Vancouver Craft Beer Week – Where friends, Fun and Great Beer Meet
All great things must come to a close but if you may as well head out with style. Vancouver Craft Beer Week 2016 did just that with their final event at the PNE June 3-5. The three day final festival event saw 100+ breweries pouring hundreds of beers for 5000+ attendees.
The beer was flowing and in true BC style this was an opportunity to try some new beers from new breweries. With 20 or so breweries that have only opened in the past year it was no surprise to see some new faces under the refreshment-themed tents. One such brewery was none other than Parkside Brewery. As a bit of a tongue-in-cheek move, the four Port Moody breweries were positioned next to each other as a Mini Port Moody area. The order of the tents may have been mixed up but it was none-the less a fun flavour experience. Two weeks before their grand opening event, VCBW was a sneak peak at the roster of beers to come from Parkside.
An event like this has an interesting dynamic to it. The go-to beers of BC craft beer are not necessary where the lines form. The staple beers will be there when you return to your local liquor store so the draw of obscurity often reigns supreme. The breweries that are new, from far away, unique or don’t package have a strong draw to them. If you possess more than one of these characteristics, all the better. With this thought in mind it is no surprise that the award for longest line goes to Storm Brewing. With their Jalapeno Cucumber Pilsner and Basil IPA, the line was incomparable to anyone else but you could say the exact same thing about the beer.
As with any VCBW event it isn’t just about the beer. Unique and somewhat obscure entertainment also comes into picture. From Ping Pong to video games, a barbershop to beer can car racing, and of course live music and food trucks – entertainment prevails! There is no shortage of entertainment to soak in when taking a break from the beer in the warm Vancouver sun. If things heated up a bit too much there was always refreshment close by. Not just beer either, the misting machines were well at work all weekend long.
Vancouver Craft Beer Week has come to another dramatic close. 10 days of events, thousands of participants and who knows how much beer later we can now just count down the days to next year. Vancouver Craft Beer Week has set the bar very high from year one and continues to climb every year. If you want to experience a well run, thoughtful and most importantly, fun event – look no where else!
