![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bc.thegrowler.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/noelle-with-flight-2-169x300.jpg\")
Regular\u00a0Growler<\/em> contributor No\u00eblle Phillips<\/a> has been hard at work for several years, researching and writing about Vancouver\u2019s relationship with beer, dating back to the city\u2019s earliest origins. The result of her diligent work is her new book,\u00a0Brewmasters and Brewery Creek: A History of Craft Beer in Vancouver<\/a>, <\/em>which comes out on October 15, 2024 from Touchwood Editions.<\/p>\n Phillips teaches in the English Department at Douglas College and is the author of another previous scholarly work,\u00a0Craft Beer Culture and Modern Medievalism<\/em>. She is also the co-editor of Beer and Brewing in Medieval Culture and Contemporary Medievalism.<\/em><\/p>\n This informative and entertaining book connects the early pioneer brewers who gave Brewery Creek its name with the contemporary entrepreneurs who helped make Vancouver the craft beer destination it is today. It\u2019s a must-read for any BC craft beer fan, as well as anyone interested in Vancouver\u2019s early history.<\/p>\n Book launches will be held in White Rock, Vancouver and Sidney later this month (details listed below), and No\u00eblle will also be selling the book at the upcoming BC Craft Beer Conference<\/a> in New Westminster on October 17 & 18.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Why did you want to write this book? What prompted your interest in the history of craft beer in Vancouver?<\/strong><\/p>\n As a medievalist and as a beer lover, I\u2019ve had a longstanding interest in how the modern marketing of craft beer continually returns to medieval imagery and concepts. My first book explored the medieval history of beer together with the modern use of medieval concepts in beer marketing. In analyzing the use of history in modern marketing, I developed a deep interest in history that is a bit more recent and a bit more local than the medieval European history that has been my wheelhouse. I realized that Vancouver has a rich history of independent brewing, both in the craft beer revolution of the 1980s and in the birth of the industry a century earlier \u2014 before corporate monopolies took over. I see early independent brewing in Vancouver as one of the drivers of the city\u2019s growth and, in some ways, the first example of neolocalism and the 100-mile diet.<\/p>\n Where did your research take you? Did you have any particularly interesting\/exciting discoveries along the way?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was hard to keep my focus narrow enough for a single book. I had initially planned to write about the history of brewing in the entire lower mainland \u2014 maybe even the mainland and the Island! However, I discovered that each community has its own stories that deserve full attention. This is especially true in the late 19th century, when communities really were their own little bubbles. So I ended up just focusing on Vancouver. And there is plenty of material! I found that the accounts of political and social intrigues \u2014 often just hinted at in the public records \u2014 were fascinating. Some of the personal tensions and lawbreaking (or law-stretching) were pretty entertaining to read about. I also found myself very lucky to make contact with relatives of some of Vancouver\u2019s earliest brewers and be granted access to old letters and photos that really humanized these men. I particularly liked one story about famed Vancouver Brewery owner Charles Doering, whose wife wrote home telling her family how he continually lost money at poker on vacation because he didn\u2019t want to hurt the feelings of the man he was playing with. I only wish I could have found such personal records from the family of Columbia Brewery\u2019s Mary Mueller (later Mary Brownlee), who beat a customer with a horsewhip in a fit of rage. I\u2019m still trying to track her descendants down!<\/p>\n If you could go back in time, which early Vancouver brewery would you like to visit? Which beer would you want to taste?<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s a hard one\u2026.I think either Red Cross Brewery\u2019s Spring Bock (a beer they released each year with great success) or Columbia Brewery\u2019s Culmbacher lager, a beer style that is nearly extinct now but back in the 1890s was the way to show your German cred. I think Columbia was the only one that brewed it. Their brewmaster was proud of his German heritage \u2014 he was well known for his \u201cjoddling\u201d (a type of yodeling) at public events.<\/p>\n Is there a common thread you can draw from the early days of brewing in Vancouver to today\u2019s scene?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the importance of independence is a major point of connection. Keeping breweries independent is crucial if we are to maintain and nurture community-oriented and successful breweries. There are other elements that are important, of course, but this is one that sticks with me. Once the breweries of 19th<\/sup> century Vancouver began the big consolidations in the 1910s, the industry\u2019s health took a dip \u2014 and this wasn\u2019t just because of prohibition looming. Corporate consolidations inevitably result in less choice for consumers, which isn\u2019t great for the industry.<\/p>\n The consolidations can help a brewery survive financially, of course. The only breweries that were left after prohibition ended were the big corporate ones \u2014 no more independent ownership. People back then thought that this was the way to save brewing, but was it? It\u2019s when we returned to independent brewing in the 1980s after years of Big Beer strikes that we saw a renewed interest in what beer could be. I hope my book honours the men and women who cut through the red tape, bureaucracy, lack of confidence, misogyny, and general resistance to make independent brewing successful once again in Vancouver.<\/p>\n Is there anything else you want to highlight?<\/strong><\/p>\n Right now the BC craft beer industry is going through some hard times \u2014 and they feel even harder in contrast to the euphoric rise of 2012-2019. While I definitely don\u2019t wish to minimize the challenges and, frankly, pain experienced by so many in the industry right now, I\u2019d like to think my research helps to contextualize this difficult moment. Vancouver craft beer has experienced glorious upswells and painful drops for 140 years, and yet Vancouver is still known as one of the best beer communities in North America. We learn from our mistakes and our difficulties and we get better. We innovate, improve, and show our white-knuckled, tenacious resilience in the face of it all. I\u2019ve seen this in the brewers and owners I\u2019ve interviewed, as well as in the archival records of the city\u2019s pioneering breweries. Vancouver brewers and beer lovers shouldn\u2019t lose hope in these moments; we will\u00a0<\/i>pull out of it, as we\u2019ve done before, and we\u2019ll be even better on the other side.<\/p>\n My book was written to honour the hard work and the spirit of the brewmasters and brewery owners who have created this amazing industry for all of us to enjoy.<\/p>\n Attend one of No\u00eblle\u2019s book launches to meet her in person and pick up a copy of her excellent book:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bc.thegrowler.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/BB_Brewmasters-and-Brewery-Creek_9781771514507-663x1024.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bc.thegrowler.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/8_Charles-Doering-circa-1890-707x1024.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bc.thegrowler.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Charles-Doering-and-colleagues-outside-his-brewery-colour-corrected-scaled.jpg\")
White Rock Beach Beer<\/a> \u2013 October 17, 6:30 pm<\/h4>\n
Small Gods Brewing<\/a> \u2013 October 27, 6:00 pm<\/h4>\n
Main Street Brewing<\/a> \u2013 November 7, 7:00 pm<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n