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SPREADING THE WORD
BC CRAFT BEER MEDIA SPEAKS UP BC beer writers and bloggers stage a first ever general meetup in May 2016. Photo: Brian K. Smith
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raft beer is a lifestyle pursuit. Once certain people make beer discoveries, they like to share their thoughts. Social media now makes this very accessible... but sometimes people want to go farther than a tweet or a post—perhaps in the form of beer reviews, events coverage, travel stories, business, political or community beer news. This could be called “beer journalism”, and it is one of the underestimated pillars of the beer revolution. During the 1990s wave, Victoria's pioneers were the first BC beer writers to make significant contributions. What's Brewing's own Phil Atkinson, John Rowling and Dave Preston, each of them at some point a leader of CAMRA and Great Canadian Beer Festival, were each respected writers outside that role—with Atkinson authoring a book, and Preston and Rowling writing for US beer magazines. By the 2010s, a new, younger wave of beer writers was documenting their passion in books, newspapers and online. Let's meet some of the people leading the way in this area and hear what they recall about their experiences.
A Revolutionary Feeling Joe Wiebe The publication of my book, Craft Beer Revolution: The Insider’s Guide to B.C. Breweries back in 2013 was a significant milestone for me, and it coincided with a major turning point in the timeline of BC’s craft beer industry. It was like a starter’s pistol had been shot—and the race to open new breweries hasn’t slowed since.
sending it to other publishers. In response, he suggested we produce a fancy coffeetable-style book with beautiful photography and graphic design throughout. The catch was we needed the breweries themselves to help fund it.
I take no credit for this (although more than a few people have told me they were inspired to open their brewery after reading Craft Beer Revolution). My book just happened to come out at exactly the right time, right after the provincial government had announced that breweries could open tasting rooms.
I reached out to several breweries and they said it was a great idea, but when we approached the whole brewing community I found out the smaller ones just couldn’t afford it. After weeks of flogging that dead horse, Chris and I had to concede the budget just wouldn’t fly. I was disappointed, but when Chris told his bosses about the outcome, they looked at all the work I had done and invited me to discuss other options. By the end of that meeting, I had a contract to write Craft Beer Revolution.
While it seems like a no-brainer now, the path to publishing wasn’t straightforward. By 2011, I’d been writing articles about beer for several years, and many colleagues and friends had suggested I should write a book about it. So I finally sat down and wrote out a book proposal, which I asked my friend Chris Labonté to read. He worked on the fiction side of things at publisher Douglas & McIntyre. I just wanted his feedback before
Since its release, I have been involved in several other exciting projects. I helped launch Victoria Beer Week and the BC Ale Trail; I emceed the Canadian Brewing Awards (and will again this year); I’ve hosted beer tastings, seminars, and panel discussions all around BC, and spoken on the radio dozens of times. But nothing quite beats the feeling I had when I opened that first box of books back in 2013.
STRATHCONA BEER COMPANY
TRADING POST BREWING
VICTORIA CALEDONIAN (TWA DOGS)
WHITETOOTH BREWING COMPANY
THE 101 BREWHOUSE & DISTILLERY
3 DOGS BREWING
ANDINA BREWING
ANGRY HEN BREWING COMPANY
BACKCOUNTRY BREWING
BACKROADS BREWING COMPANY
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