The Beer Brief is a round-up of all the local beer-related news and events we think you should know about. Got news brewing? Send it to thalia [at] scoutmagazine.ca and we’ll do our best to include it!

SO5 | There have been a lot of beery ‘birthdays’ so far this summer. Shout out to Parkside, Main Street, Portland Craft, Alibi Room, Ravens Brewing and anyone else I may have forgotten! Next up is Steel & Oak, who are celebrating half a decade of brewing in New West this Sunday, July 7th. For the occasion, they’re shutting down their parking lot and making room for food and beer stations, a DJ “cage”, an interactive kids area and up to 1,000 beer-lovers to enjoy it all. Birthday joiners will get to celebrate with 13 beers (including one special anniversary brew), grub from Big Day BBQ, DL Chicken Shack and Big Shuck Oyster Bar (veggie options will be available), plus scoops from Earnest Ice Cream. Since no authentic S&O experience is complete without some mighty fine tunes, they’ve entrusted their good pal Social Medium to curate a special DJ set, pulled from the brewery’s own vinyl collection. We’ll see you on Sunday!

MAGNET | The attraction for amazing beers is especially strong at Magnet this month, with two tap takeovers happening within the next couple of weeks. First, on July 6th, they’ll be hosting a “schwack” of beers from Portland, Oregon’s Great Notion Brewing. The pouring is conveniently timed (after Farmhouse Fest) to allow daring fest-goers to keep the good beer flowing all night, if they choose, and so that non-attendees can console themselves sufficiently (Farmhouse what?). And then the following weekend, on July 14th, beer worshippers will be congregating at Magnet once again – this time for “Beer Church” with House of Funk Brewing. Praise be to good beer! Find out more.

CASCADE ROOM | Mount Pleasant is also prepping for a takeover, this time from Victoria’s Driftwood Brewing. On July 17th the Island brewery will be traversing land and sea for a night at The Cascade Room. Curry and chips and a couple of pints of good beer sounds like a pretty decent Wednesday, don’t you think?

NOW OPEN | Brewers Row just got a bit more challenging because, as of June 28th, the Bakery Brewing is now officially open for business. After over a year of hard work, the super-small-batch experimental brewery’s tasting room can finally be added to your summertime PoMo beer crawl. Some recent beers on their rotating tap list have included an intriguing Carrot Mango Lime Sour, the apropos patriotic-sounding Maple Syrup Golden Ale and a Buckwheat Brett Saison. All of their beers are available in limited quantities and come with the disclaimer that “you may never see it again”, so load up your Compass Card ASAP and discover endless new beers responsibly.

BREWHALL | The Olympic Village “Tank to Tap” beer establishment is celebrating a year in the hood on July 11th with a “High Fives and Great Vibes” BBBQ (the third ‘B’ is for ‘Beer’) celebration. Taps for the night will be dedicated to Brewhall brews, including a mysterious special reappearance from a Grand Opening beer…Start practicing your hand-eye coordination now and celebrate safely, folks! Find out more.

GIBSONS | Beer-drinkers who want to earn extra cred and flex some serious muscle, take note: registration is now open for Tough Kegger 2019, which will be returning to the Sunshine Coast on August 17th. The 6th annual fundraising event, hosted by Persephone Brewing, is a small team backcountry trail foot race that must be completed while lugging a full 20 litre keg. Sounds gruelling! You can sign up to sweat it out as an individual or assemble your own team of four. Registration and details for the Tough Kegger can be found here.

If exercising your bar-to-lips pint-lifting muscle is more your speed then that’s cool too because everyone is welcome to attend the After Party (4pm). The event features a pop up beer festival at the brewery, with visiting breweries, music and more. Tip: the event also coincides with Persephone’s Car Free Day so plan your transportation to the brewery ahead of time or take advantage of their day-long shuttle service.

KELOWNA | Heading to the Okanagan this summer? Here’s a beer-related tidbit to take note of while planning your drinking and eating itinerary: BNA Brewing is growing their operation to include a whole new kitchen concept. With the help of the duo behind the local four-wheeled food biz, The Crasian Food Truck, they’ll be expanding the tasting room to include the “Boxcar”. Although its currently still in the works, on July 12th the Crasian will be rolling up to the brewery and serving up a taste of what’s to come in the very near future… Find out more.

COLONY | True to its name, the local chain of bars is slowly colonizing the city’s neighbourhoods. Most recently, Colony held the Grand Opening of its fourth location in the Entertainment District on Granville Street, at the end of June, quickly followed by a dance party on Canada Day. The latter was hosted by Motown on Mondays – a collaborative global soul music project that has popped up everywhere from Las Vegas to Venice and Winnipeg – and will continue on a weekly basis. By far Colony’s most spacious and prominent establishment, the location is also shaping up to be its grooviest! Find out more.

BEER + ART | Brewery artist collaborations aren’t anything new – arguably, the tall can has become the most accessible way for art- and beer-lovers to add a new piece of art to their collection. The proliferation of beer can-vases is one trend that we’d like to see continue indefinitely. Abbotsford’s Raven’s Brewing is just one champion of this cross-cultural cause. The self-described “Ground to Glass” neighbourhood brewery recently put out an open call for Aboriginal graphic artists (submissions are now closed) to participate in an upcoming project. As of the end of June they’ve whittled down applicants to a small selection. Keep your eyes on their Instagram for more developments on this mysterious collaboration. Whatever it is, we’re looking forward to (hopefully) being able to add it to our windowsill in the near future!

BEER FEST | The semi-annual Coquitlam Beer Festival is coming up on September 28th. There are 50 breweries, cideries and distillers participating in the autumn festival, including 10 local mainstays and newbies (like Container) who will be pouring cellar temperature brews at the Cask Corner. The fall and winter tend to be a bit dry (beer-event-wise, not weather-wise) so a trip to Coquitlam’s Hard Rock Casino for a bunch of delicious beers seems like a fair compromise. Bonus: free shuttles are available from the Braid Skytrain Station both ways! The cost of entry includes access to all brewery vendors as well as six vouchers for the international food stations. Get your tickets here.

MEXI-BEER | On a sunny summer day there are few foods that go better with beer than tacos – even better if there’s a beach involved…Although La Taqueria hasn’t created their own manmade beach (yet), they do make fresh corn tortilla’s in-house and, as of the end of June, they’ve developed their very own Cerveza. Check out a cool video of the process at Main Street Brewing and a pic of the spiffy new cans over here.