Like everywhere else in the world, we pride ourselves on making good beer in Vancouver and in Canada in general. Unfortunately, the major Canadian breweries combine to make some very poor quality beer. Fortunately, you don’t have to drink them – there are a host of local options (and some very good imports from elsewhere in Canada and the US) that are excellent.
In fact there are dozens microbreweries in BC producing hundreds of different types of beer. Truly, there is something for everyone!
You can skip are the large national Canadian brands – if you are in a liquor store, they are the ones stacked on the floor on giant pallets. Brands like Molson Canadian, Coors, Budweiser and Kokanee don’t have much to offer in flavour, are likely to give you a hangover and are brewed in ways that I don’t even want to talk about.
What you want are the small local breweries and some of the small imports from other parts of Canada and the US. Unibroue (from Quebec), Vancouver Island Brewing and Okanagan Spring are some of the better breweries. The good ones are defiantly more expensive, but there are still some inexpensive options that are much better than the mainstream brews. If you’re strapped for cash, try Hell’s Gate or Bowen Island.
