In Profile: Ryan Mackey & Vancouver Brewery Tours
Photo: Amanda Siebert, Georgia Straight
Vancouver Brewery Tours takes pride in connecting people with Vancouver’s vibrant craft beer community through their fun and informative brewery tours. While on tour, you’ll journey to our best craft breweries for behind the scenes tours, enjoy VIP access, learn the story of each brewery and most importantly, enjoy the beers you love with friends, new and old.
The company was founded in June 2013 by craft beer enthusiast Ryan Mackey, who along with his talented team of tour guides enjoys sharing their passion for locally made craft beer and connecting you with the vibrant craft beer community in Vancouver. Let’s find out what Ryan has to say about VBT.
Q&A WITH RYAN MACKEY, Owner | Vancouver Brewery Tours Inc.
You’ve been around for over five years now, looking back what would you say you’re most proud of?
Having the opportunity to run a company based on one of my passions is probably what I’m most proud of. Also creating employment for similar-minded people who share that same passion, the strong relationships we have with our brewery partners and creating memorable experiences for our guests is very rewarding.
Do your tours cater mostly to tourists?
While a portion of our business has always come from craft beer tourism, the large majority of our guests have always been from the Lower Mainland. Not everyone knows about our breweries! Which is why so many locals hop on our tours to learn more.
You have been named Vancouver’s #1 Brewery Tour on Trip Advisor 5 years running. What does this accomplishment mean to you?
It means the world, it means that customers continue to put their trust in us to introduce them to Vancouver’s craft beer community. For many of our guests we’re their first introduction to the city’s craft beer scene and it’s a responsibility I take seriously – to leave our guests with a positive view of Vancouver and our breweries to make them want to come back and visit again.
Any other recent successes to share?
Our fleet continues to grow as we’ve just added our 4th brewery tour van, we’ve recently hired 3 more people who have solid experience in the beer community, and in late 2018 we were recognized as one of Canada’s top brewery tours by GAdventures and one of North America’s top tours by the Flight Network for the 2nd year in a row.
What’s new on the horizon?
Last year we launched the city’s first pub walk called Gastown Pub Walks, and thanks to popular demand we’re bringing it back in 2019. While it’s a little too early for details, we’re also working on a few new unique beer tours that I think visitors to Vancouver are particularly going to like.
Any particular ways you’ve been active in your community?
Most importantly we support our brewery partners, the better our company does the more money we get to put back into the breweries. We also support a range of charitable organizations and as an avid mountain bike and cyclist we support many bike related teams and organizations – to name a few.
Vancouver Brewery Tours carries What’s Brewing magazine! You can find them in our Partner Outlets directory:
www.whatsbrewing.ca/find
Vancouver Brewery Tours
#425 – 2008 Pine Street, Vancouver, BC V6J 0B8
| Phone: | 604-318-2280 |
| Website: | https://vancouverbrewerytours.com/ |
| Book a Tour: |
To book a Public Brewery Tour, visit our online booking calendar » |
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