B.C. craft beer book aims to spread the art of brewing

The art of craft beer brewing has taken off in B.C. Many enjoy the new beers, but may not know a lot about them. A B.C. based author says he's hoping his new book will change all that.

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Victoria's Joe Wiebe is the author of the Craft Beer Revolution, The Insider's Guide to B.C. Breweries. He spoke to All Points West's Robyn Burns about the sequel to his first edition.

What more does the Craft Beer Revolution 2.0 offer than the first edition?

Well mainly a lot more breweries. The first edition came out in May 2013 with 50 breweries profiled, the new one has 90.

It covers the gambit — every brewery in B.C. as well as the history of the movement going back 30 to 35 years and the important people along the way.

What did you want to highlight with this second edition?

I find that when I travel around and visit breweries, the one's I like the most, obviously make good beer, but I also find the one's I like the best are the ones that have interesting people that work for them.

The first edition won a B.C. Bestseller award two years ago. What do your books offer the uninitiated to B.C.'s craft beer scene?

I think it's a good introduction if you're new to craft beer. It's a good way to learn more about beer styles — descriptions of beer styles and what you should look for in them.

For the people who know a little more about craft beer, you can look for a brewery of a beer you haven't discovered before. You can learn a lot more as you go.

You're taking your book up island in May for a number of special events. Can you tell me about what's happening?

There's a few new breweries that have opened up in the Courtenay - Cumberland area. I'll be visiting that area and doing some events with them on May 20th and 21st.

I'm also going to stop by Longwood Brewery in Nanaimo and do an event with them on May 22nd.

What are you seeing up island in terms of growth in this industry?

We're going to see a new brewery opening in Duncan fairly soon called Red Arrow Brewery. There's also talk of a new brewery in Chemainus although I'm not exactly clear when that is.

In Victoria there's probably one in the works for early next year.

What I like about the new ones that opened up in the island is they focus on a tap room. You can go right into the brewery and taste the beer by the glass. That's a model that's really been successful in Vancouver but we haven't seen it in Victoria.