A ranking of every brewery in Metro Vancouver

A local journalist set out to visit and sample every single brewery located within the boundaries of Metro Vancouver. The list is partially out and makes for a nice read:

https://justinmcelroy.com/2017/02/05/ranking-every-brewery-in-metro-vancouver/

Thanks.
I quickly read through the story, but it sounds like they found their personal reasonable way to set this up.

Looking at the results, it just hurts a bit to see Dogwood (one of the worst breweries in Vancouver) next to Doan’s (who does a very decent malt job).
And definitively surprised to see Steal Toad at the bottom (although I haven’t visited for one year).
Look out guys! Pat’s Brewpub is not out yet!

who is going to fill the top 10?
I think these are not out yet: Four Winds, Brassneck, Main Street, Yellow Dog, Strange Fellows, Parallel 49, Storm (probably doesn’t count), Trading Post, Foamers Folly, Steel & Oak...

I’m super curious to see where it goes, considering my knowledge of Vancouver is mostly limited to six years ago when I left town (plus three intense weeks of catching up last summer). It’s great to see that this guy tried to set up a really fair methodology that doesn’t weigh one person’s review over another’s (see: the Fuggles & Warlock review). Not everyone is a Ratebeerian, so it’s nice to see a slightly different approach to things.

My guesses for the top spot are either Brassneck or Parallel 49, but I definitely wouldn’t be the expert because I’ve only tried 20 breweries from the Metro Vancouver area.

What an odd list.

Ok, Steel Toad as the worst? What happened when they were there? Really. Even if you think the beer is boring, there’s no faults. To put that below brewers that literally turn out total shit makes no sense to me and speaks to a flawed methodology.

On that note, no way Foamer’s Folly should be anywhere near the top. Must be some sort of error there.

But yet there’s that, Main Street, Brassneck, and Four Winds still unlisted. I know Brassneck and Four Winds will be there, and Main Street’s made some strides in the beer department, but still.

The rational for Big Rock makes no sense at all. Most of what you drink there is brewed on site, and unique to the brewpub. "Let’s make a rule to specifically exclude one brewery" is really arbitrary.

R&B review is a little weird. Did they visit before the pub was open? Cause they’ve been on the way up since then.

Pretty sure we’d do better, even with the same methodology.

I like that it’s not written by Ratebeerians, to be honest, because he tweaked with the methodology to include factors that Ratebeer doesn’t consider to rate something that users on Ratebeer don’t rate. Just because they’re not ticking all the time doesn’t invalidate their opinions :)

Down to the last three: Brassneck, Four Winds, Strange Fellows.

So Storm popped in at #9; most of their "new" beers are infusion of Pilsner or Ale with some shit. I stopped going there, so I wonder if these crazy beers impressed the author.
Steel & Oak has been utterly boring in 2016, with the exception of Tortuga Sour and Tu Meke Saison, and with some very bad beer, like the two BA barely wines; they don’t deserve the spot.
I think we have been too generous towards Brassneck, when they opened we were hoping a lot, but they never rose to greatness, basically the growth curve is flat, and for me that’s negative.
Strange Fellows apparently has a lot of traction with some local groups, but at best they can brew a good beer, and at the same time they still brew some dirty beer, yeasty beer, boring beer etc. And I don’t know if you heard of the ridiculous club called Fellowship, with most of the exclusive beers being sub par.
Not surprised to see Four Winds up there, but they lost momentum, they are not innovative, and they have released too many bad and mediocre beers.


Besides that, the list is personal, maybe not the same as mine, but I can understand it.

Well, to do this properly I figured I’d iron out the faults in his design here. I have numbers on average score, but to avoid undue influence from dink casks, or breweries that have a boring regular lineup but a higher volume of decent seasonals, I’ll be more subjective.

I’m not doing Standout. What matters more to me is reliability. One point for every beer I’d order a pint of, on the average visit. So a place like Big Rock where I end up drinking Mosaic Lager half the time, gets a point for that, but just one point.

Diversity and Innovation scores are good. Weights are good, too. Experience - yeah, most tap rooms are kind of generic, but some are definitely better than others. My take on both Diversity and Innovation is that # of ideas doesn’t count; # of good ideas does.

I’m also adding in Luppolo, Strathcona, Faculty, Howe Sound, Persephone, all that stuff in the Valley...cause I can. And that six month thing is not supported by evidence. For Steamworks I’m using Gastown, for Central City the brewpub. Not including places I haven’t been to lately (BRB, White Rock, Ridge, Foamer’s Folly).

So my top 10 (from the best):
Persephone
Four Winds
Brassneck
Powell
Howe Sound
Dageraad
R&B
Steamworks
Yellow Dog
Main Street / Strange Fellows (tie)

Bottom 10 (from the worst)
Maple Meadows
Off the Rail
Old Abbey
Black Kettle
Dogwood
Hastings Mill
Deep Cove
White Rock Beach
Dockside
Granville Island

So there you have it. Brassneck does get up there, but I like drinking there and they do a lot of beers, even if the place never lived up to the promise. I’m amazed Faculty and Red Truck didn’t make the bottom ten. But that really shows you how weak the field is here.

Steel Toad, btw, was 11th best. In a better scene, it wouldn’t be that high, but c’mon. The blogger puts them at worst, bags on their lineup...who else is doing 2 legit cask ales? Ok, Main Street sometimes. Real Cask doesn’t count. So Main Street on a good day. Steel Toad has cask bitter every day. And cask stout. Heritage building. Solid IPA. Nice saison. Like I said, if that comes up as your worst, you did it wrong.

Top Quality: Persephone. I mean, even Golden Goddess is solid.
Bottom Quality: Off the Rail / Old Abbey

Top Reliable: Persephone
Bottom Reliable: 21 breweries with 0 (out of 50 breweries. Nearly half don’t have at least one reliable beer.)

Top Diversity: Four Winds, Brassneck, Central City
Bottom Diversity: Maple Meadows, Hastings Mill

Top Innovation: there were 5 breweries I gave a four, and I was probably being generous
Bottom Innovation: 9 with 0. One-fifth of breweries don’t have a creative bone in their bodies...and that’s not talking about the 1/5 scores I gave. ouch.

Top Experience: Persephone. Not really that close. Sit by the pond on a sunny day, crushing growlers of Amarillo. They are actually among the better brewery experiences in the world, a lot of the time. Not every time, but a lot of the time.

Bottom Experience: Maple Meadows. Nice guy, but there’s no reason to sit down and have a beer. And Dead Frog. Like drinking in the lunch room with the accounting department.

Gotta give a shout out to Off the Rail here. No tasters. Bad beer. Terrible space. But there’s always a crowd, and I gotta give them a point for that. But they deserve a zero on their merits. The blogger was being willfully ignorant on their beer list, though. That’s not beers that are out; it’s just their way of telling you which of their beers are on. There’s enough legit gripes with the place that you don’t have to invent stuff to slag them.

Hey Oakes,

It’s Justin, the guy behind the rankings here. Really neat list - quite close to mine in the top 10 with the exception of R&B. If our group continues doing this, we’ll probably add breweries close to Metro Van (along with the new ones in East Vancouver), and I’m interested to see where Persephone and Howe Sound would end up ranking.

Originally posted by adamnowek
I like that it’s not written by Ratebeerians, to be honest, because he tweaked with the methodology to include factors that Ratebeer doesn’t consider to rate something that users on Ratebeer don’t rate. Just because they’re not ticking all the time doesn’t invalidate their opinions :)