community. Something that’s quite organic and easy-going.”

They had their place—now they just needed product and people.

“We planned to spend three years here,” Cédric said, “and we’d leave if it didn’t work out.”

Townsite has been an integral part of the movement toward craft beer for Powell River and the Sunshine Coast. Truthfully, before they opened, we could not get much of any true BC craft beer in town. That is certainly not the case any more.

-Romeo Styles, President, CAMRA Powell River

Were residents of this mill town ready for craft beer? Cédric and Chloe weren’t completely confident.

“The only craft in town was Stella Artois, and we had to dust off the bottles,” Cédric said. “A bar might have a tap of Guinness, but it was kept around for that one person drinking one pint a day.”

“We were worried,” Chloe said. “There was a lot of Blue on tap.” However, they purposefully embraced the community at large through branding, outreach, and support.

• Their beer names were picked to resonate with locals: Zunga Blonde Ale (relating to a local rope swing); Suncoast Pale Ale (aka. Sunshine Coast); Tin Hat IPA (a peak on the Sunshine Coast Trail); and Pow Town Porter (local slang for Powell River).
• They offered to help local bars improve their keg systems and clean their tap lines.
• One dollar from each growler fill was donated to a different local charity or non-profit group each month.
• The taproom closed early (9pm) to avoid competing with local bars, and only offered snacks instead of a full meal service to avoid competing with local restaurants.
• The taproom was kid-friendly, so families could come by.
• Some beers were taproom-only releases—a thank-you to local beer fans

It worked. Locals poured in—as varied as the beer styles.

“I don’t think we have a particular demographic,” Cédric said. “Could be the guys from the mill, dirty in their overall, hipsters at the next table, families, older people bringing their sons and daughters to visit. That’s the thing that’s so special: it feels like we reach everybody in the community. It’s reminiscent of Belgium, where breweries are social spaces, where you just go to meet people.”

With confidence in local palates, Cédric added seasonal Belgian styles to the beer lineup and started a popular Thursday night cask night. By one account, they even brewed a beer as a response to a request from Powell River craft beer fan Ari Dublion, DJ of the Pow!town Getdown program on CJMP 90.1 FM.

“Cédric makes killer Belgians, but as a stout lover, I pestered him to go there,” Ari said. “[Cédric] brewed the Perfect Storm Oatmeal Stout and he nailed it. I think they were going to quit brewing it, but it won gold at the Canadian Brewing Awards. Chloe later said to me, ‘You were right!’ Of course I was; I know good stout.”

Townsite Brewing has been a tourism popular draw since day one, but with the opening and eventual expansion of their tasting lounge, they have grown into a “must visit” experience when in Powell River. And kudos to them for their commitment to beer education (partnering with the Économusée program) and their year-long support of community groups through their growler program. Their impacts are seen all over town, from the liquor stores and restaurants to events pouring their beer.

-Paul Kamon – Executive Director, Sunshine Coast Tourism

The future calls for more developments of Townsite’s award-winning taproom. Plans are in the works to lease the property behind the brewery and create a bicycle parking lot and service depot to attract members of the growing mountain biking community. (Might a patio license application be next?)

Townsite Director of Sales, Michelle Zutz, told me that the company now features 20 employees. Sixty-five percent are women, two-thirds own their own home, and all of the front end staff are Cicerone Level 1 certified or higher. They are invested in their work—a boon for any employer trying to retain talent in a smaller community.

Tasting Room Manager Jodi Kuntsi promised to continue her philosophy of providing a comfortable ‘living-room’ feel to the tasting room.

“We want to make sure all visitors feel at home,” Jodi said. “If I don’t know them, by the end of their beer, I’ll know them.” Channeling her inner Cheers, she punctuated her statement with a robust “Norm!”

Cédric and Chloe feel like they are home. After years of travel across Canada and Europe, they’ve settled into Powell River as comfortably as local beer fans settle on the barstools and seats of the Townsite taproom. Their children are now 7 and 5—often seen helping out at the brewery—and the family enjoys regular Sunday hikes as part of an active social life.

