In Victoria, Hip Hops Spots

Tea has always been this city’s trademark brew. Afternoon tea, where a cuppa involves choosing from a roll call of plantations in Darjeeling, Ceylon and Kenya, is the equivalent of Miller Time in this staid provincial capital.

Then, one drizzly West Coast afternoon, I wandered into Spinnakers Brewpub, where a glass of malty India Pale Ale made me sit up and pay attention. A chaser of Jameson’s Scotch Ale confirmed my suspicion that there was more abrew in Victoria than tea leaves: beer, another fine British tradition.

Spinnakers, it turns out, is only one stop on a hoppy route through this southern Vancouver Island city. Victoria’s two microbreweries--the Vancouver Island Brewing Co. and the Lighthouse Brewing Co.--and its four brew pubs now produce some of the best beers in British Columbia.

Victoria’s brews are well known in Canada’s beer-loving community, as is the fact that Victoria boasts one of the most vibrant beer cultures of any city in the country. Each November the Great Canadian Beer Festival is held in Victoria. (It’s Nov. 22 and 23 this year; for information, see www.gcbf.com.) But the brews are not available outside the province and usually can’t be sampled outside local brew pubs.

I came to British Columbia last October for a friend’s wedding and stayed at Amethyst Inn at Regents Park, a lovely restored Victorian mansion that has been converted to a B&B.; The inn is in a residential neighborhood a five-minute drive from the city center, near seaside Beaconsfield Park. When I heard about Victoria’s “ale trail,” I decided to stay an extra day to combine two of my favorite pastimes: hiking and beer tasting.

Hiking might seem an extreme word for traipsing the paved sidewalks of Government and Pandora streets, but by the time you’re on your way to the fourth brew pub of the afternoon--they have a combined offering of about 20 ales, lagers and stouts--walking anywhere in a straight line feels like a trek of Himalayan proportions.

I could have taken a guided, half-day Ale Trail Tour by bus, which includes visits to two more-distant microbreweries and meeting brew masters elsewhere on Vancouver Island as well as the downtown brew pubs. But because all four brew pubs are within easy walking distance of one another in the heart of the city, I decided to go it alone in sensible shoes.

Walking beneath hanging flower baskets and past faux Beefeaters, the stately, ivy-covered Empress Hotel and shops filled with Haida Indian art, I crossed a short bridge on the harbor and started my brew pub crawl at Spinnakers, perhaps the best known of Victoria’s pubs.

It was early afternoon, and the pub and restaurant were still busy with couples and families finishing lunch. The interior was bright with sunlight streaming through picture windows, a cross between West Coast cheeriness and the coziness of a British pub. I chose a table outside on the balcony and watched sailboats heading out in a stiff breeze and the arrival of the hydrofoil from downtown Vancouver.

When Paul Hadfield opened it in 1984, Spinnakers was not only at the forefront of Victoria’s artisan beer scene, but it was also Canada’s first licensed brew pub since Prohibition. Hadfield had to fight against Victorian liquor licensing regulations and a provincial government that sided with a disapproving consortium of national beer corporations. He triumphed, and his brew pub, set on the waterfront overlooking Victoria Harbor in an old public house, has been expanding ever since.

The taproom is a self-serve bar, where you order beer and food from a cashier and pick it up when your number is called. Spinnakers features West Coast fare for lunch and dinner and a selection of half a dozen ales, delivered daily, that are “pulled” with tall porcelain and brass handles that line the bar.

The selection of beers changes frequently, with the seasons and at the whim of the brew master. They range from light lagers to malty ales and dark stouts. I sampled an India Pale Ale with my fish-and-chips lunch and finished with delicious, rich and chocolaty Tsarist Imperial Stout for dessert.

In the more formal restaurant downstairs, chef Sean Brennan experiments in cooking with beer, and brewery products pop up all over the menu, from sourdough bread made with Hefeweizen, a golden, unfiltered German-style wheat beer, to curries based on Scotch ales, handmade “beer cheese” sprayed with Spinnakers wheat beer before aging and “hop eggs Benedict.”

