The EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival is this weekend and it isn’t just about new and exciting food, it’s also an opportunity to find a new craft beer.
The Craft Beer Alley will be an opportunity for attendees at the EAT! Vancouver festival to experience some of the best craft beer B.C. has to offer. We had a chance to chat with Ken Beattie, the Executive Director of the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild, who is sponsoring the BC Craft Beer Alley who gave us the run down on this year’s festival.
What can people expect to find at the Craft Beer Alley?
Craft Beer Alley will provide the EAT! Vancouver consumers a first hand sampling experience of diversity and creativity of 16 breweries involved in one licensed area along with two beer themed restaurants participating in food and beer pairing. This is the largest representation of craft breweries ever at Eat! Vancouver and we will be featuring over 50 beers. Our good friends from Biercraft and Devil’s Elbow restaurants will be preparing a selection of dishes to pair with our beer samples over the weekend.
What breweries are participating?
The breweries represent a cross section of B.C., including six island breweries, three from outside the Lower Mainland and seven located in the Lower Mainland. We have recently added breweries like Bomber, Steel & Oak, Four Mile along with the legendary trailblazers such as Spinnakers, Lighthouse, Whistler Brewing and Red Truck. Many of the breweries will be sampling their seasonal beers like Steamworks’ Killer Cucumber Ale and Vancouver Island’s Blackberry Saison. Here’s the full list.
Can you tell us a little about the specific events happening throughout the day?
The B.C. Craft Brewers Guild will be hosting daily education classes at The SIPS stage. These informal classes will be an introduction and feature different styles of beer, food and beer pairings and the opportunity to hear the story behind the beer and the brewery. Check the schedule here.
What makes Craft Beer Alley unique this year?
EAT! Vancouver has really wanted to focus on supporting the local B.C. breweries and showcasing the diversity of Craft beer in B.C. The festival goers will also be able to purchase the samples they have tried at Legacy Liquor store on site featuring the beers from Craft Beer Alley.
Why bring craft beer to a food festival?
Beer is an excellent choice to pair with food. As the world’s oldest recipe consumers should think of beer and food pairing in the same terms as wine and food. Beer versatility and diversity of ingredients and flavours make it a natural complement to food. As EAT! Vancouver is promoting local food and local sourcing of ingredients its natural to include the fastest growing alcohol segment in the province. Beer enthusiasts can rightly argue there is a science behind beer and food pairings, and chefs and home cooking enthusiasts are seeing it too.
The Craft Beer Alley can be found at EAT! Vancouver’s three-day expo and tasting event at B.C. Place, May 1 to 3, 2015. Hours and ticket info are available online.
Vancity Buzz is proud to be the exclusive online media sponsor of EAT! Vancouver
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