Epic Victoria craft beer trip
Diving headfirst into Victoria’s craft beer scene last fall with the BC Ale Trail
During these trying times we all have to do our part to limit the spread of COVID-19. For now, that means enjoying your favourite BC beers at home. With that being said, I’m eagerly awaiting breweries to open so I can enjoy a flight with friends, once it’s safe to do so. Since we’re a ways from that being a reality, I’ve found myself reminiscing about the memorable moments from 2019, before social distancing became a thing.
Back in November of last year I was very fortunate to be invited by the BC Ale Trail and Destination Greater Victoria for a full weekend of exploring the craft beer scene in BC’s capital. If you haven’t heard of the BC Ale Trail before, it’s a BC Craft Brewers Guild initiative that provides thoughtful itineraries for self-guided tours of craft beer destinations across the province. These tours feature curated recommendations for breweries, restaurants, cafes, hiking trails, and more to explore at your own leisure. Once social distancing restrictions are lifted, the BC Ale Trail is great place to help plan your next beer trip.
Funny enough, before this trip I had only visited Victoria twice in my lifetime; once being when I was a teenager, so I had barely scratched the surface of the city’s craft beer culture.
Joining me on this jaunt to the island was a small group of fellow beer nerds, including Tim (@crafttourist), Ryan (@alesessions), and Ben (@whereandback). Eating and drinking my way around Victoria was going to be a ton of fun with this crew.
DAY 1
I’m a big fan of ferry rides, but when I heard we were taking a Harbour Air seaplane to Victoria I was seriously stoked. Getting a birds-eye-view of Vancouver Island’s landscape was an unforgettable experience. Its the ideal way to travel to the island. The best part? Avoiding the ferry lineups.
Once we landed in Victoria Harbour and checked into our spacious rooms at Chateau Victoria Hotel & Suites, it was brewery tour time. The owner of West Coast Brewery Tours, Elton Walker, gave us the evening rundown: Driftwood Brewery, Lighthouse Brewing, Moon Under Water Brewpub, and Phillips Brewing & Malting were on the menu. It was going to be an awesome night.
Most people know Driftwood from their widely popular Fat Tug IPA, but they are producing other excellent beers in variety of styles. My personal favourite is the Raised by Wolves IPA. Although it rings in at the same ABV as Fat Tug, its quite a different take on the style. Raised by Wolves is fruit-forward and features wild Saccharomyces yeast which softens the beer’s texture. I also really enjoyed Driftwood’s flavour-packed Naughty Hildegard ESB and their crisp and refreshing Arcus Pilsner. I know… pilsners are so hot right now.
Driftwood doesn’t have a tasting room, but they do have a stocked storefront with a growler fill station, cans and bottles to go, and tons of brewery merch. When we toured the brewery floor it became quickly apparent why they don’t have a tasting room; they are absolutely maxed out for space. Tanks. Tanks everywhere! The brewing team is doing a phenomenal job of maximizing their production to meet demand.
The next stop on our tour was Lighthouse Brewing Co. Lighthouse has been pouring beers in Victoria since 1998, and is considered one of the pioneers of craft beer in BC Their current beer lineup features both recipes that have been carefully crafted over twenty plus years, and new experimental brews that add a diversity to their tap list and keep things fresh.
My pick is the Nightwatch Coffee Lager brewed with lightly roasted local cold-brew. It’s one of the best coffee-infused beers in the province (which I’ve had my fair share of), with notes of nuts and chocolate and a crisp lager finish. Lighthouse also has a great little tasting room and patio area. Once this social distancing stuff cools down I’d recommend stopping by to grab a cold one and catch some rays.
The third stop on the tour hosted by Westcoast Brewery Tours was Moon Under Water Brewpub. This is one of the only breweries I had previously visited in Victoria, and for good reason. Moon Under Water has a wicked beer list, solid pub grub, and delicious house-made spirits (gin and tonic flight, anyone?). Elton ordered us some much needed nachos, and then we were appropriately ‘shafted’. For Victoria newbies, the Shaft is a drink made of cold brew coffee, vodka, Irish liqueur, and coffee liqueur. It was a welcomed pick-me-up on the third leg of the tour.