“When we arrived here, we thought we probably won’t meet many people and we’ll just focus on the business,” Cédric said. “But there were a lot of people like us, just moved here with small kids.”

“My social life is better in Powell River than it was in Montreal,” Chloe said. “The people have been the biggest surprise.”

Before I head back to the ferry for my trip home, I sample Townsite’s new, and excellent, passionfruit gose. (Cédric pronounces it goes-say, which is the third or fourth different way I’ve heard the word spoken, but I have no right to argue beer pronunciation with a Belgian.) As the tasting room staff chat with the remaining customers, I marvel at how the brewery has become a prime social space—no televisions, no screens—and it’s all designed to get you to know the beer and the folks around you. It’s well worth the effort to get to this land-based island—not just for great beer, but for conversation, camaraderie, community, and discovery.

“Two ferries?” Chloe challenges. “Worth it.”

The post Townsite Brewing Wins First Annual Best Brewery Experience Award appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Welcome to Gerry’s house. I did not expect that the headquarters for what has been described as a “bucket-list beer festival” would be a modest two-story residence in the Victoria, B.C. suburb of Esquimalt. [Why has no Victoria brewery created an Esqui Malt Liquor yet? –Ed.] 

Hieter and GCBF Operations Manager Craig Peterson greeted me warmly as I arrived at the flat-roofed house, situated down a side street populated with more grazing deer than vehicles. Handshakes all ‘round and I was led downstairs into rec room-turned-office, past window sills with vintage bottles and walls lined with posters of past festivals or vintage serving trays; I’m told that the rest of the collection is on display at the Drake. We had arranged a small window of time to chat before their preparations continued for this year’s Great Canadian Beer Festival.

Hieter’s story—like many who enter the beer business—started with homebrewing.

“Homebrewing is a curse,” he said with a laugh. “My first batch of beer was really good. It was an extract lager with extra hops thrown in for good measure. Everybody who came to my house just loved it, and it seemed I had a good ability to make beer.”

His path led west in 1981 when he moved to Whistler, British Columbia. The Longhorn Saloon had just opened, and Gerry was hired on as manager. Craft beer—in name or in bottle—did not exist there yet, but there was an interest in local beer.

“People would come in from the States asking for local beers,” Hieter said, “so we gave them Kokanee or Canadian. That’s what they wanted.”

However, Hieter was aware that better beer existed in B.C., noting that Granville Island and Okanagan Springs were already brewing high-quality lagers. After begging and pleading with the local liquor store, these beers were ordered in and made available for locals and tourists to enjoy. It was a start!

Hieter links his “A-ha!” craft beer moment of this time to beer from the nearby Horseshoe Bay Brewery.

“Being in Whistler, I would buy Horseshoe Bay all of the time. Because I was there in ’81, I was going back and forth while John Mitchell was setting up his brewery. My first pint of Royal Ale was an epiphany.”

This small first-step in B.C. craft beer took a giant leap in 1989 as Hieter founded the Whistler Brewing Company.

“I borrowed some money from my dad, got a bit of a business plan together, and stumbled into it,” Hieter said. “We went to craft brewers conferences in Portland, Chicago, all over the place. There were a hundred of us at those conferences. Now, there are 7,000 to 8,000 people who go to those things.”

After a few more years in Whistler, Gerry and his wife moved to Vancouver Island and he was hired by Shaftebury Brewing to represent their products on the Island. It was during this time that he began working with CAMRA Victoria and met eventual GCBF co-founder John Rowling, who was interested in tapping into Hieter’s brewing background.

“John wanted to start a brewery with me,” Hieter said, “but I said no: let’s start a festival instead.” The goal was simple: get better beer in front of beer drinkers.

This new plan deserved a substantial amount of research, so they attended established beer festivals in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, noting the pros and cons of each event. In October 1993, with support from CAMRA Victoria, the first Victoria Microbrewery Festival was held. The following year, the Great Canadian Beer Festival name was adopted. The name worked out, but Hieter was not the biggest fan.

