New Vancouver breweries going ‘all in’ By Joe Wiebe, ThirstyWriter.com
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anada’s microbrewing movement began in 1982 when John Mitchell and Frank Appleton built a smallscale brewery using old dairy equipment. The original Horseshoe Bay Brewery didn’t last long but, in 1984, three other breweries opened in BC that are still thriving today: Spinnakers Brewpub and Vancouver Island Brewery in Victoria, and Granville Island Brewing in Vancouver. From then on, BC’s craft beer revolution has expanded steadily. Today, you can raise a pint of local craft beer in communities from Tofino to Fernie and many cities in between. Several breweries and brewpubs opened in Vancouver in the 1990s, but nothing new opened here after 1998, until last year when three new craft breweries opened in East Vancouver (see sidebar). Operating in the city was just too expensive, mainly due to the cost of leasing. That factor, combined with a notoriously onerous municipal development process, made prospective brewing entrepreneurs leery. New breweries continued to open elsewhere in BC, just not in its biggest city. And then, starting around five years ago, Vancouverites began to seek out craft beer like never before: thirsty “beer geeks” fill taphouses like the Alibi Room in Gastown and St. Augustine’s on Commercial Drive (90+ taps between them, pouring mainly BC craft beer) on a nightly basis and demand craft beer at restaurants that once only catered to wine lovers. “Beer tickers”, who use apps like Untappd to rate every beer they try, flock to private liquor stores like Legacy and Brewery Creek to find the newest releases, and breweries are working overtime just try-
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May 23 – 29, 2013
ing to keep up with the demand. Vancouver has become the engine that drives BC’s craft beer revolution: several BC breweries have already undergone major expansions to supply the demand here. Surrey’s Central City Brewing is opening a new $20-million brewery this summer, and Steamworks Brewing will open a new production brewery in Burnaby this fall. Nine craft breweries opened in BC in 2011 and 2012, and 11 more are expected to open in the province in 2013 —six in Metro Vancouver alone. There’s never been a better time to drink beer in BC, or, using the poker metaphor, to go “all in.”
PUTTING THE ‘BREW’ in Brewery Creek
Yes, there are a lot of thirsty customers in Vancouver, but opening a brewery in the city itself is still a risky proposition, both in terms of the costs involved and the prospect of finding a niche (and an empty tap) in the beer-soaked market. Three new breweries within a few blocks of each other in the Main Street/Brewery Creek area of Mount Pleasant are betting that it’s time to take a gamble. “I am more than ‘all in’ financially,” Josh Michnik told me in early May. “My wife hates me right now because I’m never home. I’m here from before she gets up and until after she goes to sleep.” “Here” is 33 Acres Brewing (15 W. 8th, adjacent to the Anza Club), which will open in June. Michnik hopes to be popular among local residents and office workers — HootSuite just moved in two blocks away — who will be able to stop by the brewery after work to fill their growlers or pick up a bottle or two.
Nigel Springthorpe and Conrad Gmoser are ‘all in’ on their new venture, Brassneck Brewing on Main Street. The brewery will join neighbours 33 Acres and Main Street Brewing in opening this year in the Brewery Creek area. Rob Newell photos Michnik believes there is lots of room in Vancouver for new breweries. “It’s the more the merrier with craft beer. I think it’s just going to help educate people. The more we’re in their face, the more likely they’re going to try this, and the more they try us, the more their palate will develop, and the more their palate develops, the more they’ll search for better beers.” That philosophy is also the driving force behind the Brassneck Brewery (2148 Main), which has many of the city’s beer geeks perched on the edge of their bar stools in anticipation of its opening, which should
happen around Canada Day. That’s because Conrad Gmoser, who has long been considered one of the city’s best brewers, left Steamworks after 17 years to join with Nigel Springthorpe, co-owner and manager of the Alibi Room, which has grown into BC’s craft beer headquarters since he took it over in 2006. The heavily bearded duo — both stopped shaving long ago when they decided to open a brewery together — aims to create something truly unique in the craft beer market: a growler-only storefront brewery that will rely almost entirely upon pedes-
WEVancouver.com