A late arrival on Wednesday night (Thursday morning body-clock time) meant a quick bite and a couple of beers at a little tapas bar close to our hotel - Bin 941. Fortunately, it had a couple of the local Granville Island Brewing's (http://gib.ca/) beers on draught keg.
After a morning touristy trip round Stanley Park, we headed for lunch at the Alibi Room (http://www.alibi.ca/) which we had been advised had a cask selection. We walked the length of Water St. in Gastown, passing both Rogue Wet Bar (http://www.roguewetbar.com/gastown) and Steamworks (http://www.steamworks.com/brew-pub) on the way there, only to find that the Alibi Room didn't open until 5 pm!
OK - let's walk back to Steamworks then. Sorry - private function - closed to the public! Pity - because there was a CAMRA sticker on the door. Our 3rd choice then was Rogue Wet Bar and we had a nice lunch washed down with samplers and pints:
More touristy stuff in the afternoon, which included a walking trip round Granville Island, where we happened to come across:
Just time for a quick sampler tray before the last bus back to the city:
Nice beers and decent sized and priced samplers.
In the evening, we did go back to the Alibi Room. It was absolutely packed - we just squeezed in to a table at their downstairs bar, but, after a short while, we managed to secure a table back on the ground floor, where we thought it might be a little quieter - it wasn't. It's a typical modern brewpub based on a former industrial site with high ceilings and the hubbub echoed round the room. It's adjacent to the main rail line as well, which makes for interesting viewing as the long containers trundle virtually silently past.
It's obviously hugely popular and it is atmospheric, but we were in company with an 85 year old relative, who was finding the noise a bit of a strain, so we decided not to eat there after all. I did enquire about cask ale, but despite the prominent display of 3 handpumps, there was none available.
Coincidentally, it was also Vancouver Craft Beer Week when we were there, but we never ventured in, preferring to visit the local breweries and brewpubs instead.
On Friday we took the bus and ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island - BC's capital. Our hotel - Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe - was delightful, and happily situated just a 10 minute walk along the waterside trail was a lovely brewpub - Spinnaker's (http://www.spinnakers.com/), which also lays claim to being Canada's oldest. Three deck areas give delightful views of the comings and goings on the water and the main part of the town itself. Heaven, we thought. All they have to do now is serve up some fine beer - preferably including some cask conditioned. They achieved this - just. I got the last cask ale of the day - a Citra IPA. Not bad considering.
In the evening, we wandered over the bridge to the main part of town and visited The Drake (http://drakeeatery.com/), where, although they don't brew, they have a good selection of craft beers on tap - and they do samplers:
A couple of rounds of those, and then we were off across the street to Swans Brewpub (http://swansbrewpub.com/) where a local band were setting up - but still no cask ale.
On Saturday, a visit to lovely Butchart Gardens had to be completed, but come late afternoon/early evening, we were ready for some beer, so it was time to visit yet another of Victoria's brewpubs, the Canoe (http://canoebrewpub.com/beer/). It's another lovely setting, right on the waterfront, with lots of outdoor tables, most of them occupied on a beautiful day. They keep their brews simple - none of the more exotic choices you often see - and sometimes - as here - simple is good. We enjoyed the whole selection as we ate our way through 3 splendid courses, soaking up the sun:
So our conclusion is that this little bit of Canada is excellent for brewpubs - although only one cask ale was a little disappointing. We didn't get time to visit some of the other recommendations, however, but we would certainly like to come back and try again.
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