“Victoria is probably the worst city in all of Canada to hold something called the Great ‘Canadian’ Beer Festival because of the difficulty in getting beer shipped here from across Canada. So, we’ve concentrated on the Pacific Northwest for a long time. Washington, Oregon, and California breweries love coming here.”

Two of the biggest evolutions of the festival were the location and participant attitudes.

Back Then: Indoors with Bellowing Boors. For the first ten years, the festival was held at the Victoria Conference Centre. Logistics were simpler when planning an indoor event, but things got rowdier as the event became more popular.

“It was getting stupid,” Hieter said. “People were stepping on each other and you couldn’t get from one end of the centre to the other. It was scary. It was a riot waiting to happen.”

Early on, according to Hieter, there were many attendees who came for the drinking without thinking.

“I did some beer judging at Mondial de la bière [in Montreal]. The festival had been open for 10 hours, and no one would be falling down pissed, stupid drunk. I’d be so envious of that European culture and attitude. I’d come back here, and on a Saturday afternoon, midway through our festival, it was a gong show. We did everything we could to not promote it as that.”

These Days: Outdoors with a Visible Culture Shift. Royal Athletic Park is a multi-purpose stadium with natural grass turf and plenty of room for beer tents and beer fans who exhibit a healthy respect for craft beer and craft beer culture (even if some of the costumes would have you think otherwise).

“Young people have now grown up with craft beer. They come to enjoy the beer. The amount of tokens purchased per person has gone down quite a bit. On a bad weekend, we’ll expel 12 people, over 2 days, from eight-to-nine-thousand people. Half of those were from smoking pot.”

Hieter and the organizers have stuck to their vision on many aspects of the Great Canadian Beer Festival. They still curate the beer list; trend-setting styles will be well represented but there is always room for easy-drinking pale ales and pilsners. They aren’t interested in large stages with full bands, preferring carnival-style roving entertainment instead. There have never been awards or judging, and, Hieter added sharply, “there never will.”

“When I went to the Great American Beer Festival, a long time ago now, [the brewers] were miserable. 100-percent-completely miserable. They were complaining about the way their beer had been shipped, about what time it got there, about where it was, and this and that and they were miserable. If we did that, every brewer that came to our festival would be miserable. So, we decided not to do that.”

He’d rather see the breweries have a good time.

“For the breweries, this is their social event of the year. We treat them like gold and make sure all of their needs are taken care of. They get free ice and water, volunteers to help them. We do brewers receptions every year. We take good care of them, and we care about their beer.”

But Gerry, do you have a good time?

“Not at all. The day-of is like a big house party. You’re the one running around, cleaning ashtrays, wiping up spills. I can’t drink beer because I’m the one holding the license. I haven’t had a beer in 16 years at the festival.”

So why do it?

“It’s a living, now, and it’s the greatest job in the world.”

Another big change with this year’s GCBF is the use of a lottery system to choose which breweries would exhibit and serve at the festival. Until this year, it had always been first-come-first-serve, but application day was becoming cutthroat.

“Last year, I sent out applications to breweries at 10 in the morning and by 10:20 I had 100 emails back. The Oregon Brewers Festival does a lottery, and it seemed to make sense. I asked a few brewers about it, and the vast majority of them say it’s the only way to go, the best way to go, the fairest way to go. The ones who didn’t get drawn, we’ll guarantee them a spot next year.”

At this point in the conversation, we’re interrupted by knocks on the door from a few festival volunteers: Matthew Fitterer, a 10-year volunteer, and Lesley Pettigrew, who volunteered for eight years. They’re here to help unearth festival supplies from Hieter’s crawl space, underneath the stairs, wherever things were wedged and cataloged from last year.

I’m invited to join them in the carport for a beer and I asked Fitterer why he’s continued to volunteer for a decade.

“We all get to put in input into the festival and how it operates,” he answered enthusiastically. “We all get treated really well. There’s also a lot of room for advancement.”

Echoing that last statement, Craig Peterson recounts how he attended the first festival in 1993, volunteered the second year, and has volunteered every single year since. He’s earned the role of Operations Manager honestly.

