Steamworks

Steamworks has both a brewery at a different location and a brewpub in the Gastown district of downtown Vancouver. The brewery has tours, growler fills and tastings, but the brewpub serves their beer, a full menu of food and there are multiple rooms (some as venues for parties) so although there were lots of people there was plenty of seating even on Canada Day. The vibe is very steampunk and the crowd was all ages with kids. They had a full bar and the fishbowl margaritas seemed to be more popular than the beer during the time we visited.

Try- Lions Gate Lager, Salty Caramel

Food- Full Service

Best Brewery to- enjoy the environment

33 Acres Brewing Company

We enjoyed our taster flight here. The beer is labeled “33 acres of ____” and fill in the blank with words like “ocean”, “nirvana”,” sunshine”, etc. The beer (and one cider) offered varied from IPA to belgian tripel to a sour, and every summer beer in between. It has the vibe of a marijuana clinic or Apple store- tall chairs and tables, and white everywhere.

Try- 33 Acres of Life

Food- Snacks

Best Brewery to- do a taster flight of all the beer

Main Street Brewing Company

The beer here was very “meh” but right around the corner from other good ones, regardless the mini beer hall was quaint but nothing really stood out for us.

Try- Westminster brown.

Food- Snacks

Best Brewery to- Make a quick stop at while brewery hopping

Brassneck Brewery

This was one of my favorites- the growler filling station is the first thing that greets you, so be sure to go around the corner to find the first-come-first-serve seating. This was definitely a place that we got a pint at because there were so many good options and their pale ales and lagers were amazing!

Try- Magician’s Assistant or the namesake Brassneck pale ale

Food- Snacks & outside food truck vendor from 5:00 PM-8:30 PM

Best Brewery to- Grab a growler and a pint

Steel Toad Brewery

This was the most underrated brewery for me, as the reviews weren’t super great I wasn’t expecting to be as good as it was. The venue was large with live music, huge sports screens and the vibe was similar to Buffalo Wild Wings, but with their own beer.

Try- Raspberry Wheat or Pilsner

Food- Full service

Best Brewery to- Go with a large group for a celebration

Red Truck Beer

This place was pretty cool and seems to have it all- beer, food, tours, live music, etc! There was ample seating beer hall style, and it is one of Vancouver’s oldest breweries so the decor was that of their iconic red truck beer and they sometimes have live music. We came here last due to the food they serve all day and their late closing hours so this was our night-capper. They pride themselves on having no pasteurization or extra ingredients (4 basic ingredients is all they use) and their beers were okay- not the greatest I’ve had on this trip but not bad.

Try- Their award winning Red Truck Ale or Lager

Food- Full pub menu.

Best Brewery to- have a late night dinner

Poutine!

Callister Brewing Co

The vibe of this place was so chill and friendly as a converted warehouse with a few different brewers under its roof. Callister seemed to have more saisons and cask beers as well. Eventually I will have to come back here and get some paraphernalia because I love their logo so much.

Try- one of their cask beers

Food- Snacks

Best Brewery to- buy brewery paraphernalia

Storm 

Oh my goodness. I had no idea what infused beer was (sounds scary, right?!) even with my extensive beer knowledge! WOW am I glad I came here. This is a tasting & growler fill only room where they give you a wristband with 6 tasting options and serve them one at a time. They request a cash donation for the tasters which are hearty pours so bring your Canadian currency. I’d recommend coming with a second person so you can try 12 of them as they are phenomenal.

Favorite brewery in Vancouver

Try-  As many brainstorms as possible. If you have leftover punches Pilsner and Scottish ale were our favorites out of their mainstays.

Food- None

Best Brewery to- do all the tasters and also a growler

Powell Street Brewing

Our expectations are now ridiculously high due to Storm blowing us out of the water. However, credit where credit is due to the awesome service at this one (the guy working marked off all the breweries that are not open on our Hop Circuit list so we wouldn’t waste our time. Thanks dude!) and there were a couple beers we enjoyed.

Try- Czech style pilsner, Old Jalopy

Food- snacks

Best Brewery to- share your table

Odd Society

We didn’t make it inside this one (closed) and were kind of surprised it was on the map since it is a distillery tasting  but they do have a tasting room that was converted out of a former motorcycle garage and has a convenient location (hard alcohol tasting in the middle of a brew hop is not recommended by this website-  we’ve tried this) in the middle of the Powell street action!

DCBC Doans Craft Brewing Co

This was a total college-hangout style brewery with a wooden themed decor and art lining the walls. There was jenga, trivial pursuit, checkers, cards, and other games galore that people were enjoying while drinking their beer. The beer was decent here, didn’t really stand out too much but wasn’t bad either.

Try- Altbier, Rye Stout

Food- Vegan/vegetarian food and snacks

Best Brewery to- kick back, read and enjoy a beer solo

Parallel 49 

Parallel 49 was super legitimate. Also packed with many young adults, their beer was on point and they even had a infused jalapeno-pineapple-mango-lemon IPA. Their radlers were popular (you can add a shot of vodka or gin to them as well) and their regular beers were very good as well.

Food- Snacks

Try- Infused IPA, radler, Gypsy Tears (politically incorrect name I know)

Best Brewery to-  take your friend who doesn’t like beer

Bomber Brewing

This place had such a cool vibe. I’m not sure if I could say 1940s? 1950s? Whatever the decor was great. The beer was decent too. The seating area was a little crammed but we were able to get a spot and they had plenty of trivia/board games.

Food- Snacks

Try- ESB (extra special bitter) or belgian blonde

Best Brewery to-  take your grandparents

Strange Fellows

You know a place is awesome when their sign is like this

Strange Fellows was a skip and a hop from Bombers and we ended up running into someone that was coincidentally in a band that performed at a show Phil filmed a few years back…it’s a small world! Anyways, we heard they are known more for their dark beers which they did not have during the summer but still the beer was pretty good. It had an industrial vibe with beer hall tables & high stools.

Food- Snacks

Try- Roxanne (sour raspberry grisette) or their dark beer

Best Brewery to- take your hipster friend

Postmark Brewery

This is a collaboration (did I mention I love those?) between Postmark Brewing and the Belgard kitchen. We had the best service of all time here and the food was amazing! Their staple beers were good and they also serve wine from Vancouver Urban Winery. The ambiance was more intimate since it was a sit down restaurant with low lighting and candles with timely service.

Food- Yes, Belgard Kitchen

Try- Raspberry & Stout

Best Brewery to- Have a date night

Lamb ragu & yam gnocchi