The spent grains from beer making are trucked to an organic farm, where they are used as feed for organically raised Highland beef cattle and turkeys, which then appear back on Spinnakers’ menu.

The sweet skim that rises during beer making tastes like molasses, and Spinnakers dries it into crystals and uses it to sweeten the house granola and to make “spongy chompers,” honeycomb cloaked in chocolate. Most desserts, except the apple pie, contain beer. To die for are the stout ice cream with barley wine vinegar and an unlikely sounding but plate-licking-delicious lime, ale and basil sorbet.

Hadfield also produces malt vinegars, including a French mint that is a killer on lamb dishes. But his first love is beer. “The cool thing about beer over wine,” Hadfield says, “is that you can get malt anywhere in the world and replicate all kinds of beer from anywhere.”

Putting a new spin on the term B&B--beer; and breakfast--Spinnakers has added five harbor-view garden suites behind the brew pub, and the rooms are furnished in contemporary and Asian styles. It also has rooms in a beautifully restored 1884 guest house next door. All of Spinnakers’ rooms have whirlpool tubs and wood-burning fireplaces, and the room rates include breakfast in the restaurant.

What is Hadfield’s recommendation for a breakfast brew? His Tsarist Stout.

I walked back over the bridge along the harbor front for 10 minutes until I reached the Russian submarine, next door to Stop 2 on my ale trail. A black whale of Cold War power turned into a tourist trap, the Russian Cobra squats incongruously alongside the umbrellas and terrace tables of the stylish Harbour Canoe Club restaurant and brew pub.

“It’s not ours; we have nothing to do with it,” the seemingly embarrassed hostess said of the submarine.

The Harbour Canoe Club is housed in the cavernous former City Lights hydroelectric building, on Victoria’s waterfront and slightly off the beaten track. It’s relatively new among the city’s brew pubs, but its transformation from an industrial site into a brew pub in 1998 has been handled well. The interior of the 1895 warehouse is airy but cozy despite its size. Large skylights brighten the hardwood floors, and blond wood furnishings and red brick walls are covered with canvases from the Victoria College of Art.

Brew master Sean Hoyne produces five unfiltered, naturally carbonated beers--including a seasonal one--in large, shiny tanks above and behind the bar, where they are drawn with canoe paddle-shaped handles.

I took a seat at a high, round table in the lofty pub and ordered the “Beer Fleet,” a set of five 5-ounce tasters, which I sipped while watching marina traffic outside the picture windows.

Among the samples were a light lager, ESB (Extra Special Bitter, a rich, hoppy ale), the Canoe Club’s regular ale and a smooth sweeter brown ale. But it was the seasonal and slightly cloudy Hefeweizen that won my best brew award here.

Here too beer is featured in the cooking, but I was too stuffed on fish and chips to try anything. The extensive snack menu includes focaccia made with the Canoe Club’s Boardwalk Brown Ale and steamed mussels deglazed with Davey Jones Lager. For lunch and dinner, more expansive menus are heavy on seafood, and all the dishes come with suggestions for a beer chaser.

My third stop was just down the road from the Canoe Club. Swans Suite Hotel and Buckerfield’s Brewery is in an elegant 1913 building that was transformed from a warehouse into the city’s first beer-and-breakfast establishment in 1989.

The hotel has 29 suites, each different. The massive wood beams and pillars that once supported rail-car loads of grain add a loft-like look to the rooms, which are complemented with Canadian art from the collection of Swans’ former owner, Michael Williams.

The public house on Swans’ main floor is warm and spacious, a comfortable British-pub-style setting in which to sample Buckerfield’s seven Bavarian, Canadian and British-style ales and lagers.

As at all the brew pubs, the staff is knowledgeable about the beers. Name a beer you like, and the staff will suggest one of Buckerfield’s to suit you.

