Lots brewing during Beer Week
It’s been “beer o’clock” for the past nine days during Victoria Beer Week, when beer geeks and newbies alike get to sample, celebrate and learn more about our craft-beer scene.
“Movies and beer — how can you go wrong?” smiled Mike Miller, explaining why he was volunteering so soon after his around-theclock gig as a Victoria Film Festival volunteer.
Miller and fellow volunteers sported green branded T-shirts at the Fantasy Label event Thursday night at Victoria artist Erik Van Kobra’s Wolf/Sheep Arthouse, the production centre and gallery space for a collective of local cutting-edge artists, designers, writers and multimedia producers.
The free attraction at the collective’s storefront complemented a series of tastings, seminars, pairings of B.C. craft beer with local artisan food vendors, and other events, including a concurrent screening of Postmark Beer brewmaster Craig Noble’s documentary Craft at the Atrium.
Indeed, there were no Labatt Fat or Molson Muscle jokes here, nor was there a horde of beer-bellied consumers into quantity more than quality.
It was all about craft beers, with breweries including Spinnakers, Lighthouse, Hoyne, Phillips and Vancouver Island Brewery, and pubs such as Moon Under Water, Garrick’s Head and the Drake Eatery participating.
“The biggest misconception about Beer Week is that it’s just about drinking lots of beer,” said Joe Wiebe, author of Craft Beer Revolution: The Insider’s Guide to B.C. Breweries.
“It’s less about getting wasted on beer than having enjoyable experiences connected with beer.”
The second annual Fantasy Label show in the subterranean art and tattoo emporium in Trounce Alley at Government Street was a vibrant example.
“The idea was to take the local arts community and connect it with the craft-beer community,” explained Wiebe.
The gallery’s walls were adorned with innovative labels created by artists for non-existent beers last year. A Beverly Hills Hops label for a bottle of premium Axel beer, for example, spoofs poster art for the Eddie Murphy comedy Beverly Hills Cop.
“We had a lot of movierelated stuff, but this year it’s more oddball, out-of-left-field and open to interpretation,” said show organizer Van Kobra, whose Black Hop Down film poster parody was a hit last year.
His entry this year was a radical pink-and-green label for Sucker Punch Sour. It features an angry young man giving viewers the finger and lists “temper tantrums” alongside ingre- dients such as malt, hops and water.
The creativity that goes into branding and marketing accounts for the popularity of craft beers as much as the independence of it, he said.
“If you look at what they’re adding to beers now, it allows for a lot of fun stuff. I wanted to give artists free rein over something that doesn’t exist. It would be nice if some of those beers were made.”
Other artists include Crow Campbell (All Hail Pale Ale, Bloodsucker Pole Vampire Ale), Ahmed Sidky (Ryenocerous, Get to Tha Hopper), Matt Andres (Take a Chill Pilsner) and Colin McCue (The Pig’s Big Snout Stout).
Phillips Brewery marketing co-ordinator Dan Reid was one of local brewery reps on hand to share samples.
“We’re very much a community group and we always support each other,” said Reid, offering samples of Phillips’ seasonal Double Dragon Imperial Red Ale.
“It’s great to see how much the craft-beer movement has grown. We’re so fortunate having such a diverse and creative group of local people coming up with some fantastic beers.”