Latest Stories from What’s Brewing

In these times of social distancing and closed borders, we still have opportunities to explore in our own backyard. Brian K. Smith takes you on a four-day trip to Vancouver Island’s west coast to check out the recent arrivals in the craft beer scene, easily and affordably.

In late May of 2019, Wildeye Brewing opened their brewery/tasting room in North Vancouver, an area that has definitely become a destination craft beer hub. The owner and conceiver is Samantha Lindeman, and she is not even thirty!

Despite the challenges of COVID-19 restrictions, regulations and rules, the South Okanagan craft beer industry has adapted and pivoted.

What can I say about 2020 that we don't already know? British Columbia confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in late January. Since then, the pandemic has evolved into an unprecedented healthcare crisis across our province and the world. Hopefully, one day, we will not have the wariness lurking in our minds and we will be able to socialize again freely.

Did COVID kill craft beer’s momentum? Is this wave of the craft beer revolution over? The returns are in: 2020 could have been a lot worse. With the opening of La Cerveceria Astilleros, BC avoids recording the first year since 2013 with fewer than 20 brewery openings. Find out how that fits into the big picture of the #BCCraftBeer revolution in this special look at 2020.

The BC Craft Brewers Guild is set to present their fourth annual BC Craft Brewers Conference in early February 2021 in virtual format. Tickets are on sale now. To find out more about how the conference will work, we had a word with the Guild's Executive Director, Ken Beattie.

Every three months, What’s Brewing gets together with JAK’S Beer Wine Spirits to create a new installment of our Tasting Panel series. This episode, for the first time ever, we reviewed six winter-ready rich, dark dessert beers! Also check out our live Virtual Tasting Panel as they Zoom in on our six-pack of beers in a new @PacificBeerChat podcast episode.

Longtime What's Brewing columnist J. Random tackles the theme of our Winter 2020 "Virtual Beerality" issue by looking into the future of craft brewing. Features a graph of BC brewery birth and death rate statistics. Were we already reaching peak beer?

Vol. 30 No. 4 Winter 2020 is the Virtual Beerality issue of What's Brewing magazine. In it, contributors and industry panelists explore the present and immediate future of BC craft beer as breweries deal with COVID-related societal change, virtual events, a shift away from the community hub, and surviving what might be the hardest winter the hospitality industry will see in generations.

It has been quite the unusual year in Northern BC. Normally there would be craft beer festivals taking place. To counteract the COVID-19 blues, people are finding new ways to engage in the spirit of community, collaboration and craft.

For me in 2020, staying home and stewing has meant staying home and brewing. I brew classic British styles because the mild, bitter, and old ales I crave are rarely produced by BC brewers. It turns out that during my early days of homebrewing in the UK, my two favourite hops had Canadian origins.

COVID-19 has affected all of us in some way or another. If you have found yourself with time on your hands, have been thinking about ways to be as self-sufficient as possible, or need a distraction from all of the craziness in the world right now, I strongly suggest trying homebrewing. It is fun, educational, and rewarding.