Aug. 13, 2008 - Issue #669: The Fringe of What?
Great Head - What, no espresso beer?
Vancouver’s surprisingly good beer scene
Recently my day job sent me to Vancouver for a conference. I found myself with some free time, and so used it to explore the beer scene in Vancouver. Moving swiftly past the Starbucks and trying to dodge the roller-bladers, I ducked into the local pubs and breweries to get a sense of how beer is appreciated in Canada’s playground city.
And as I staggered back on the plane a couple days later, I left more impressed by the city than I expected. It has a little something for everyone, from the casual tourist to beer freak. The lower mainland has four microbreweries and 12 brewpubs. Not all are created equal, but everyone can find something in this city on the delta.
I started where most Vancouver beer tourists start (and often finish)—Granville Island Brewing. BC’s largest craft brewery, its original brewery is in the heart of downtown Vancouver on Granville Island (surprise!). Trading on its location and roots, Granville offers tours of its brewery for $9.75.
For a beer beginner, it’s a fun 90-minute diversion. A relatively knowledgeable tour guide walks you through the brewing process step-by-step showing you the brewing equipment. You quickly learn that Granville does not brew their beers on this location any more—they long ago moved production to an industrial-scale brewery in Kelowna; the Vancouver brewery is used only for their seasonals. At the end of the tour the group is provided small samples of four of their beers. The quick witted can purloin extra from the pitchers if they consume their samples quickly enough. The highlights for me were the Robson Street Hefeweizen and the seasonal (a ginger-infused beer). In many respects it’s over-rated and over-priced, but it remains an enjoyable jumping off point for Vancouver beer-exploration.
Next up was a tour of some of the city’s brewpubs. While there are some differences, most struck me as having a similar design and atmosphere: casual, urban and professional. And while in general they all offered up a similar range of beers, including an accessible lager, a brown or amber ale, a hoppier ale and a wheat ale, they distinguish themselves in their seasonal offerings.
Steamworks (375 Water) offers the largest number on tap—eight in all—and with possibly the widest range of styles, from a pale lager to a Belgian dubbel. Dix Brewing (871 Beatty) may be the most ambitious, offering up a big, pronounced India Pale Ale and a creative dark wheat ale. Yaletown Brewing’s (1111 Mainland) highlight is its unique India DarkAle, which nicely cuts the hoppiness of this style with some rich caramel malt sweetness.
They are all enjoyable in their own way, but also disappointing. The brewpubs may be a casualty of a beer consumer in transition. Vancouverites are not satisfied with run-of-the-mill beers and seek out something different, but as of yet they don’t want anything too different. The result is the well-crafted but safe beers you find in Vancouver’s brewpubs. Word has it, though, that some of the outlying brewpubs, like Central City in Surrey, and Mission Springs in Mission offer even higher quality beer, if you have the transportation to get there.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t briefly mention the restaurants that specialize in beer. The Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir) is a challenging but enjoyable experience. It looks like a railway car and the food is deli-style. On the surface, it’s the kind of place I would get bored with quickly. However, its beer selection is beyond reproach: 12 or 13 taps, all locally brewed. The service is dour, but the beer makes up for it.
The Alibi Room’s (157 Alexander) owner, Nigel Springthorpe, is deeply committed to serving local beers and helping clients match their food with the perfect beer. “We want to create beer-sophisticated clients,” says Springthorpe. “It’s the best way to create business—business that comes back again and again.” Their 15-plus taps offer only BC microbrews and the menu is selective but delicious.
The Alibi Room is part of a circle of restaurants and pubs that take turns offering a “real cask” evening, when a traditional cask ale is tapped for the enjoyment of beer lovers. “Real cask ale” is a British brewing tradition where a freshly fermented beer is put into a wood cask, where it carbonates naturally in the wood for a week or two, then served fresh straight from the cask. It results in a softer, rounder beer with less carbonation and more enhanced flavours. It’s a tradition that died out in the early 20th century but was revived recently by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in England. In fact, Vancouver has Canada’s only CAMRA chapter.
I had the great fortunate of partaking in a cask evening at The Whip (209 6th Ave E), where a cask scotch ale from Taylor’s Crossing Brewpub was on offer. It was rich and fruity with a smooth finish. As an experiment the brewer had also thrown some hops into the cask, which gave the beer a floral, hoppy flavour. I’m not sure it worked, but the beer still went down well.
As I flew home, I thought all the beer I drank and what it said about Vancouver. I came to realize I had sold Vancouver short. Underneath the yoga pants and fruit smoothie bars lies a city with a deep appreciation for good beer and the relaxed, unpretentious atmosphere that comes with it. You just have to look for it a bit. V
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