Back to the beer. Moon Under Water makes one of my favourite dark lagers, but if you want to try something really interesting I recommend ordering the Dime Bag IPA which is brewed with sour key candies to add a subtle sweetness and tart touch.
The last stop of the tour was at Phillips Brewing & Malting Co. Phillips Brewing needs no introduction as it’s one of the largest and most successful craft breweries in Canada. Their Blue Buck Pale Ale has been the gateway to craft beer for many British Columbians, and their extensive lineup of core and seasonal beers offer something for everyone’s palette. Their Amnesiac Double IPA was one of the first IPAs I grew really fond of when I started to drink better beer in my later years of university.
Walking through the Phillips brew house was inspiring. Seeing the sheer scale of their operations was visible proof of the mark that their beer has made in BC and beyond. It’s hard to even comprehend how much beer they’re making every day, but just know that it’s a lot!
Interestingly enough, even with all Phillips Brewing’s success they only recently built a legitimate tasting room. It was jam-packed when we finished our tour, so there was clearly a high demand for one. Tim, Ben, Ryan, and I enjoyed a flight of tasty seasonal brews and then headed off to dinner.
In addition to the many breweries in Victoria, the city’s beer scene is supplemented by a few fantastic brewpubs. The first that we visited on this trip was Swans, the third oldest brewpub in BC.
The building that Swans Brewpub operates out of has quite the storied past, dating way back to 1913 when the Scott and Peden Company operated their feed store here. Swans put their stamp on this space in 1989 when they opened doors. Big wood beams, brick walls, and low lighting give the brewpub a cozy, historic feel. The menu and tap list is anything but dated though. Swans has over 58 beers to choose from; including twenty originals, and upscale pub fare. I enjoyed a flight of Swans brews and dove into their Duck Burger paired with a few delicious appetizers.
Speaking of Swans’ own beers, Elton kindly gave us a quick tour of the brewery. It’s a really small operation, relatively speaking, but has a truly unique feel. We sipped on a few delicious beers straight from the tank and checked out their packaging room which housed a hand labeling machine and some cool labels from years past. It was a beer nerd’s paradise.
You’d think our crew would have had enough beer at this point, but that would be strongly underestimating us. We managed to sneak in a quick visits to Whistle Buoy Brewing and the Drake Eatery to cap off day one of the trip. There might have been a vintage Vancouver Island Brewing beer had back at the hotel as well… thanks Tim!
DAY 2
Making my Saturday morning hangover a little less painful was the incredible itinerary that BC Ale Trail and Destination Greater Victoria had planned for us. Well, that and brunch.
Brunch might be the only religion I believe in, so I was seriously looking forward to checking out The Village in Chinatown, which serves up all-day breakfast and their own renditions of classic lunch dishes. I ordered their Huevos Rancheros which was excellent. After a relaxing meal and at least five cups of coffee I was ready to get back to the beer. Beer cocktails, that is.
I’ve always enjoyed spirits; mainly whiskey, bourbon, and gin, but have found making cocktails to be a little intimidating. Lately, I’ve been experimenting more thanks to my girlfriend purchasing us a proper cocktail making kit. When I heard that we were heading to Little Jumbo for a beer cocktail experience hosted by expert bartender, Kyle Guilfoyle, I was hyped to learn more about this craft and see how he layers local beers into his drinks.
Little Jumbo has an intimate, speakeasy vibe that pairs perfectly with cocktails and good conversation. They also have a seriously stoked bar. Kyle started the session by walking us through one of his favourite beer cocktails: Lucky Number Slevin. Try this delicious recipe at home:
1.5 oz bourbon
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz maple syrup
0.5 oz Giffard pamplemousse
2 dashes Fee’s black walnut bitters
Shake, strain, and top with your IPA or Pale Ale of choice. We used the Yellow Dog High 5 Hazy IPA.
