PREVIEW
What: Christmas Craft Beer Show
When: Friday (5-9 p.m.) and Saturday (1-5 p.m.)
Where: Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, 1925 Blanshard St.
Tickets: $40 (single day) and $70 (weekend pass) at 250-220-7777, the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre box office or selectyourtickets.com
Note: Admission includes a souvenir sample cup, lanyard, program and two tokens
Winter has traditionally been a tough fit for beer festivals, given the flourishing partnership between summer sunshine and suds.
As a result, many organizers have avoided the idea altogether, which got Trevor Thors thinking: What if, instead of a Christmas craft fair, someone staged a Christmas craft beer show? “This was an idea I conjured up several years ago, and I’ve been trying to make it happen,” said Thors, director of event services for GSL Group, which operates the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“This year, we decided to take a stab at it.”
The two-day Christmas Craft Beer Show kicks off its inaugural edition Friday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, with 42 breweries and cideries, primarily from Greater Victoria, set to exhibit their products. The majority of local producers are on board, according to Thors, which tells him his idea was a sound one.
Beer suppliers are busy eight months a year, with a beer festival almost every weekend, Thors said, so he was pleasantly surprised this particular weekend fit into the majority of schedules.
“The reporting back from the breweries and the agencies who deal with this stuff all the time is that the numbers are great for a first-year event.”
Thors said plans are already moving forward for this to be an annual event, so beer enthusiasts will have yet more offerings to enjoy year-round. Thanks to Vancouver Island’s growing reputation as a craft beer producer — tops in the province, by all accounts — the market should be able to sustain another festival of this kind, Thors said.
“Nobody want to be inside for a beerfest in July or August, but not many places in B.C. can host an event this size inside at this time of year. That is why not many of this magnitude happen at this time of year. The atmosphere of a big hockey rink doing beer tasting — beer on ice, so to speak — is great.”
With the ice rink as staging, attendees sample exhibitors’ products (admission includes two tokens; additional tokens can be purchased for $1.50 each), while enjoying food and dancing to music.
Patrons can also expect a different type of beer than that offered in summer — winter ales and spiced ales, in particular. “Craft beer at this time of year — it’s perfect,” Thors said.