With long-time volunteers and organizers at the helm plus a humble house for headquarters, the festival really feels like it is a family-run affair. It’s no wonder that GCBF is often cited as a reunion spot.

“For a lot of people, our festival is Christmas,” Hieter said. “It’s a great social event for people, people who don’t see each other through the year, but they’ll see each other at Beer Fest. It’s so gratifying.”

Were you successful in your original goal of getting better beer in front of beer drinkers?

“Beyond our wildest dreams,” Hieter said. A quarter-century in and the Great Canadian Beer Festival remains a pioneering star in a Canadian beer craft culture that continues to bloom.

We’re in his backyard now. Each of us in the group is sipping from cans of Steamworks beer (most of the bottles in his fridge are barleywines, but it’s too early in the day for that) and we’re casually standing underneath grey-barked trees older than all of us and beside bright green hops, the bines ambitiously stretching and curling their way up various trestles.

More than 35 years ago, as Hieter told us, beer drinkers had few ways to find and taste any great beer in British Columbia. Now, breweries and attendees alike can go to GCBF and choose from or become inspired by more than 250 amazing beers in one place in less than 24 hours. It’s a dramatic change to have happened to an entire industry in only one generation, and it’s an ode to Hieter’s legacy as one of those leading the charge towards making better beer available in the province. If you’re one of the 8,000 in attendance at GCBF this year, you’re getting a first-hand view of how far we’ve come.

“There are beer bars, breweries, and tasting rooms everywhere,” Hieter said, after taking a sip of an IPA. “You don’t have to go very far to find a good beer in this country anymore.”

The 26^th Annual Great Canadian Beer Festival takes place Friday, September 7^th (4-9pm) & Saturday, September 8^th (12-5pm) at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria, B.C. The festival features offerings from 65 breweries along with food trucks and non-stop circus-style entertainment and buskers. Don’t forget to visit the BC Ale Trail-er, a new feature at GCBF that highlights beer from 10 breweries around BC on the BC Ale Trail.  Tickets are available at gcbf.com. 

The post The Hiet is On: Gerry Hieter & the Great Canadian Beer Festival appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

However, many living on this rock in the Pacific are keenly aware that Tofino has been developing a creative and mature culinary scene, highlighted by west coast seafood and the use of regional ingredients.

Event & wedding planner Kira Rogers was at the forefront of this scene nearly twenty years ago. Seeking to promote west coast cuisine as well as BC’s wine offerings, she and a small team of chefs and volunteers launched the first Tofino Food & Wine Festival in 2003.

“Tofino is more than the beach: there is good quality food, wine, cheese, and the lifestyle,” Rogers said. “People might not realize that we have some amazing chefs in Tofino.”

In that first year, the festival sold less than 100 tickets, and Rogers admitted that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to do it again. But she and her team kept at it—“there’s a lot of heart behind it”—and the festival has grown into a noteworthy showcase of BC food and beverages and is one of the biggest tourism drivers on the west coast. The food is hyper-local, the beverages are hyper-provincial, and attendees—many from other provinces and overseas—are just plain hyper to get there. However, once you arrive, Tofino’s magic is in getting you to relax without you even noticing.

Speaking of relaxing: the festival’s signature event—Grazing in the Gardens—is an all-inclusive food and beverage sampling afternoon that takes place throughout 12 acres of the Tofino Botanical Gardens. It’s been described as a garden party meets Alice in Wonderland; exploration of the grounds yields surprises and rewards. Chefs prepare canapés amongst vegetable gardens while seaside sommeliers share Shiraz. DJs and jazz bands serenade oyster shuckers and tuna sliders, honey ales and kelp stouts, chocolate and chickens, pastries and cheese. Bask with glass in hand in the sun beside a duck pond or explore networks of paths running under moss-coiffed coniferous trees: it’s up to you.

It makes sense that for a town surrounded by so much natural beauty—Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and Pacific Rim National Park are but a spruce cone’s throw away—Tofino would be a natural contender for Canada’s most picturesque food & wine festival. Rogers is quick to credit location, location, location.

