Beer in Vancouver

2023-09-11

Up until (relatively) recently, I thought all beer was the same. The same unappetizing shade of light yellow. The same bitter, weird, grassy taste, etc.. etc.. It wasn't until an internship in the summer of 2019 when I realized that beer could actually taste good. I was an intern for a company that had an office in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver, also known as Brewery Creek. Our team would often conduct our Scrum retrospectives at one of the many breweries around the office. What was supposed to be a Very Serious Engineering Meeting quickly turned into an informal chat over a few drinks (this worked well for our team, since we weren't all that crazy about scrum, anyway). These meetings quickly introduced me to the world of craft beer, and I quickly became familiar with the area.

I generally prefer sours, which are—as the name suggests—generally sour and acidic. I find them to be much easier to drink than lagers (which mainly remind me of someone taking a mouthful of hops and burping into water) or IPAs, which are a bit too hoppy for my liking. Luckily, many of the beers in Brewery Creek serve a very strong selection of sours (though not at the expense of other types of beer!). Here are a few that I highly recommend:

• Electric Bicycle Brewing
• R&B Brewing
• Faculty Brewing
• 33 Acres
• House of Funk

The first 4 are actually within a few blocks of each other and can easily be visited within a night. Read on for more details about each brewery.

Electric Bicycle Brewing (20 E 4th Ave.)

If you're a fan of sours, Electric Bicycle is a brewery that focuses mainly on them (often at the expense of its other beers). Their Atomic Jam sour is a summer staple, and one that I've had at least once every summer since I first discovered them. Electric Bicycle's sours are sour; if you like beers that'll make your lips pucker and cause you to make a weird face, it's the place to go. They do brew other types of beer, like ales or lagers, but they're not as great as some of the other breweries in the area. They have a neon sign, which, as one might expect, is of an electric bicycle, and the storefront looks very pretty when lit up at night. Definitely the most colourful out of the five I've listed here.

R&B Brewing (1-54 E 4th Ave.)

If you want some food to go with your beer, R&B is a great place to go. They serve from a very broad pizza menu, ranging from a simple margherita pizza to fancier ones, like BBQ chicken. R&B's beer program is also excellent. They serve a wide variety of beers, ranging from pretty standard IPAs to some really wild flavours. A particularly interesting flavour I recall drinking is the Dill Pickle Gose. You can actually taste the dill pickle in this beer, and it's not as gross as it sounds. It reminds you that it's a funky beer without making you feel like you're drinking pickle juice out of a jar. One thing about R&B though, is that especially at night, the music can be quite loud; if you want a place where you can go have a conversation over a beer, this might not be it.

R&B also has (as of August 2023) an excellent brunch menu! Every brunch item is priced at $10, and you get quite a large portion. Ask for their mango habanero hot sauce; it goes great with any of their breakfast potato dishes.

Faculty Brewing (1830 Ontario St.)

Faculty Brewing is, definitely tied with 33 Acres as the most "subdued" of all the breweries on this list. The brewery itself feels a lot more "grown up" than the others, with light wood throughout that reminds you of an IKEA more than a bar. That said, there's still a lot to like. Their summer feature is the "Shower Beer," which is a rice lager that's incredibly easy-drinking. They'll occasionally have sours/fruitier offerings, but that's not their strong point. Faculty does not serve food, except for some pepperoni sticks. You'll want to get food elsewhere if you're hungry. They have covered patio in an alleyway that's pretty cozy, and it's even heated in the wintertime.

33 Acres (15 W 8th Ave.)

33 Acres is what you'd get if IKEA went and decided to open a brewery in Vancouver. There's a lot of light wood panelling, white paint, and a bunch of furniture that looks nicer than it feels like to sit in. The beer at 33 Acres is notably less crazy than some of the experimental stuff you'd find at R&B or Electric Bicycle. Their Mezcal Gose seem to be a summer staple; a safe choice for folks who enjoy sour beers. 33 Acres also follows a naming convention for most of their beers, which are (mainly) named "33 Acres of ?," where ? is "Sunshine" or "Ocean" or etc..

House of Funk (350 Esplanade E #101, North Vancouver)

I'm cheating here by including a brewery that's not in Brewery Creek, but this list wouldn't be complete otherwise. House of Funk is a brewery on the other side of the pond in North Vancouver. It's easily accessible by public transit, one can just take the Seabus from Waterfront station downtown. It's a bit of a walk from the quay, but completely worth it, in my opinion. Not only is it an amazing brewery, but House of Funk is also a coffee roastery! You could very literally get a beer and then a coffee. House of Funk's coffee program is top-notch. Like most roasters in Vancouver, they specialize in light roasts of beans all over the world. Back when I last visited, they also offered some bar food in the form of steamed and lightly-salted edamame, and some dumplings from a shop in Chinatown. If you're feeling adventurous, they also serve a sparkling cold brew.