EVERY year since they first put on Vancouver Craft Beer Week four years ago, organizers of the event have run into a similar problem: where to fit the growing number of folks interested in attending their big, show-stopping finale.
The first year they held it for 200 close friends at Heritage Hall on Main Street. Year 2 it moved to the Drill Hall on Beatty Street for a two-day party with 400 people per day. Last year they bumped up again to the Salt Building on Manitoba Street with another two-day blast, this time with 600 people a day.
Inspired by beer pioneers in the hoppy hotbeds of Portland and Seattle and fueled by a glut of new micro breweries on British Columbia's West Coast, this year the VCBW final parties have doubled in size again and will serve up to 1,200 beer lovers per day plus another 500 servers, hosts and the like.
"This is definitely our biggest but I would say even the last two years we continue to surprise ourselves with the amount of interest," said marketing director Chris Bjerrisgaard. "I'm sure we're going to plateau out one year, but I thought that was going to be last year, and then this year is even crazier."
So where to put them all this year?
It was a tough question. "We just couldn't find the right sized venue," said Bjerrisgaard. "Renting something that can hold 1,500-1,700 people for a day in Vancouver can cost you an arm and a leg. So the solution we came up with was beer-hall style tents - build your own venue."
And that's what they'll do. Vancouver Craft Beer Week, running May 31-June 8, will close out their festival with two massive parties featuring more than 65 local and international brewers under big-top tents on the east parking lot of the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond.
If you're relatively new to the craft beer scene - and judging by the growth of the industry it seems like there's a decent chance you are - VCBW's finales on June 7 and 8 seem like the perfect place to start.
If you make it into the tent but are still a bit intimidated by all the shiny taps and endless beer-label puns, just ask someone for help, said Bjerrisgaard.
"Find someone with a big beard or someone wearing a VCBW T-shirt, because they've clearly been to this game before," he said. "The craft beer community is extremely friendly. People have no problem taking someone who is not educated and educating them.
Everybody is happy to do it. It's one of those things, don't ever be afraid to sound like you're new to the scene because that's where you'll get the greatest response."
As the name of the game clearly states, this is not just one party but a whole week (actually nine days) of parties. Visit vancouvercraftbeerweek. com for a list of nightly events that will pair multiple breweries together with all types of shenanigans to suit people all over the beer nerd spectrum.
The only beers you won't find are the ones made by the big corporations. Mr. Molson can stop by if he likes, said Bjerrisgaard, but he can't set up a table.
"He can buy a ticket and attend if he wants to find out what's interesting - his brewery is not invited."
Beer Week shows off the unified spirit of the craft beer industry, competitors working together toward a common goal, said Bjerrisgaard, adding that in Portland craft brews make up 40 per cent of the marketplace while in Vancouver that number is closer to 20 per cent. But it's growing, and will continue to do so if everyone in the industry continues to play their cards right. No wonder the event's tagline is "We're going all in."
"On paper you could consider everybody competitors but we're really going after the macro, we're trying to take down the big guy. And as a group of ants trying to take down the elephant, we're not doing too bad of a job.
If we just keep working together and don't become voracious competitors and cannibalize ourselves, we can take a bite out of the big guy. That's why it's called Vancouver Craft Beer Week, not Vancouver Beer Week.
We wanted to make that distinction so it couldn't be co-opted."
It's a heady time for Beer Week organizers but also a hectic one. I interviewed Bjerrisgaard in mid-afternoon shortly after he got off the phone with a reporter from a national newspaper.
"I'm realizing it's almost three o'clock and I haven't eaten today," he said with a laugh. "I just wake up and start working and then realize, 'Oh crap.'"
Sounds like somebody could use a beer.