“Everyone says they’ve been to a bazillion wine festivals and nothing beats this, and it’s because of the gardens. I know people who have got married on the beach in the morning and used Grazing for their reception.”

She also insists on keeping the food local, local, local.

“We don’t bring in any celebrity chefs from out of town; it’s chefs from Tofino and Ucluelet along with purveyors, oyster harvesters, bakers, and cheese makers from Vancouver Island.”

Seventy-five BC wineries (primarily from the Okanagan Valley and Vancouver Island) took part, but this is the BC Ale Trail Blog, so you are probably wondering when we’re going to get to the beer. Nine BC breweries were represented on this year’s festival roster, and favourites such as Driftwood Brewery’s Cry Me a River Gose, Longwood Brewery’s Berried Alive, Tofino Brewing’s Blonde Ale, and Steamworks Brewing’s Flagship IPA were not only adept at quenching thirsts, but—according to Rogers—they have helped empower couples to attend the event.

“I’ve heard this a lot: ‘Oh, there’s going to be beer there? My husband doesn’t drink wine, but he drinks beer, so now we can come’,” she said. “It takes two to make a booking happen.”

The 2018 Tofino Food & Wine Festival took place June 1-3, 2018. Funds raised by Grazing in the Gardens supported the Tofino Botanical Gardens Foundation along with a silent auction benefitting the Wickaninnish Elementary School Garden Project – Stage 7.

Kira Rogers is currently planning a culinary & wine festival for the Comox Valley (Vancouver Island) that is scheduled for Sunday, September 23, 2018. This ‘sister’ event to Grazing in the Gardens will be in support of the Filberg Heritage Lodge & Park Association and their efforts to fundraise for a new community pavilion. For more information or to sign up for the Tofino Food & Wine Festival newsletter, visit tofinofoodandwinefest.com.

The post Grazing in the Gardens at the Tofino Food & Wine Festival appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Him: Matt. A craft beer fanatic whose wardrobe is 50% craft brewery T-shirts, boasts more than 2,000 unique Untappd check-ins, and has a kitchen cupboard packed to the back with years of beer festival taster glasses.

Her: Jocelyn. A long-standing preference for cider and wine, having been turned off beer decades ago due to friends’ insistence on partying with Kokanee Gold and her dad’s habit of enjoying mugs of lager—on the rocks.

“I could never sit around with Matt and compare beer tasting notes, or anything like that,” Jocelyn said, “but we’ve found a few different ways to make craft beer something fun for me—for us—and, in turn, justifying all of his T-shirts.”

First Step is the Deepest

No one is born with a pint of craft beer in their hand—if someone was, then the maternity ward has some explaining to do—so when you decide to enter this strange microbrew microverse, hold hands and help out.

“Matt suggested starting with fruit beers,” Jocelyn said, noting her comfort level with ciders. “We tried a Belgian apricot beer and it was the first beer I ever tried where I finished it and thought: ‘I could really have another.’”

If your partner loves coffee, why not try a stout or black lager? For those with a sweeter tooth, give a hefeweizen or radler a try; if on the other side of the spectrum, dive into a sour beer. BBQ fan? Smoked porter, immediately.

“I don’t always like Matt’s suggestions,” Jocelyn laughed, “but there are so many flavours out there that it’s fun for us to always try something new. I’ve learned that aggressively hoppy beers aren’t my thing, but was surprised when I really liked [Hoyne’s] Dark Matter. It’s a big leap from where I was with beer a couple of years ago.”

Go Both Ways

This is all about fairness. You are a partnership; not a lecturer and listener. If you, the craft beer fan, want to spread the good word about lupulin powder and you have a partner patient enough to listen, be willing to learn about something else from them.

For instance: Jocelyn knows a lot more about wine and ciders than Matt, so they have regular dinners where she takes the lead on choosing a different style of wine (even if he keeps requesting barleywine).

