- 2 September 2023
I am a real craft beer nerd. I register all of my beers in Untappd, have a look at the Verified Venues everywhere I go and love to explore new brews. Visiting British Columbia and learning about the well-known and amazing craft beer scene, made me even more excited to explore the Canadian Rockies on a 3-week trip. Our trip started in the capital of British Columnbia: Vancouver. In Vancouver there are loads of craft beer bars and breweries to be found. Therefore, I’ll take you along and provide an overview of the best tap rooms and bars in this Craft Beer Guide to Vancouver. Next to that, I’ll share my favorite beers from those different breweries.
Alibi Room is no taproom/brewery, but a great bar with many craft beers on tap (you’ll find around 50 local and imported beers on tap). A cozy and popular bar close to the ‘center’ of Vancouver. Be prepared, it gets busy, so get here early and be prepared to wait for a seat.
First of all, there are many taprooms around Powell street, so take an afternoon and stroll towards this part of the city to do a some taproom hopping. Parallel 49 is one of the best known ones, with a nice inside and outside area.
According to my Untappd, Juice Bigalow was my favourite beer at this tap room.
This bright yellow building will draw your attention when walking on the side of the road. It wasn’t my favorite brewery in terms of beers, however, the beer I liked best was the Lemon Drop (a sour beer).
Storm Brewing is a little bit more alternative and rough than the other breweries above, but this only adds to the craft beer vibe!
The last night of our 3-week Canada holidays we stayed in Yaletown before we flew out the next day. There are many nice places for food and drinks in Yaletown and as craft beer fans we of course couldn’t skip Yaletown Brewing. To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed as the place is huge and not as authentic as some of the craft beer places more toward the West. I just like taprooms better! I liked the Party in the Back Hazy IPA best.
Brassneck Brewery is the first in line around Main Street, where you can also find several craft beer breweries. It was the first one we visited when in Vancouver and didn’t realize this one was as good as it is!! We wanted to go back later to take some beers with us on our camper trip but unfortunately couldn’t find the time to do so.
My favorite beers at Brassneck were Echolocation (Double IPA, rated with a 4.09 on Untappd) and Synesthesia (New England IPA).
Next on the list is Main Street Brewing Co. You might have to queue a bit and wait for a table, but fortunately you can do so in the waiting room for the tours – with a beer! The beers aren’t outstanding – however my favourite beer was Naked Fox IPA.
Four Winds is far out – far out. We got to know Four Winds in the liquor shops when we were getting craft beer for our road trip and along the way we tried to find new Four Winds beers in shops. It is fair to say that this is our favorite brewery. When we returned to our RV, we quickly drove by the taproom to see whether they had beers we hadn’t tried.
My favorite beers of Four Winds were Nectarous and Phaedra – but they are almost all truly amazing. A must for a craft beer lover.
This brewery is located near Main Street as well. The place is rather small and looks very clean and bright for a taproom. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get in as it was too busy, but it can’t miss on this list as we heard good stories about it.
When in Vancouver, one of the main places to visit is Granville Island and its market. Though, there is a brewery as well! The crazy thing is that right after opening hours it gets busy and within 15 minutes a queue starts lining up.
We did a little tasting to try several beers from the brewery but unfortunately, I wasn’t too impressed with all of them. Granville Island is in my opinion quite a basic brewery but worth a stop when on Granville Island.