Garnish with a swath of orange zest
We then work-shopped two other beer cocktail recipes that turned out to be pretty tasty, after some tinkering. Kyle even let us get behind the bar to put our skills to the test. Tim looked like a pro, but my form definitely needs some work.
After spending a hour in the beer cocktail lab it was time to fuel up and grab some more beers. Luckily, we were headed to Canoe Brewpub for the main event of our trip; the eighth annual Winterbrau festival.
Winterbrau 2019 featured a plethora of winter seasonal beers from twenty craft breweries. It was a tokenless festival, meaning that your ticket gave you access to unlimited beer and food samples. A lot of beer festivals have shifted to this model as its been received really well by event goers, and eliminates long token lineups.
What got me excited about Winterbrau was the opportunity to try beers from a ton of Vancouver Island based breweries that I’m not as exposed to in Vancouver. Venue-wise, Canoe is perfect for this type of smaller beer festival, with essentially three different areas for attendees to wander though and enjoy a plethora of unique beers and fresh, hearty food.
Some of the stand-outs of Winterbrau 2019 were the slightly tart and herbal Finnish Sahti from Howl Brewing, Longwood Brewing’s rich and boozy Triple Stout, and the lip-puckering and fruit-forward Axiom Cherry Plum Sour from Category 12 Brewing.
Canoe Brewpub is also producing some awesome beers of their own. Their head brewer, Kyle York, gave us a quick tour of their brewery floor to see ‘where the magic happens’.
Another great aspect of this beer fest was hanging out with some Island-based beer writers. Nice chatting with you Joe (@thirstywriter), Matt (@matterofbeer), and Ed (@edkaye)!
With most of this summer’s beer festivals being cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m really hoping that things return to a state of normalcy by fall so Winterbrau 2020 can still happen. Fingers crossed.
With an amazing afternoon at Canoe now behind us, Matt guided us to Île Sauvage for a quick flight of wild and sour beers, and then it was off to one of BC’s OG brewpubs for an intimate dinner with Paul Hadfield.
Opened by Hadfield in 1984, Spinnakers is Canada’s oldest licensed brewpub. Although they’ve been in business for over 35 years, their approach to beer is far from out-of-date. Spinnakers has of course perfected some of the classic styles; take their Mitchell’s ESB, but has also also fully embraced the ‘haze craze’, developed a number of tea-infused brews, and even built up a solid barrel-aging program. In addition to being a pioneer of Canada’s micro-brewing scene, Spinnakers is dedicated to supporting local farmers by using nearly 100% local product in their food menu.
I’d spent an evening at Spinnakers’ Heritage Suites a few years ago, so I knew we were in store for a diverse range of beers and delicious eats. What I didn’t anticipate was that Paul would pull out some really unique, unreleased beers from their barrel aging program for us to sample.
Throughout the evening Paul shared stories about the rise of craft beer in BC and the history of Spinnakers. We were in the presence of the ‘godfather of BC beer’, so it was truly a privilege to hear Paul speak candidly about his years in the industry. He also discussed what was on the horizon for Spinnakers, including some barrel-aging program projects and building their new spirits lineup. Speaking of spirits, we got to try a few of them. Their Botanical Beach Gin was my personal favourite.
After a long, relaxing evening at Spinnakers we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. It wasn’t easy to fall asleep though. I was still buzzing, literally and figuratively speaking, from an incredible day of exploring the city.
The next morning we had time for a solid brunch with a view at Vista 18, conveniently located in our hotel. After a beermosa, eggs benny, and a few cups of coffee it was time to pack up and head back to Vancouver.
I feel extremely lucky for having had the opportunity to go on this trip with Tim, Ryan, and Ben. This beer-focused excursion to Victoria was an unforgettable experience. A huge thank you to the BC Ale Trail and Destination Greater Victoria for putting together a jam-packed itinerary and being such gracious hosts. I can’t wait to come back to the island once social distancing is in our rear view mirror.
Disclosure: This was a sponsored media trip hosted by the BC Ale Trail and Destination Greater Victoria. To learn more about the BC Ale Trail, check out their website.
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