Match Beer to Your Passion

If craft beer isn’t your partner’s passion, see if you can find a way to pair craft beer with it. This might not work well for all passions—consuming alcohol while piloting large aircraft, for instance, or performing amateur surgery might lead to ethical or legal concerns—but what if your partner is a graphic designer? Eschew online reviews and pick beer based on the best label on the shelf. Geography fan? Try a different beer from a different country every week. Into mountain biking? Best plan a trip to Kamloops. Fancy yourself a writer? Write an article about your partner’s path into craft beer and share a beer while doing so (just don’t spill on the typewriter). Find fun ways to choose craft beer based on your interests.

“We have friends who haven’t traditionally been big beer fans, but they are pretty dedicated to the ‘100 Kilometre Diet,’” Jocelyn said, while dabbing a sheet of paper towel on some pale ale that Matt spilled on his typewriter. “Now, they love to seek out and include local beer as regular a part of their dietary journey.”

Fest Up

Beer festivals and events have proliferated in British Columbia and beyond and are varied enough to provide value to everyone from craft beer obsessives to casual fans and brewery newbies.

“We go to as many festivals as possible,” Jocelyn said. “I generally find beers that I enjoy, but it’s the overall atmosphere that always makes it worth it for both of us.”

Larger festivals such as the Great Canadian Beer Festival and Okanagan Fest of Ale are guaranteed to have beer lists varied enough for any tastes, with energetic festival vibes to boot.

However, if your partner is still apprehensive about a full-on beer event, look for a festival that combines beer tasting with wine or spirits or one that includes a focus on food: two of Jocelyn’s favourites are the Tofino Food & Wine Festival and the Brewery & the Beast meatravaganza. Multi-event celebrations such as Victoria Beer Week and Vancouver Beer Week feature many flavours of culinary-centric celebrations, including taco nights, pizza nights, whole hog cookouts, and crab boils.

Keeping in the spirit of love, it should be noted that Valentine’s Day is not immune from celebrating with beer. The Drake Eatery in Victoria hosts an annual Dark Beer & Chocolate Soiree and Vancouver Brewery Tours hosts an annual “Love at 1^st Flight” tour—complete with meals and an evening of beers over candlelight.

Desperately Seeking Soothing

The business of brewing isn’t terribly romantic in a traditional sense, unless you find “90 percent cleaning and 10 percent paperwork” something that stirs your loins and quickens your pulse.

However, a lot of brewery taprooms can certainly be romantic in a spiritual sense; many are small and intimate, designed to elicit a sense of coziness, authenticity, friendliness, sincerity, and sense of place that can make one feel right at home. You won’t find a forty-dollar steak, but you can find each other.

“We love seeking out breweries and pubs where we can fall deep into conversations, have a great drink, and don’t feel rushed to move on,” Jocelyn said. “Having a flight in front of the fireplace at White Sails Brewing should be a romantic stop for any couple in Nanaimo, and there are few things as soothing as sharing a pint and a meal while overlooking the Victoria harbour from Spinnakers.”

Don’t Unravel—Go and Travel

As breweries increasingly bring tourism traffic into their communities, they become de facto beacons and representatives for their province, community, or neighbourhood. Jocelyn said that she and Matt certainly strive to absorb the tenor of a town based, in part, on the local beer.

“When we travel, we do put a premium on cities with craft breweries or top-notch beer bars,” Jocelyn said, “and we pair a beer stop, at Matt’s request, with a stop at a museum or hike through a park to really get a feel for those communities.” She cited visiting Belfast’s gigantic Titanic Museum and the quaint Bittles Bar—a pub founded in the mid-1800s, located in a flat-iron shaped brick building—as one example. Spending time in Brussels, Belgium by sampling lambic at Cantillon Brewery in the afternoon and mercilessly devouring strawberries and waffles alongside the shy dribble of Manneken Pis in the evening, another.

However, you don’t have to travel to Europe to find great beer (or passable waffles). As more Canadian tourism operations get on board with the hundreds of craft breweries in this country, look for more beer travel guides to assist with your travel plans. For instance, the BC Ale Trail (which pairs well with the Craft Beer Revolution guidebook) has a kindred spirit in Nova Scotia: the Good Cheer Trail (which pairs well with the East Coast Crafted guidebook). Stratford, Ontario has a Bacon & Ale Trail. Travelling in Canada has never been better.

