Vancouver’s Craft Beer Shrine

Is a steak just steak, a wine just wine, or a coffee just coffee? Clearly, no. There are intrinsic differences in quality and the way each are prepared. An understanding of the whole process to get those items to our table also gives us a better appreciation of them. Finally, there is our social connection to the producers and servers of food and drink that elevate them beyond the utilitarian.

Beer is no different, but Vancouver has still a ways to go before reaching the level of understanding that we’ve achieved with food, wine, and coffee, or to match that found in other West Coast cities. A good place to start would be a visit to Gastown’s Alibi Room for its 25 draught taps and three cask beer engines, the majority of which come from our own brewers.

Offering this selection is no light undertaking. Co-owner, Nigel Springthorpe, built the Alibi’s offering by making the effort to meet the brewers and personally pick up their beer. This is why for Barley Station, Craig Street, Dix, Longwood, Spinnakers, Swans, and Yaletown Brewing, the only other place you can find their beer is at the Alibi Room.

It would be easier to offer the same options all the time, but Springthorpe chose to pick a different beer from each brewer to cover a broad range of styles. Cask-conditioned ales also offer brewers a chance to experiment on a small scale, making something completely different that may otherwise be difficult to sell with a full batch. Then there’s the seasonality of the draught range with lighter, crisp beers for the warm weather and full-bodied, strong brews for the cold. Altogether, this means the selection of what’s available at the Alibi Room changes on a weekly basis.

This Thursday, December 3, marks the 100th beer rotation for the Alibi Room over the last two years. The current lineup will be changed out to offer what Springthorpe considers to be the brewers’ signature brews. He will also be releasing, for the first time, everything that’s been aging in the Alibi’s new beer cellar. That’s right; aged beer. Most beer is best consumed fresh, which means it’s hard to beat a brewpub in that category. However, strong ales, like barley wine, can be cellared for years and will improve considerably with time.

So if you want to discover the world of beer, a good opportunity would be to stop by the Alibi Room on Thursday to sample what’s great in BC right now. The room will undoubtedly be abuzz with the excited chatter of beer aficionados; you may even bump into the odd brewer. Otherwise, there’s always beer school.

Tagged as: ale, Alibi Room, and Yaletown Brewing, Barley Station, cask, Craig Street, Dix, lager, Longwood, Nigel Springthorpe, Spinnakers, Swans