It’s 12 years between drinks in Vancouver, but I’m finally back at one of my favourite taprooms. In late 2014, Brassneck Brewery was just a year old, but it’s now transitioned from craft beer pioneer to a community hub for the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. Brassneck’s also one of several adjacent taprooms reviving a historic brewing district dating back over a century.
At Brassneck, it’s mid-afternoon on a Thursday and there’s a distinctly relaxed vibe. Macbooks are propped open by solo drinkers, out-of-towners are working their way through tasting flights, and regulars are enjoying Lukr side-pull handles of Brassneck’s One Saaz Fits All Czech pilsner. The beer style’s very European, but the Saaz hops are decidedly local, sourced from the Myrtle Meadows hop farm north of the resort town of Whistler.
In a Pacific Northwest city, hoppy brews are inevitably the local stars, and I kick off with the dank Passive Aggressive pale ale and the piney Retrofuturism West Coast IPA. The beers’ hop bills vary by batch, but I’m pretty sure the classic combo of Simcoe and Citra is in the mix. Sessionable British and European styles include an English porter, a Vienna lager, and a crisp kölsch, but I complete my four-beer flight with the fragrant Saaz pilsner and Stockholm Syndrome, a foeder-conditioned saison. Bone-dry with a hit of Brettanomyces, it reminds me of 8 Wired’s Saison Sauvin — funky, farmhouse, but still hop-forward. I also score a complimentary taster of Brassneck’s Inertia II, a massive 11.5% Imperial Stout aged in Buffalo Trace Kentucky bourbon barrels. It’s the kind of beer to sit on all afternoon, but I’m continuing further up Mount Pleasant’s Main Street.
Following Brassneck by a few months, Main Street Brewing opened in early 2014, also inspiring the area’s re-emergence as Vancouver’s brewing hub. The brewery’s taproom is in a 1913-vintage brick building that was formerly the garage for the historic Vancouver Brewery, and a nearby plinth on the corner of Kingsway and 8th Ave flags the area’s hoppy heritage. In the late 1880s, the gentle slope leading downhill to Vancouver’s False Creek framed a waterway dubbed Brewery Creek. Oral histories record the creek being crossed by an ancient hunting trail linking wildlife migration routes for the region’s First Nations Musqueam people.
By the late 19th century, Red Star, the Mainland Brewery and the San Francisco Brewery had joined the Vancouver Brewery in a city emerging as the staging point for 1896’s Klondike gold rush. Before and after hard scrabble prospecting in the Yukon, miners inevitably had prodigious thirsts. Prohibition from 1917 to 1921 and the consolidation of brewery ownership saw local breweries decline, and by 1922, Brewery Creek was no more. Fast forward 75 years, and R&B Brewing – still going strong nearby on 4th Ave – opened in 1997, but the neighbourhood’s newer breweries didn’t open for another 16 years.
In 2026, Main Street Brewing’s heritage brick location now houses a thoroughly modern taproom. Forget the Warriors, the Blues or Auckland FC on the big screen … what’s holding the attention of a few drinkers is live curling beamed in from Newfoundland. More open laptops attest to a relaxed attitude to remote working in western Canada’s biggest city. Interesting bottled brews from Main Street’s Garage series include a Brett pale ale with kiwifruit, but I sign up for another four-beer flight. On-trend beers include the Aura West Coast pilsner and Main Street’s Kingpin hazy pale ale with a NZ infusion of Freestyle Hops’ Rakau SubZero Hop Kief, but my favourite is the Tunnerman’s Tartan Best Ale. Styled after a traditional Scottish shilling ale, at 4.2% it’s a perfect toffee-tinged foil to the cooler temperatures now taking hold outside.
Past Mount Pleasant’s vintage clothing shops, street art and BBQ joints, I venture down 8th Ave to 33 Acres Brewing, opened in 2013, and one of Vancouver’s most innovative breweries. After the low-key scenes at Brassneck and Main Street, the place is packed but I secure a spot near the merch wall. There’s a cool Scandi aesthetic very different to Brassneck’s rustic-meets-industrial vibe, and the focus is on faultless beers brewed across a dizzying range of styles. At 9.2%, the Euphoria Belgian Tripel – a multiple World Beer Cup medal winner – is another beer to ease slowly into, while 33 Acres of Ocean is the best West Coast IPA I’ll have in the city.
Crafted under 33 Acres’ Brewing Experiment sub-brand, there’s a fruity complexity to the Cafe Lager, brewed with fonio, a millet-like grain from West Africa. Complementing a warming bowl of bison chilli is 33 Acres’ Mezcal gose, smokey, tart and refreshing with zested lime and Vancouver Island sea salt. It’s also the perfect beer to partner the Mexican musical duo setting up in the corner.
A long overdue return to Vancouver has been well worth the wait.