Start a Brewery

OK—so Jocelyn and Matt haven’t leveraged their savings into a full-scale production brewery (yet). However, it should be mentioned as a viable relationship option because a number of successful BC breweries have been founded and run by couples.

Some examples include Michael & Karen Kuzyk (Category 12 Brewing in Saanichton), Cédric Dauchot & Chloe Bryana Smith (Townsite Brewing in Powell River), and Aaron & Michelle Colyn (Twin City Brewing in Port Alberni). Aaron spoke about how vital Michelle was to getting the brewing operations off the ground.

“Michelle was a huge part of the brewery setup,” he said, “and I’m sure every idea I had was bounced off her before anyone else. She had the first opportunity to veto any of the dumb ones. Even before the brewery renovation was happening, she would spend hours helping me wash my homebrew equipment, mill grain, and other various preparations for brewing.” (Aaron best be leveraging his savings into a full-scale Valentine’s gift for Michelle.)

So Hoppy Together

The same tenets of forging successful explorations into craft beer appear to be the same as forging a successful relationship: be open-minded, listen, and always be willing to learn; recognize and support each other’s passions, no matter how different; travel and explore to find your happy places. Put it all together and you’ll be celebrating 365 Valentine’s Days every year—and you can probably get away with wearing beer T-shirts for most of them.

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The craft beer community in British Columbia is ravenous for these beers. While most beers are traditionally brewed with dried hops, some breweries will prepare a beer during the late-summer hop harvest that involves the addition of fresh hops (also known as wet hops).

It can be a tricky process for brewers as flavour extraction from fresh hops isn’t as predictable as with dried hops, and you need more fresh hops than dried to get an equivalent impact in your beer.

It’s also a time-sensitive process; there is a relatively small window of time — a few days — when the hops can be harvested. Once harvested, they have to be added to the brew within approximately 24-48 hours.

However, the results can be noticeably different from beers brewed with dried hops and it’s a great way to celebrate the re-established connection between farming and brewing in the province.

Hop farming was plentiful in BC through much of the 20th century before, essentially, ceasing to exist as international competition forced farmers out of business. However, the rise of craft beer has spurred the return of hop farming; the British Columbia Hop Growers Association has stated that there are now around 30 hop growers in the province.

One such farm is Cedar Valley Hop Yards, which produces a variety of hops on 10 acres of land, 12 kilometres south of Nanaimo. I went there to meet up with Harley Smith (brewmaster) and Peter Kis-Toth (head of quality control) from Nanaimo’s Longwood Brewery.

It’s 8 a.m. — to my surprise, the time Harley usually starts his brewing days.

The upper skies are sullen grey and newly smoke-filled from another series of far-off wildfires, but it has rendered the day cool and comfortable: perfect temperatures for a harvest.

The hops are ready to be collected for Longwood’s 40KM ISA—a beer that contains ingredients all sourced 40 km or less from the brewery.

We’re greeted by a waddling pack of farm dogs, followed by sweet and salty farm owners Kevin and Debbie Lamson. They were foresters by trade, but in 2011 transitioned their property into a hop farm to serve commercial and home brewers on Vancouver Island.

There are more than a dozen types of hops here, but Debbie directs us to rows of Willamette hops. Harley likes them because they grow quickly in this climate and, he admits, he loves the flavour. (He adds that all of the Longwood Brewery beers use hops from this farm.)

We’re given a couple of well loved serrated knives and we line up at the start of a row of hop bines, which are surprisingly thick. They arch and curl up ropes tied to steel wires, trellising six metres in the air. (Apparently, the difference between bines and vines is that bines curl while vines use tendrils or suckers to grow; Debbie’s opinion is that the word was changed because the wine industry didn’t like beer folk using the word “vine.”)

It becomes clear that we aren’t picking the cones by hand, but we’ll be slashing all of the hop bines at waist-height.

