beer god: Central City brewmaster gary Lohin is ... - Thirsty Writer

over the past five years, since Springthorpe
advanced from employee to co-owner. “It
was never really the plan,” Springthorpe
admits, his accent matching his ultra-British
name perfectly, “but as my own tastes
changed and I started to discover the
wonderful world of craft beer, I decided to
explore the possibility of putting all of the
best breweries, near and far, side by side
in one location.” And that he did: the bar
boasts a long line of 44 draft taps and three
beer engines pulling cask-conditioned ales
up from the cellar
On this Friday night at the Alibi Room
the crowd is young, and getting younger
by the hour. Gerry Erith and I joke that the
two of us, in our early 40s, are the oldest
people there by far, but I have seen folks
in their 50s, 60s and beyond on other visits,
probably on evenings when the lineup
wasn’t as long. And it’s an even mix of
women and men, clustered in couples or
groups at the popular communal tables.
Two women in their early 20s take the
unoccupied stools next to me, and Springthorpe
asks what he can pour for them.
Overwhelmed by the two-page beer list
they ask for his suggestions and Springthorpe
offers a “frat-bat sampler” – four
small glasses served on a wooden paddle
for $9. I watch as Springthorpe chooses
four options from the 20-foot row of
taps behind the bar. In the end, he picks
a stout, an IPA, a raspberry wheat and a
hefeweizen, providing a nutshell description
of each before leaving the two to their
tasting.
These two twenty-somethings are
typical of a whole new demographic the
craft-beer craze has welcomed to a market
traditionally dominated by men. One tells
me she’s already a fan of craft beer, while
the other is still experimenting. “There are
so many exquisite beers out there,” she says
while her friend nods in agreement. When
I point out that the pair hardly represent
the typical beer market demographic, she
states the obvious: “That’s really changing
with craft beer.”
While craft beer has breathed new life
into the Alibi Room and a handful of others
specializing in local brews, a number
of specialty liquor stores have carved out
a similar niche. In Vancouver, Brewery
Creek was named Best Local Liquor Store
by the Vancouver chapter of the Campaign
for Real Ale Society of B.C. for three years
running. Others favoured by beer connoisseurs
include Firefly, with a location
on Cambie Street and another store in
Maple Ridge; Legacy, one of the first businesses
to open in the Olympic Village; and
others in Victoria, North Vancouver and
elsewhere.
Gerry Erith became manager of the
Brewery Creek store at Main and 15th in
October 2005, just a few months after it
opened. Back then, he says, it was a typical
“cold beer and wine store,” offering a
small assortment of popular brands at a
premium, mainly serving locals outside of
government-run liquor store hours.
At the time, it was a small store with only
six beer fridges – and only two of those had
craft beer in them. “I was finding nooks and
crannies to put things in,” Erith says with a
chuckle, describing how he chopped back
the cashier counter at one point to add a
shelf to accommodate more craft beer.
In 2008, the store expanded consider-
ably, taking over a former massage parlour
next door. Of 16 coolers in the beer section
today, 11 are devoted to craft beer, along
with several shelves holding single bottles
of unique Belgian and North American
beers that are not kept cold.
The store’s realignment is a microcosm
of the B.C. beer market. Erith explains that
mainstream brands like Budweiser and
Kokanee “used to pay for everything else,”
adding, “They don’t any more.” And it isn’t
just a newly minted crowd of craft beer
geeks who have pushed this change, Erith
says: “The guys who live nearby aren’t
buying Kokanee anymore. They’re the
ones we’ve converted. Now they’re buying
west coast IPAs.” Erith points to a handful
of restaurants in the area that have similarly
risen with the craft-beer tide: Habit,
Cascade, Slickety Jim’s, Burgoo and others.
Craft beer, he says, “is the interconnectedness
of what all of us are doing.”
Inside Brewery Creek, it’s clear that
craft beer has not only expanded the beer
market, but upped the price point. One
shelf holds a wide range of bottles that sell
for $15 or more, comparable to the price
of a decent bottle of wine. There are several
unique brews from Dogfish Head, a
U.S. craft brewery that recently curtailed
exports to Canada, selling for around $30
per 650 ml bottle. The most expensive
bottle – a three-litre magnum of Chimay
Bleue, a Belgian trappist ale – is priced at
$68.75. Brewery Creek has three bottles
in stock right now, and Erith says he has
probably sold seven of them since the
store’s expansion in 2008.
Although Erith humbly insists that his
role in the craft beer boom is minimal, he
is also one of the founders of Vancouver
Craft Beer Week, another bellwether of
craft beer’s success locally. Inaugurated
in 2010, the second annual version took
place May 6 to 14 this year, featuring 50
events in venues all around Vancouver.
Mayor Gregor Robertson tapped the first
cask of Collaboration Beer, which 28 B.C.
breweries co-created. More than 5,000
people bought tickets to 50 events – twice
Craft beer has not only expanded the beer market,
but upped the price point. One shelf holds a wide
range of bottles that sell for $15 or more, comparable
to the price of a decent bottle of wine
as many as in 2010 – including special tastings,
brewmaster dinners, seminars and a
two-day beer festival that closed the week
with 1,350 people attending over the final
two nights.
For all of the evidence supporting
craft beer’s burgeoning popularity,
there are still some voices of dissent.
One belongs to Paddy Treavor, the current
president of the Vancouver chapter of the
Campaign for Real Ale Society of B.C. He
believes that B.C. craft brewers are a disjointed
lot, blind to opportunities to work
together for the common good of the industry.
“I do think it’s booming,” Treavor says,
“but I’m afraid they’re missing the boat and
they’re not taking advantage of the boom.”
The best place to start would be a strong
industry association, he says, but the existing
B.C. Craft Brewers Guild, which was
formed in 1997, is largely inactive. Its website
(www.bccraftbeer.com) doesn’t appear
to have been updated in years and does little
other than provide a membership list,
which doesn’t include such prominent craft
brewers as Lighthouse, Driftwood, Howe
Sound and Crannog.
bcbuSineSSonline.ca September 2011 BCBusiness 63