“Boom Times for Craft Beer in BC”
Joe Wiebe, BC Business Magazine, September 2011
Source: google images
Beer connoisseurs rejoice! You have found your place in British Columbia’s burgeoning craft brewery industry. With delightfully infectious lingo such as firkin and cask conditioned, craft breweries have become an enticement for tourists from the all over Pacific Northwest and as far south as California, eager to sample the rich complexity of cask ale. This growth industry has stunningly doubled to over $110 million over the past four years, (to March of 2011). Craft breweries have been around since the early 1980’s in Victoria, but it seems everyone is anxious to jump in with their unique stamp – from brews steeped in spruce tips to ones featuring a hint of root beer or sour cherries. Limited only imagination, British Columbia’s brew masters have a consumer base eager to go along for the ride. It seems that beer, long the common man’s drink, has become tantalizingly sophisticated and stylish. While this may be alarming to some staid and steady traditionalists, the triumphant success of the BC microbrewery industry cannot be denied. Exotic beer – a contradiction in terms? Perhaps, but it tastes good, both to the palate and the economy.
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