The crew gets hacking and chatting. Peter — harvesting hops for the first time — soon wishes aloud that he wore a long-sleeved shirt, as the bines are surprisingly abrasive. Debbie talks about other Island breweries — White Sails, Lighthouse — who picked up hop orders recently from the farm.

Once the bines are loose and hanging around, I wonder: How do we get them down?

We need more machinery and a bigger crew. We join Kevin, his oldest son Ray, and farm worker Ali Bowater at their tractor. Kevin is the driver. Ray, Peter, and I climb into a metal lift and are given the job to cut the ropes from the top wires. Harley and Ali ride ahead of us in a trailer, collecting the ropes and bines as they fall.

We crawl along between rows of bines, but the sheer amount of them keep Ray and Peter slicing away at a quick tempo. The best-looking hops are a rich gentle green, bordering on fluorescence. The high steel wires are solid like a ski-lift and clamped down to each other cross-ways as well down the rows. The security is needed because when the hops get that high, Ray says, they are basically a sail when a strong wind visits.

When the trailer is full, Kevin drives us over to their new warehouse. The hive of the building is a behemoth green machine full of chains, vacuums, and blades that Harley affectionately calls “The Mangler”: a Wolf 140 hop picker.

Kevin fires it up; it sounds like an airplane engine. Instructions now have to be shouted: Peter feeds the bines into one side of the machine — ropes and all — and the Mangler separates the stalks, leaves, and cones.

It’s not 100-per-cent perfect — some leaves get through, so Harley and Ali dutifully pick out those rogues from the bounty of hop cones flying up and over the final conveyor belt — but it’s amazingly efficient.

As I admire the work of the Mangler, Harley looks up at me from the conveyor belt and shouts, “You can’t get away from progress,” before dropping a hint that I should help with the leaves. We begin channeling Bob and Doug McKenzie and their hunt for mice in bottles.

You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned the smell of the hops yet. Outside, there wasn’t much. But as the bines go through the mangler and the cones fly out, the aroma of Willamette finally swamps us. Now, we’re really excited for this beer to happen.

Bins of hops are weighed and we reach 80 pounds (36 kilograms). The Mangler takes a nap, the van is loaded, and handshakes and hugs are exchanged. It’s 11 a.m.

We get back to the brewery and Harley tells us that the first thing we have to do is blanche the hops with hot water. Why?

“Birds sit on those ropes and wires all year long. Guess what they do?”

Not wanting bird feces, spider mites, or undesirable bacteria or yeast on the hops, Harley hand-tosses the full-cone hops into a small tank (nicknamed the “Minion” tank) and hot water is pumped in.

This stew doesn’t sit for long; they don’t want to lose flavour. As the hot water is pumped out, Peter grabs a glass and collects some of this wastewater before raising it to his lips. “Brewers. We drink anything,” he says. Succumbing to peer pressure, I also down a sip; it looks like miso soup and tastes like oily sencha, but the aroma is incredible.

The final act for the day is to get beer into the tank to get the fresh hops hopping. It’s nearing 12:30 p.m. Harley shares his expectation that the 40KM ISA should be done in about two weeks.

While the tank fills, Harley expresses admiration for the fresh hop harvest — one of his favourite times of the brewing year.

“It’s the best. We get to watch the hops sprout, grow up over the year, and be a part of the harvest. It’s just great to partake in the whole operation.”

When his uber-local fresh hop beer — part of BC’s popular fresh hop beer lineup — is done, glasses will be raised to celebrate those fresh flavours and the continued growth of BC’s farmer-brewer relationships. As craft beer drinkers in this province, we couldn’t be luckier.

Longwood Brewery’s 40KM ISA will be available at select liquor stores as well as the Longwood Brewery (2046 Boxwood Rd., Nanaimo) by the end of September. Longwood, along with many of BC’s top breweries, will be serving fresh-hopped beers at the 2017 BC Hop Fest in Abbotsford on Saturday, Sept. 30.

The Cedar Valley Hop Yards is hosting an open house on Sept. 16, 2017. For more information, visit cedarvalleyhops.com.

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