Mid Island residents have a good choice of craft beer to purchase in Nanaimo. However, there is huge chunk of craft beer fun we are missing.

Tasting lounges, to be specific.

There are some great ones in Victoria to be sure, but Vancouver is turning into tasting room heaven. Walking tours, biking tours, bus tours and even running tours of craft breweries are popping all over Vancouver.

The bad news is that not all the nano breweries have distribution on the Island yet.

All this leads one to seriously consider a trip to the city of Vancouver.

Vancouver offers several clusters of breweries. There is a nice bunch in North Vancouver and another group on Main Street and the East Village group.

The East Village brewery tour is a walking tour of four breweries with tasting lounges. The food truck herd follows the beer drinkers too. They congregate near the tasting room that is the busiest and move with the flow of customers.

Start your walking tour at Bomber Brewing just two blocks off of Commercial Drive. Beer flights of four samples are only $7.And they are five ounce samples. Be sure to try the Old Fat Heather if they have it and just bask in the creamy caramel fruitiness and clean bitter finish of that great brew.

Powel Street Brewing is few blocks up. This nano brewery won the beer of the year award for their Old Jalopy Pale Ale. The flights of four beers are $6 . The Ode To Citra is a must in your flight. The intense tropical notes of the Citra hops will really get your saliva flowing.

Next up is Storm Brewing. They do kegs, growlers and samples. The samples are served one at a time and the price is by donation. Storm is Vancouver’s longest running independent brewery and the Scottish Ale is a rich malty hopped up sip of delight.

The last stop of the walk is Parallel 49 Brewing. They offer the best value with a $4 flight.Gypsy Tears Ruby Ale is definitely worth including in your tasting flight. Lots of toasty malts balanced with a good dose of hops.

So there you have it, for $17, some donations and a few tips you could sample 16 of BC’s craft beers in one short stroll. Along the way there are any number of food trucks to help soak up that beer. Montreal Smoked meat sandwiches, fish and chips, poutine or tandori all go excellent with beer.

If you can’t make it to Vancouver every month to frolic with the beer geeks, you can always join us at Luckys Liquor Store. On the third Thursday of every monthwe host a different craft brewery to sample what is new and what is tried and true. For more info call 250-585-2275, find us on Facebook or visit us here.

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