A number of new breweries with tap rooms have opened in the historic Brewery Creek neighbourhood of Lower Mount Pleasant, Vancouver, over the last few years.
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| Brewery map from The Growler Craft Beer Handbook (Fall 2016) | |
The best way to find brewery details is to purchase a copy of
The Growler British Columbia's Quarterly Craft Beer Handbook ($2) available at various outlets including
London Drugs and breweries including
Storm Brewing, East Vancouver.
On a Monday night (3 October 2016) and on my first visit to breweries in the area I ended up in the newly opened
R & B Brewing Co Ale & Pizza House at 54 E 4th Avenue, Vancouver, arriving after a short walk from nearby
Brassneck Brewery.
When you enter, the Growler Station is straight ahead or you turn right for the tap room.
A distinctive suspended timber shelf arrangement, displaying growlers etc, is on the left just inside the entrance.
As I had already sampled a variety of beers earlier with flights at
Red Truck Beer Co and Brassneck Brewery, I chose a pint of Zesty IPA ($6.50 / 20oz) from one of the two cask ale handpumps.
From the menu on a clipboard, I chose the Pizza with crispy prosciutto, aragula (rocket) and shaved parmesan ($10).
Now I could return to a seat at a long shared table with my beer and a luminous blob to identify my food order. The Zesty IPA was dry hopped with Citra and Enigma and had all the smoothness of a cask ale.
My pizza arrived shortly afterwards and was the ideal accompaniment.
The lights were low (affecting the photos in this post) and some good music was playing on the tap room's unique sound system involving multiple speaker units. Unlike some new establishments which have only hard surfaces, the R & B tap room also has some cushions and absorbent surfaces which are a good thing for the audibility of music and conversation.
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| Vancouver Mill Machinery Ltd, 215 W 1st Avenue, at Cook Street |
On the way back to my Olympic Village accommodation, I stopped to photograph the
Wilkinson Steel building at 215 West 1st Avenue which dates from around 1950 and is currently used by the City of Vancouver for storage.
Two days later, on my last night in Vancouver, I was happy to return to
the R & B Brewing Ale House with friends Yolanda and Ron for an
opportunity to sample more beers from the full range.
A good way to reach R & B Brewing is with the
Mobi bike share scheme. It took us less than half an hour to cycle from one of the bike stands outside Vancouver Public Library, guided by Yolanda and Ron who I had arranged to meet there. Shared bike (and helmet) hire costs $7.50 allowing multiple trips of up to 30 minutes each, within a 24 hour period.
We arrived soon after 7pm and the tap room was full. However, after a while people left when a game ended on TV. To our relief, the TV was shut away and we could sit at the long shared table.
We all ordered flights of four beers (4 x 4 oz / $5). Favouring pale ales, my choice was from taps 2,3,4 & 5. The board behind the bar gives details of ABV, IBU and price / glass size together with tasting / ingredients notes.for each beer.
The beers from my flight were:
Enigma Kettle Sour with notes of pineapple, tropical fruit and Pinot Gris;
Dude Chilling Pale Ale dry hopped with Citra, Galaxy and Centennial;
Vancouver Special IPA hopped with Simcoe, Citra, Columbus and Chinook;
So Fresh So Green, Green a fresh hop IPA with Centennial from
Chilliwack Hop Farms, BC.
Dude Chilling Pale Ale was my favourite of these beers and Ron would later tell me the prank origins of the name and that there is a
Dude Chilling Park sign nearby in Guelph Park.
We all found Vancouver Special IPA to be on the sweet side for an IPA. Ron explained the beer's name was derived from a detached house style, popular with builders in the Vancouver suburbs from 1965-1985, known as
Vancouver Special. This was confirmed by the adhesive labels for the beer which are offered free from rolls placed near the entrance / exit.
In addition to Ron's knowledge of the local area we had Tyler's knowledge of the brewery and its beers which he shared with us as we moved on to drinking pints. Tyler kindly posed for a photo with a copy of
Ullage the
West Berkshire CAMRA magazine which I had brought along to leave at a brewery that believes in maintaining the tradition of cask ale. Tyler mentioned that wild hops are growing on the outside of the building and presented us with some to examine. I would take a photo of the hop bines after we left.
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| Wild hops growing outside R&B Brewing Co |
Tyler gave us a sample of
Driftwood Brewery (Victoria, BC)
Entangled Hopfenweisse (7% ABV) hopped with Mosaic and Amarillo, from a guest brewery tap (#11). This was very nice and so a 16 oz glass of Entangled would be my next beer. I was able to persuade Ron and Yolanda to order pints of Zesty IPA, the cask ale, and would also have a pint myself later as my final draught beer in Canada.
When in Vancouver, if you are visiting
CRAFT Beer Market, in the historic Salt building, or nearby breweries like Brassneck, remember to also visit R&B Brewing Co Ale & Pizza, especially if you like a tap room with a cosy atmosphere, unobtrusive service, good music as well as quality beer and food at very reasonable prices.
R&B Brewing Co, 54 E 4th Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V5T 1E8
Tel 604-336-0275
www.randbbrewing.com
