It makes sense to assume that The Great Canadian Beer Festival—Canada’s oldest beer fest, now in its 27th year—is a well-oiled machine, stumbling along status quo, quaffing a few sours and stouts along the way. But there’s big changes behind the scenes in 2019: the Victoria Beer Society (VBS) took over operations of the fest after 2018’s last call and has managed to get even more breweries into the grounds of the Royal Athletic Park this year.
“The average attendee who’s been there before won’t see a lot of big differences, other than the fact that we’re going to have a lot more breweries than ever before,” says VBS beer director Joe Wiebe. “When the past organizers decided to retire last year and asked us to take over, we were honoured, of course, but the first thing we thought is we want to really emphasize the national story of it. It’s called the Great Canadian Beer Festival, after all. So we decided we were going to work really hard to bring in breweries from all across the country; the focus is still going to be mainly BC breweries, because we’re in BC, after all. So, yeah, the big difference is they’ll see more breweries than ever before, and especially a lot more breweries from all across the country, all the way from Halifax on the east coast, up north to the Yukon, and everywhere in between.” (BC breweries attending for the first time are 33 Brewing Experiment, Ace Brewing, Barnside Brewing, Île Sauvage Brewing, Rustic Reel Brewing, and Whistle Buoy Brewing.)
Wiebe admits that taking over the fest has been “a ton of work,” but attendees should enjoy the benefits of VBS’ hard work, such as live DJs Bryan Boitano and Mike Devlin, new food trucks, and, as mentioned above, several breweries that haven’t been at the fest before. And, of course, beer. Lots and lots of beer. It’s always interesting seeing what styles of beer are popular when the fest rolls around. Last year was sours; this year there are a couple different trendy styles. (Speaking of all that work, Wiebe says the fest is still looking for volunteers; head to victoriabeersociety.com/volunteer-for-gcbf for more info.)
“There’s a style called ‘gose,’ which is really nice—it’s not very sour; it’s a little tart and a little salty,” says Wiebe. “There’s quite a few of those being served, which is great; they’re interesting beers. In terms of trends, just seeing what the new breweries can come up with… Hazy IPAs—hazy styles in general—have really blossomed over the past couple of years, so there’s tons of those. It’s funny—five or six years ago, there would have been eight or 10 pumpkin beers; this year I think we only have one or two. But I have a feeling they’re going to be really popular, because with so few of them, I think people are going to want to try them.”
Wiebe also says that fruit-infused beers are really growing in complexity, and that there are a lot of really interesting things happening with fruity brews.
“They kind of cross boundaries between sours… you might get IPAs now infused with fruit in a really interesting way, hazy beers, because there’s lots of citrusy tropical flavours often in those hazy IPAs, so they often experiment with fruit, pineapple, strawberries… there’s so many different options,” he says.
But almost as much as the fest focuses on the delicious drinks, there’s an emphasis on community.
“There’s a brewery from Prince Rupert, Wheelhouse Brewing, that comes down every year for beer fest and drives something like 22 hours to get here, but there’s no logic to it, because they don’t sell any beer outside Prince Rupert,” says Wiebe. “Maybe a little bit in Terrace or something. They don’t sell beer down here, they do it because they just want to celebrate with the brewing community every year, so I’m super excited to see them again. I think that’s a really cool thing about the event—there’s several breweries like that, that have travelled from way up north or way across the province.”
The Wiebe tasting list
Because all this talk of beer just wasn’t enough, we caught up with Victoria Beer Society beer director Joe Wiebe after our initial interview to find out what five beers he was personally most excited to try at the fest. If anyone knows what’s worth checking out, it’s Wiebe, so bring this list to the beer fest for quick reference.
* Wheelhouse Brewing Scurvy Dog Spruce Ale
Wiebe: “Brewed with spruce tips and travelling all the way from Prince Rupert!”
* Four Winds Brewing Apricot Jam Lactose IPA
Wiebe: “I remember their Raspberry Jam IPA last summer was spectacular, so I can’t wait to try this one.”
* 33 Brewing Experiment Black Currant Session Saison
Wiebe: “Just sounds amazing.”
* Twin City Brewing Tangent Fresh Hopped Tangerine Sour
Wiebe: “This Port Alberni brewery makes amazing fruit sours.”
* Smithers Brewing Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Blonde
Wiebe: “This was my sleeper pick last year so I can’t wait to taste it again.”
The Great Canadian Beer Festival
4 pm to 9 pm Friday, September 6
12 pm to 5 pm Saturday, September 7
Royal Athletic Park
victoriabeersociety.com