The brews are hand-pulled from behind an elegant dark-wood-paneled bar amid high walls adorned with West Coast native art from Williams’ collection.

Like all of Victoria’s brew masters, Swans’ Chris Johnson uses only imported specialty malts and yeast and adheres to the German Purity Law of 1516, which stipulates that only malt, hops, yeast and water can be used in the brewing process. The one exception is the creamy SOS--Swan’s Oatmeal Stout--which, of course, is made with oats.

Another of my favorites is Swans’ Riley’s Scotch Ale, a full-bodied drop brewed in the “wee-heavy” style that brings it up to 8% alcohol instead of the usual Canadian beer content of 5%. Johnson also brews a barley wine that ages for a full year.

My final stop was the city’s newest brew pub, less than five minutes’ walk from Swans. Hugo’s Grill and Brew- house is a popular spot where six taps usher forth Saskatchewan grains and Czech hops carefully blended into blond ale, pale ale, porter and Pilsener.

I took a seat at the long wood bar set to one side of the steakhouse-like grill restaurant, which was filling up with a young, lively crowd of office workers from surrounding businesses.

A regular sitting beside me recommended that I try the Super G Ginseng Cream Ale, an unusual brew with a hint of ginger that became my favorite at this pub.

By this time I needed sustenance, not another beer, I reasoned with myself. So I compromised by ordering food made with beer--a delicious bowl of mussels poached in Super G with chorizo sauce, shallots and garlic.

Then it was time for a nap.

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Guidebook: Victoria’s Ale Trail

Getting there: From LAX to Victoria, Alaska Airlines and Air Canada have connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $395.60.

A cheaper route is to fly to Seattle and take a ferry to Victoria. From LAX to Seattle, nonstop service is available on United and Alaska airlines, and direct service (one stop) on Southwest. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $198.

The ferry costs $99 round trip; (206) 448-5000, www.victoriaclipper.com.

Where to stay: Spinnakers Brewpub & Guesthouse, 308 Catherine St.; (877) 838-2739 or (250) 386-2739, fax (250) 384-3246, www.spinnakers.com. In low season, doubles from about $82; high season (late June-September) from $101. Full breakfast included.

Swans Suite Hotel, 506 Pandora St.; (800) 668-7926 or (250) 361-3310, fax (250) 361-3491, www.swanshotel.com. Studio suites from about $63 double through April, $79 May-June, and $101 July- September.

Amethyst Inn at Regents Park, 1501 Fort St.; (888) 265-6499 or (250) 595-2053, fax (250) 595-2054, www.amethyst-inn.com. Spectacular restored 1885 Victorian mansion near downtown. Doubles from about $92 including full breakfast.

Where to eat and drink: Spinnakers Brewpub & Guesthouse (see above). Reservations recommended. Entrees about $6-$12.

Buckerfield’s Brewery and Swans Brewpub, 506 Pandora St.; (800) 668-7926 or (250) 361-3310, fax (250) 361-3491, www.swanshotel.com. Entrees $4-$7.50. Live music Sunday-Thursday evenings.

Harbour Canoe Club, 450 Swift St.; (250) 361-1940, fax (250) 361-1950. Entrees $5-$13.

Hugo’s Grill & Brewhouse, 625 Courtney St.; (250) 920-4844, fax (250) 920-4842. Dinners about $11-$22.

Tour: Ale Trail Tour, First Island Tours, 214-733 Johnson St., Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 3C7; (800) 970-7722 or (250) 658-5367, fax (250) 658-

8169, www.firstislandtours.com/aletrail.html. A five-hour guided tour of the city, two brew pubs and two microbreweries, with appetizers and dinner prepared with local ales. $89 per person.

For more information: Tourism Victoria, 812 Wharf St., Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 1T3; (800) 663-3883 or (250) 953-2033, fax (250) 382-6539, www.tourismvictoria.com.

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Margo Pfeiff is a freelance writer based in Montreal.