WATCH: B.C. Ale Trail to highlight British Columbia’s great craft beer scene and suggest regional itineraries. Monica Martinez reports.
Victoria’s Great Canadian Beerfest is a beer lover’s paradise, a field filled with craft breweries from around the region.
British Columbia has a dynamic and growing beer scene with over 110 breweries, and 60 new ones opening in the last three years alone.
“The beer doesn’t travel very far. It’s produced for local consumption. There are few breweries that ship outside of B.C. so people coming out of B.C. may not be aware of how great we have it here,” said Joe Wiebe, author of Craft Beer Revolution.
But Wiebe is working to fix that, through a project called the B.C. Ale Trail promoting craft beer to visitors outside the province.
“It’s a website that has a complete listing of all the breweries and itineraries for the different regions,” he said.
Three Vancouver Island regions are highlighted on the ale trail – the Comox Valley, Nanaimo and Victoria.
The project is a joint effort between several tourism marketing organizations and the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild, hoping people will enjoy exploring breweries as much as vineyards.
Victoria’s Rock Bay area and Vancouver’s Yeast Van are well known B.C. beer meccas, but other locations may not be as familiar.
The website is a chance to highlight hidden ale trail gems throughout the province.
“It’s great for people to have one resource to go to to find out all you need. Craft beer is a great part for B.C. tourism and putting us on the map for world class beers,” said Powell Street brewer Azlan Graves.
But this weekend, people on the south island don’t have to travel far to taste some of the best beer B.C. has to offer.
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