The annual Great Canadian Beer Festival is returning to Victoria for the 25th time Sept. 8-9, 2017. Canada’s longest running craft beer festival was first held indoors at the Victoria Conference Centre in 1993, with 2,000 people attending. After 10 years, organizers moved it outdoors to Royal Athletic Park, which plays host to 9,000 thirsty beer … Continued
Let’s go “behind the scenes” as our photo/video team visits breweries in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. A lot of work goes into producing the BC Ale Trail. We start off by researching and consulting with the breweries and local tourism agencies to determine the activities and sites we will feature. Then, we send out our video-photography team … Continued
This blog post picks up where we left off in “The History of BC Craft Beer — Part 1.“ After helping create Canada’s first microbrewery in Horseshoe Bay, BC, Frank Appleton returned to his home in the Kootenays but soon found himself in demand as a consultant brewmaster. Over the next two decades, he would … Continued
BC Craft Beer—searching for a better way. Back in the early 1980s there weren’t any craft breweries in British Columbia. No one really said “craft beer” back then anyway — the term was “microbrewery.” Either way, there weren’t any microbreweries in BC then; there were hardly any anywhere. At the beginning of the 20th century … Continued
Arrive Thirsty. Leave Inspired. When the small group of BC Ale Trail organizers came up with this catch phrase at one of our early planning sessions we knew we’d struck gold. That motto encapsulated everything we were trying to achieve with the BC Ale Trail, and it served as our beacon as we pushed forward, trying to make this … Continued