Craft in Support of Craft

Getting caught up in the euphoria of BC’s craft beer revolution, it’s easy to quickly associate the mention of “craft” with beer. However, there is a non-beer craft community of artists, artisans, teachers, scholars, collectors, and gallery owners that is represented by the Craft Council of British Columbia.

Last year, in celebration of Craft Year 2015, the two came together for the Craft Year, Craft Beer fundraiser at VanDusen Botanical Gardens. This year, the collaboration returns on November 5 for Celebrate Craft…Beer!, a charitable fundraiser that will be held at Performance Works on Granville Island.

Celebrate Craft…Beer! features a curated market of local artists and seasonal craft beer from 18 BC breweries, who will be competing to win an amazing handmade tap designed and created by a noted local artist. The winner will be chosen by a judging panel consisting of Chad McCarthy, Rebecca Whyman, and Ken Beattie. Attendees will also be able to vote for the Peoples’ Choice seasonal. Last year, Strange Fellows Brewing won both categories.

The Coming BC Craft Beer Correction

With the number of craft breweries in BC expected to reach at least 130 by the end of 2016, competition is growing to the point where I expect we’ll see an increasing number of business failures. That’s not because there’s a lack of room for growth. BC has a population and GDP similar to Oregon, yet they have double the number of breweries we have. It’s because there’s a shrinking margin of error, especially in outrageously expensive Vancouver.

Growth of the BC craft beer market alone hasn’t floated all boats. (Remember Plan B, DIX, Taylor’s Crossing, and Surlie?) Yet, that’s what many of the startups seem to be counting on without a much deeper consideration of to whom and how they will sell their beer. In fact, there are breweries that don’t even have a working marketing plan (not the same as a promotion plan), never mind a marketing budget (not the same as ad hoc spending). We’ll see how much longer they’ll last on passion after the next 30 breweries open their doors.

Thanks to Beer Me BC, we have a better idea of whom the typical BC craft beer drinker is and their consumption habits. According to the most recent self-selecting survey, they are predominantly males between the ages of 27 and 42 living in the Lower Mainland and Greater Victoria. They drink, in ranking order of preference, India pale ale, stout, pale ale, sour ale, or saison from a bomber 3-5 days per week, mostly at home. Their beer is chosen foremost for its style, then by brewery and reputation.

The Business of Craft Beer

According to Jan Zeschky’s reckoning, there will be 22 new craft breweries opening in British Columbia this year — that is, 22 he is aware of. This will bring the total number of BC craft breweries and brewpubs to 85.

So if we assume, on average, that each brewery will produce six beers annually (four core, two seasonals), that amounts to 510 BC craft beers. That is equal in number to 84% of all beers currently sold in the 197 BC government liquor stores, only you won’t find even close to that number of local craft beers actually sold there.

This makes for an increasingly competitive landscape, putting more pressure on startups to have a solid business plan.

Forage for Craft Beer Contest

While I have lamented for some time that most hotels in Vancouver seem oddly uninterested in promoting local craft beer to the city’s visitors, this is slowly beginning to change. One of my current favourite Vancouver hotels to enjoy a BC brew at is The Listel Hotel on Robson Street (at Jervis). Forage, their zero waste restaurant (formerly, O’Doul’s), offers a seasonally-changing selection of ten BC craft taps, along with some Pacific Northwest bottles. I can’t resist having their meaty popcorn with crackling for a beer snack as a start to an evening of seriously good local communal noshing. Chef Whittaker’s award-winning BC spot prawn and seafood chowder is also not to be missed!

Starting today, in a BCbrews exclusive contest, you have three chances to win a $100 gift certificate to forage. Every Monday for the next three weeks, I’ll be posting a question on Twitter with the hashtag #forage4beer relating to forage’s beer selection, which you can find on their Web site. Answer the question once on Twitter, being sure to include the hashtag. Then, on every Friday at 5pm, we’ll choose a random winner who has correctly answered the question.

On a final note, be sure to keep an eye on the forage twitter feed for news of an exciting craft beer event that is in the works. You won’t want to miss it!

Local Breweries Feel Slighted by LDB’s Plan to Lure US Craft Sales to Gov’t Liquor Stores

by WanderingPaddy

Despite the fact that many small BC craft breweries often struggle to get their beers listed for sale in government BC Liquor Stores, the Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) is sending one of their own to the Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America (CBC) to give a talk about “market opportunities” in BC for US craft breweries.

LDB Portfolio Manager, Kimberly Giesbrecht, is set to give a one-hour talk entitled, Canada Market – British Columbia, during a day of talks dedicated to “Export Development” at the CBC.  According to the LDB, Giesbrecht was invited to speak at the CBC by the U.S. National Craft Beer Association (USNCBA) “because BC is recognized as very supportive of the craft beer industry.” Giesbrecht “will be sharing her insight into the BC market with their members,” addressing “craft brewers from around the world including many from BC.”

I hope BC craft brewers do not have to travel all the way to Washington, DC, where the conference is being held, to benefit from Giesbrecht’s insights about the BC craft beer market.

Vancouver Island Craft Beer News, November 8th, 2012

Curious as to what’s new and happening on Vancouver Island in Craft Beer? There is special dinner and tasting events planned, A charitable vote, new releases from Vancouver Island Breweries, and new days to test your trivial knowledge. Read on to learn more.

