COVER: PENTICTON BEER FAMILIES
Ron, Ian and Patt Dyck. Photo: Brian K. Smith
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>> DAVE SMITH
hen looking back on where BC’s craft beer revolution evolved, the province’s two largest metropolitan areas come to mind. Victoria’s brewpubs and breweries became a cradle of craft in the 1980s and ‘90s, then during the current decade a new kind of culture developed in the modern tasting rooms of East Vancouver. But the movement is strong in the province’s interior as well. That's why some folks refer to a certain South Okanagan city as ‘Beer Town, BC’. The population of Penticton is only slightly larger than Port Moody’s, but before year’s end it will boast seven craft breweries (including a cluster to rival Brewers Row in a small, walkable part of downtown). Newbies on the block will include Slackwater Brewing as well as Neighbourhood Brewing, founded by the same folks from Yellow Dog Brewing who started it all in PoMo. It turns out that Penticton, chosen as Expedia.ca’s #2 beer town in Canada last year, has had a strong craft community since there were just two or three breweries. Credit in part goes to its highly respected annual Okanagan Fest of Ale, held for the 24th time this past April. Today, the bond between local breweries is exemplified in the highly active Penticton Ale Trail marketing collaborative [see Kim Lawton’s column in this issue—Ed.]. At the 2019 Fest of Ale, What’s Brewing discovered a trait that several of Penticton’s breweries have in common: they are family operations, with multiple generations strongly involved. In this issue’s cover story, we find out what it’s like for parents and offspring to work together on a business as challenging as a craft brewery, in their own words. 12 WHAT'S BREWING S U M M E R 2019
CANNERY BREWING Ian Dyck was born into his job. Ten years old when his parents founded a brewery, Ian was already a hospitality industry veteran thanks to the family’s original business, legendary restaurant The Country Squire. Its pastoral hometown of Naramata BC, in the hills of grape-growing country by Okanagan Lake not far from Penticton, had long been a favourite getaway destination for wine tourists. After opening in 1980 the Squire became a locus for food and wine service. Maitre d’ Ron Dyck was well known as an engaging host with a very respectable wine palate, and chef Patt prepared meals that complemented the regional vino; getting your label in the cellar at the Squire was highly desirable. As the local vineyard and winery industry expanded rapidly in the 1980s and ‘90s, Ron, Patt, and The Squire became part of that growth. “Back in the day, it was a pretty big deal to be on Ron’s wine list,” Patt recalls. “People would leave the restaurant and go buy what Ron had on his list.” Not that The Squire didn’t serve beer. “We carried the best local beers we could find,” Patt reminisces. “Tin Whistle, Mt. Begbie.” Back The Country Squire can be in the 80s and 90s, finding craft beer would seen in the label for Cannery’s have been the tricky part. now-retired Scotch Ale
