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A brewery in Squamish has tied for first place in the inaugural Speaker’s Choice Craft Beer award. Backcountry Brewing was given the award at the provincial legislature at the end of last month as part of BC Craft Beer Month.

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For this edition we headed out to Squamish to check in with the team at Backcountry Brewing (who were “amped” to be involved — so much so that they even staged a cover album-themed photo shoot for this piece) and find out what you can expect to hear blasting from their speakers before, during and after hours…

Just over two years ago, Ben Reeder moved with his family to Squamish. The co-founder of Backcountry Brewing hasn’t looked back.

“I love it here,” he says. “It’s just great because the community is so friendly and people are generally happier here. People smile more and say hello. And everyone out here is actively doing fun stuff. There’s so much to do: paddleboarding, fishing, rock-climbing, the lakes and the trails. It’s overwhelming.”

Reeder, who previously lived on Vancouver Island, in Tsawwassen and in East Vancouver, is not alone. Squamish’s population is growing: In 2016, it was 19,512, up from 17,158 in 2011, an increase of 13.7 per cent.

There are a number of reasons for this. Some people discovered the area thanks to the 2010 Olympic Games. The Squamish Music Festival (2010-2015) alerted others to the town and its amenities. And the Sea to Sky Gondola, which opened in 2014, attracts thousands of visitors to the area. (In 2015, The New York Times ranked Squamish number 32 on its list of 52 Places to Go.)

But it was the construction of the Sea to Sky Highway that was the main catalyst, says Mayor Patricia Heintzman. (The section of Highway 99 from Horseshoe Bay to Squamish was completed in 1966, but underwent massive improvements in the leadup to the 2010 Olympics.)

“We knew that would open the floodgates to people wanting to move up here,” she says. “All of a sudden Squamish is a 45-minute drive to North Vancouver, and an easy, beautiful commute to downtown Vancouver.”

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I wasn’t in the best of shape or mood. I’d crashed on my bike when a wheel caught on a wooden bridge on the Squamish Valley Road. I rode into Squamish a wreck and with a very sore rib. I couldn’t laugh and didn’t feel there was much to smile about either.

So thank you Backcountry Brewing for nudging me to buck up and enjoy life; the refreshing brews on tap helped as did the lively, inviting vibe. And then I discovered the food was better than I expected of a brew pub where you order at the counter.

It’s in a semi-industrial neighbourhood albeit one that’s getting pretty tasty. Tall Tree Bakery with artisanal offerings has opened next door to Backcountry and a couple more places to imbibe are new to the vicinity — North Yard Cider Co. and A-Frame Brewing.

Backcountry, which opened last year, is built to accommodate. It’s a huge space with high ceilings, communal tables, and others with backcountry maps embedded on table tops and a moose head. The theme is ski cabin and it’s specific — 1975 ski cabin. It’s filled with the young and the restless and the recreationally inclined. One of the guys across from us had a broken arm from a mountain biking accident; he’d been to a hospital in Vancouver but the wait was too long to get treated — looked like beer was the next best remedy.

“Sea to Sky Beer on the BC Ale Trail” on Shaw TV with a short segment about Backcountry Brewing.

Producer: Malcolm Yates / Kristy Aleksich Camera/ Editor: Kristy Aleksich
www.shawtv.com

From cosmopolitan Vancouver across the prairies and mountains to rugged Newfoundland, one thing is certain: Canadians love their beer. Along with ice hockey, maple syrup and irrepressible friendliness, beer is practically part of the national identity. While many of the well-known brands — names like Molson, Labatt, Sleeman — are now owned by foreign companies, homegrown creativity is more alive than ever. In every province and territory, craft beers are a’brewing.

Canada’s beer industry unofficially began in 1668 when surplus grain, not enough safe drinking water, and a need for an alternative to expensive, imported French brandy led to the establishment of the first commercial brewery. After the British took over New France in 1763, English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish immigrants led the way with heavier ales, porters and stouts, and the Germans and Belgians made lighter ales and lagers popular.

Just beyond Vancouver you’ll find two other standout microbreweries worth a visit. Backcountry Brewing is a world-class brewery located a scenic one-hour drive north in Squamish – a town that was once considered just a rest stop en route to Whistler. Cleaning up five medals at the Beer Canada Beer Awards, all within its first 12 months, Backcountry Brewing also makes legendary pizzas. When you order your slice of pie, try the clean, crisp Ridgerunner Pilsner or Widowmaker IPA.

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At Backcountry Brewing, the long and wooden communal tables tucked inside a Squamish business park are packed with young families and their kids, wolfing down thin crust pizza that locals like to say rivals anything on Commercial Drive in Vancouver.

“I don’t know if we would have been as successful as we are if we had opened a few years ago,” says co-owner and brewer John Folinsbee.

He’s lived in Squamish for 13 years and had been commuting to Vancouver to brew for Steamworks Brewing Company until he opened Backcountry in April 2016.

“The climate and atmosphere (in Squamish) has changed so much, but even more so, recently. It’s been quite recent and we got lucky and hit that wave of change.”

The population of Squamish has soared as people seeking an alternative to Metro Vancouver’s expensive housing market have been moving to Squamish. Now, the district is feeling the strain of this influx and is seeking to manage future infrastructure upgrades.

The population increased almost 15 per cent from the census in 2006 to 2011, and then grew another 16 per cent from 17,158 to 19,893 in the 2016 census, making Squamish among the fastest growing communities in B.C., according to Statistics Canada.

With almost a decade of events under its belt, Vancouver Craft Beer Week brews up a community

Earlier this year, Vancouver Craft Beer Week cofounder Leah Heneghan found herself halfway around the world, exploring the majestic ruins of Angkor in Cambodia’s exotic Siem Reap. To get a handle on what she loves most about our province’s booming craft-beer movement—inclusion and community being major buzzwords—it helps to flash back to that trip. Heneghan was a stranger in a strange land in Cambodia, but that didn’t stop her from making fast friends with strangers.

“In Siem Reap, me being me, I was like, ‘I wonder if there’s any beer here?’ ” she says, kicking back in her West End apartment on a sunny Vancouver spring day. “There were a couple of brew pubs, one in particular called the Local, run by a couple of American guys. We went in there, sat down at the bar, and started talking and talking about beer. They said, ‘What do you do?’ and I said, ‘I run Vancouver Craft Beer Week.’ ”

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This podcast contains a craft brewery feature on Backcountry Brewing as well as restaurant closures. There is also a neighborhood feature on Gastown, new restaurants featuring Hey Dumplings, Sopra Sotto, Centro Denman and Yum Sweet Shop and lastly the Taco Challenge.

Along the Sea to Sky Highway in British Columbia is the community of Squamish. Known as the recreational capital of Canada, this small town is home to a brewery that embraces that spirit to heart. I sat down with two of the co-founders Ben Reeder & John Folinsbee of Backcountry Brewing.