Sipping Seriously Superior Suds in Sunshine

8,000 beer fans celebrate Great Canadian Beer Festival

Victoria, BC, Canada – In the September heat, 8,000 beer fans sipped suds at this years Great Canadian Beer Festival. Fifty-three breweries attended the 2-day event, serving up 172 craft ales, pilsners, porters and more.

From the lightest lager, to the darkest imperial stouts, a full spectrum of classic styles were companions to less common and experimental brews such as Cannery Brewings Blackberry Porter and Bravo Beers Cookie Beer (which was gone within the first day).

Hosted by Victoria, B.C.’s chapter of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the GCBF is Canada’s longest running beer festival in early September each year. Banking on the fact the weekend after the Labor Day long weekend is almost always sunny, the event takes place outdoors in a multi-purpose sports venue where beer is generally not allowed on the field.

The crowd is a mixture of demographics. Young adults, looking for a party and good beer, rush from tent to tent, trying out new flavours and styles they’ve never heard of. Meandering through them are the long time supporters of quality craft brewing, testing similar styles against each other and reconnecting with friends from past events. Industry insiders talk shop, discussing hops shortages and organic movements while costumed characters entertain nearby groups sipping suds. The split of males to females is surprisingly close, given beers masculine tendencies, and the women attending are as informed as their male counterparts.

Regular attendee Ken Desmarets came with Big Al Brewing this year, though he’s come over 15 years, with 4 different breweries. “[The GCBF] has really brought the craft beer up around here,” he says, explaining how groups like CAMRA have been able to spread the word that choices extend further the Budweiser, Coors, Kokanee and Canadian. “We get to educate people about beer and the politics of beer.”

As part of that education, Big Al had a special beer on tap. After running a competition for home brewers near there home in west Seattle, one beer was chosen to get the professional treatment at Big Al brewing and the recipe was commercially brewed.

In the beginning, Desmartes remembers the early festivals having a wooden fence and less than a third of the crowd. This year tickets sold out in a weekend and scalpers have been successfully selling tickets for twice the $25-$30 (Canadian) face value.

A half-dozen restaurants set up shop on one side while about two dozen porta-potties and a couple group urinals occupy the back underneath a scoreboard. At any given time three or four entertainers are set up around the grounds, playing blues, walking on stilts or performing magic tricks. One old-standby, a German oompa band have got a regular spot under one of the large tents, which provides shade and seating for those looking for a break.

Despite the festivals growth, the breweries are always small time. While a couple, such as Vancouver Island Brewery, are almost at the maximum size for a micro-brewery, others are just brewpubs, such as  Anacortes Brewing, producing mostly kegs for the restaurant and a few bottles.

Hopworks Urban Brewery was another example of a brewpub coming north. However, the Portland brewery is different in another way; it’s super environmentally conscious. With local organic ingredients in the beers, they go the extra mile with a LEAD certified building and powered by %100 renewable energy.

This year’s GCBF can be considered a complete success, which isn’t a surprise, the event hasn’t had a poor outing in some time. Despite thousands of people drinking together, there were almost no conflicts, with security mingling with the crowd more than policing. If this keeps on, they’re going to need a much bigger venue next year. The public enjoys raising a small plastic cups to the craft brew industry.

Click here to see photos from this event.

Written by Brendan Kergin