Swans Brewmaster Dinner

Saturday November 10th at 630pm Swans is having a special Brewmasters Dinner. The five course meal will be paired with six Swans beers. Price is $49.95 and tickets are available at Swans: 250 361 3310 | www.swansbrewpub.com

Check my leapbeer blog later in the month for a breakdown of the nights nosh.

Winterbrau @ Canoe Brewpub

Canoe Brewpub has a special event planned for you on November the 17th. Starting at 1pm in the afternoon join them for a seasonal beer tasting and food sampling event. Your $45 (Advance ticket price) will gain you access to the event featuring beers from Phillips, Driftwood, Central City, Coal Harbour, Hoyne, Saltspring, Lighthouse, Moon Under Water, Spinnakers, Tofino, Craig Street, Howe Sound, Longwood, Wolf and Vancouver Island Breweries.

Advance tickets available at this site

Craft Beer Defined

by WanderingPaddy

This evening, when I heard on the 6 o’clock news that the term, “craft beer”, had been defined and included in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, I was very excited. Finally, I would have a conclusive answer for when I am inevitably asked the question, “What is craft beer?” This is always one of the first questions posed to me in interviews. It always catches me off guard, for some reason, causing me to mumble some lame-ass definition that makes me sound like I have no clue as to what I am talking about. This likely makes the interviewer think they should fire their assistants for recommending me to be interviewed.

My inability to nail down the perfect definition might be because there was no real consensus as to what constitutes a craft beer. The term was created mostly as a marketing ploy. You ask 10 different beer aficionados to define craft beer and you will get 10 different, and often conflicting, answers. But that was before Merriam-Webster got involved.

You can imagine my excitement, as I quickly went to their online dictionary and typed in “craft beer”. Merriam-Webster has been defining the English language since the 1800s, so surely they would know how to nail down, precisely and succinctly, the definition that has eluded all of us beer geeks for the past 15 years, or so. Finally, there would be no argument or debate as to what constitutes a craft beer. I was prepared to be enlightened.

Vancouver Island Craft Beer News: August 15, 2012

This marks the first installment of a new series of posts about what is new in the Vancouver Island craft beer scene.

Pandamonium Unleashed by Phillips Brewing Company

Hot off the heels of their last limited beer release, Evergreen Ale, Phillips has unleashed PANDAMONIUM. This über-hopped double IPA went out Monday the 13th from the brewery, was field tested by the public at the brewery on the 14th, and is on its way to the Alibi Room for keg tapping tonight at 6pm. Grab it quick before it’s gone at discerning craft-focused liquor stores.

Release notes from Phillips’ Web site:

August 13th 2012: A year ago we celebrated 10 years of brewing with a 10% Double IPA, and this year there was only one way to follow it up: Turn it up to 11!

So we dialed up the malt and hops across the board, and are celebrating 11 years of beers with Pandamonium–a double IPA monster.  Brewed to 11%, we loaded hops into the pre-boil, and then added more hops every 11 minutes over a 111 minute boil for a grand total of 11 hop additions (plus a dry hop).

Hopquakes like this don’t come around very often and we only turn 11 once, so enjoy this brewtiful beast while you can!  Pandamonium 11th Hour IPA is available for a limited time at finer craft-focused liquor stores.

Tales of The Vancouver Island Craft Beer Creep: Part 1

You may be asking yourself, what could I possibly mean by ‘craft beer creep’? Could I be talking about the guy at the bar leering from behind his chalice of porter? Perhaps this is the guy who scoffs at your choice as you stand in the liquor store line with a 12-pack of Bud? Or is this that irritatingly outspoken person on the internet, going off about how this year’s ‘hot beer’ isn’t nearly as good as it was last year? Or could it be something else, something completely different?

Pardon if I go a bit geeky on this next bit, but anyone who has played the Zerg in the globally popular game, Starcraft, will have seen the term ‘Creep Colony’. For the uninitiated, a creep colony spreads out ‘creep’ on the play surface, making it able to place new buildings on it, and spreading out the species’ (the Zerg’s) influence on the game. (For more on ‘creep’ see the Starcraft Wiki.) I’m using this analogy for craft beer because of a trend I am starting to see develop on Vancouver Island.

The Next Wave: Darby’s Pub

Transforming an established neighbourhood pub is not an easy thing to do. In fact, if serving up the old formula brings in enough bums on seats throughout the week to make a bit of a profit (because the real money is in the attached cold beer & wine store), then why change? Change may upset the apple cart, annoying your macro-drinking staff and alienating your bread and butter – the regulars whose habits the staff know well enough that they automatically deliver what is wanted. Why take a risk by throwing a monkey wrench in that well-honed machine that has taken a lot of time and money to develop?

You know you’ve walked into one of these places when you have a déjà vu experience that teleports you back to the eighties, only there is no shine on the brass, the floor coverings are looking well-worn, the furniture has stains and nicks, the walls have tape residue from old posters, and there’s a certain stale smell that seems to follow around post-50-year-old blue collar bachelors. You may see a number of the latter who have made the establishment their surrogate living room because it offers the basic things they seek to satisfy them – cheap beer, fried food, women to serve them without complaining, sports on the TV, and companions to argue over sports and politics with. And if the establishment truly does function as a neighbourhood pub, they will turn to look at you, wondering what sort of force you represent to their social oasis.