Joe Wiebe is a true beer aficionado. His book Craft Beer Revolution won the 2014 Gourmand Award for Best Beer Book in Canada, he helped create the BC Ale Trail (a vital resource for any beer lover travelling throughout BC), and he also serves as the beer director for the Victoria Beer Society (whose Victoria Beer Week will run from May 5 to 13 this year). His resume makes Wiebe, who also goes by the Thirsty Traveler, the perfect presenter this January as he walks his audience through “A Brief History of Brewing in British Columbia,” put on by the Victoria Historical Society.
Wiebe’s love for beer has innocent enough beginnings. After finding a case in his basement, curiosity got the better of him, sparking a love story for the ages: an adolescent boy and a bottle of OV.
“My first beer was OV, Old Vienna,” says Wiebe. “I liked it very much. I think I was 15 or so. My mom picked up some empties on the side of the road; she thought they were empties, she was going to return them to the depot because there was a box of them there and it turns out half of them were still full. So, they were in the basement of our house, and nobody drank. My parents were strict Mennonites, and they didn’t drink alcohol. I just saw them there and I was like, I want to try one of these, so I tried one.”
While working as a freelance writer, Wiebe began delving more into beer, including the history of beer and craft breweries across BC. His love for beer began melding with his writing, which has guided his career down a more beer-centred avenue.
“Basically, I enjoyed trying new beers and visiting new breweries, you know, all throughout my youth into my 20s and 30s, and bit by bit as I became a freelance writer, at the same time, I started seeing beer showing up in my stories, not even on purpose always, it would be a travel story or something and then I’d mention this brewery as part of it,” he says. “More and more I started realizing, well, actually, this is my great passion. I really love beer and I really love learning about the stories behind the breweries.”
For his upcoming presentation, Wiebe says the audience will get a special focus on the evolution of beer in Victoria.
“Well, they are going to learn a lot about how beer evolved in BC, but especially here on the island, in Victoria particularly,” he says. “I don’t pretend to be the expert on beer history throughout all of BC, just because it’s far too much territory for me to cover. Definitely, the local side of things I know a lot about and I’ve been doing some regular talks about craft beer and how it evolved over the last 150 years here in BC.”
While it’s a historical and informative presentation, Wiebe assures it will be far from boring. And while there won’t be any beer served during the talk, Wiebe believes a perfect end to the night would be going out to enjoy a pint afterward. Conversations of newly acquired beer knowledge will flow just as freely as pints are poured.
“I have a lot of great stories and a lot of great historical images and kind of anecdotes that I’ve put together. I think it’s an entertaining presentation with a lot of information. People will learn some things they didn’t know before,” he says. “I think there will be some surprises in the mix and some really interesting a-ha moments when they connect some dots.”
A Brief History of Brewing in British Columbia
7:15 pm Thursday, January 26
Free for Victoria Historical Society members, $5 for non-members
James Bay New Horizons
victoriahistoricalsociety.bc.ca