12 Breweries Make One Week
Leg 1: Gulf + Cowichan For most people, a Spring Break Island get-away would mean going someplace warm and sunny, like Hawaii or Mexico, and laying on a beach relaxing. For BeerSeekers, it means a BC Ferry rather than a…
Why Beer Drinkers Come to Cumberland
Hidden in the hills of mid-Northern Vancouver Island is an oasis of civility called Cumberland. In the middle of that oasis you will find a tiny slice of Paradise named the Cumberland Brewing Company. In order to frame this story,…
Out and About
So in our 26th season, What’s Brewing is steadfast in getting to all the events around. Every year now the scene will be bigger, bolder, wiser in beer. It is worldwide now; craft is King and Queen. At Events this…
But I’m Not Bitter
With a few exceptions, notably Baldwin and Cooper’s Best Bitter from Howe Sound, the BC craft brewing industry was reluctant to use the word bitter for about the first 20 years of its history. Many of the pale ales produced…
Bellingham: Drink it all in
When you live close to the 49th parallel, day trips to Bellingham are an easy 60-ish minute drive from Vancouver. And when the beer scene is pretty damn fantastic, one may make more trips for the beer than for a…
Why I applaud BC’s only annual Fruit Beer event
Some of the events held during Vancouver Craft Beer Week are quite unique. Case in point: Forbidden Fruit at Devil's Elbow.
Beers, Beaches and Breweries
While the calendar says it is spring, it already feels like summer here in the Okanagan. Patios are open, gardens are blooming and people are out exploring the region by foot, bike and boat. I’ve lived in the Okanagan for…
Homebrew Happenin’s
Brewmaster beginnings: notes from the Coastal Ale Trail I usually take some vacation time in the spring each year, typically in April. In the past I would most often end up in Portland. This year with the difference between the…
The Ultimate British Columbia Craft Beer Road Trip
British Columbia is a massive land mass and craft beer spans East to West and North to South. The pace of change in Vancouver craft has been massive but the focus on such a small geographic area does not pay…
The Best of 2016 So Far: the (unpublished) landmark stories from a busy year
Every year since 2010 has seen eventful developments for the BC brewing sector and beer fan. 2014 and 2015, with approximately 20 new BC brewery openings each, were pretty big years. Now, more than halfway through 2016, we can start to get a feel for how 2016 will stack up against the last few annums.
How Staycation BC Became Possible
Now that summer is upon us, and our minds are turning to summer vacations, many local craft beer lovers are exploring the idea of a craft beer “staycation”, touring from brewery to brewery to enjoy the wide array of amazing…
Profiles: Women in Beer – Julia Hanlon
In Women In Beer, Lundy interviews female members of the craft beer industry NAME & POSITION AT BREWERY? Julia Hanlon, Head Brewer at Steamworks Brewing Co. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THE POSITION? 1 Year WHAT BROUGHT YOU INTO THE…
Trippin’ Out: Staycation BC heads to the Okanagan and Interior
In our Summer issue, we served up a batch of stories about the beer scene on the Island and Coast, featuring an 'Ale Trail' beer loop that a few of our regular writers travelled during the spring. Now, in the spirit of Staycation BC, we're embarking on a much bigger loop: the entire South BC Interior, including the Thompson/Okanagan, Kootenays and Rockies regions.
Staycation BC in the Thompson Okanagan
A few years back, I consciously made the choice to “stay-cation” in my own back yard. I tailored my jet-setting ways into a lower fossil-fuel-consumption, higher-economy-boosting and British-Columbia-packed exploration of what I truly love: craft beer and my Mother: Nature.…
The Brewer’s Tale: a beer history of the world
It might seem unfair to criticize a book’s subtitle, but when the book is as engaging, appropriately earnest, and well written and researched as The Brewers Tale, what else can you do. The full title of the book is The…
There’s Chloe for You
Meet Chloe Smith, hailing from Saskatoon. Today, she manages a brewery with a prominent place in the BC craft beer scene. As bright young woman, she could probably have done anything she wanted in life. She always knew she didn't…
Dreams Do Come True – A Craft Beer Judging Experience
Okanagan Fest of Ale has been held for 21 years in Penticton, B.C., making it one of the longest running beer festivals in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been going for over 10 years, although in the early years my reason…
CBAC 2016 Part I: the Conference & Trade Show
As mentioned in the intro to our Best of 2016 (not already published) feature, we mentioned that we had a number of stories in 2016 that didn't make the magazine due to timing or other factors. Primary amongst them is the Canadian Brewing Awards & Conference, held in Vancouver area for the first time ever, back in late May.
A View from the cellar
A crash course in cellarmanship, Part III - Venting and Tapping In this ongoing series I hope to broaden knowledge about real ale, its history, practice and relevance. The first two parts were about the history and use of casks.…