Storm Brewing is one of the longest standing independent craft breweries in Vancouver. It’s an institution revered by its loyal fan base, quirks and all. No other brewery deserves as much praise as Storm for sticking to its guns for 25 year long years.
To celebrate, the team is putting on a number of events around the city, but there’s a caveat; there’s some bad news to go with the good.
First let’s deal with the bad news. For those that follow Storm closely (like ourselves), you’d be aware of some changes and difficulties the brewery has faced over the last little while. Storm’s centralized location, right in the heart of “Yeast Van” was put up for sale. The potential rent for continuing in their space was an astronomical increase, one that put the brewery at risk. So, with a heavy heart the brewery has announced that they will have to vacate their current digs by 2021.
Part of the charm of Storm has been the feeling of walking into some sort of dilapidated warehouse to discover what seems to be a slapped together homebrewing operation, only to find an extremely creative, and passionate team ready to welcome you with their beers of the week. Hopefully, whatever location the team manages to find will continue to offer up this feeling. We will be keeping an eye out.
Now onto the good news. The brewery is 25 years old, 25 years old! That’s 1994 for those bad at math. We’re talking the Stanley Cup riot (no not that one, the other one), Rogers Arena was under construction, Vancouver’s Public Library was still a year away from opening and the X-Files was just a freshman TV show.
That’s an incredible achievement, especially for a brewery that has never played by the rules. Back in the day, Storm was kegs only; I remember a backyard BBQ where we bought kegs of Hurricane IPA and people were concerned if it was even sanitary after picking up the kegs from James. Storm was one of the few places you could even get craft beer, before you knew what craft beer even was. Storm never canned, never charged for you to come sample the goods, and never cared what you thought. While some things have changed, a lot of the same attitudes still apply today.
So to celebrate this milestone the team is running not one, but THREE events in the coming weeks.
September 8: Storm’s 25 anniversary loading dock party
One of the best new traditions for Storm is their ice cream socials and loading dock party. This one promises to be one of the best, with ice cream floats, full beer pints and DJ’s spinning all day.
September 16: Storm’s Celebration of Sours
You may recall the insane $1,000 bottles of Glacial Mammoth Extinction a few years ago. Well it seems there is still more to be had, not to mention there’s a 23 year old sour on tap!!! There are only 45 tickets for this event being held at Alibi Room. Tickets are $55 each and include:
– 4 x 5oz tasters of special Storm sours
– 1 x 1oz taster of the Glacial Mammoth Extinction
– 1 – 10oz glass of Hurricane IPA
September 22: 25th Anniversary party
The official anniversary party being held at the 15th Field Artillery Regiment. $10 tickets gets you in the door and with a drink in hand. More details are coming, but this is sure to be a blast!
Be sure to find the time to either attend one of these events, or just head over to Storm and toast to the team. They’ve achieved something great here, and whatever the future holds they deserve to be celebrated.
Ale/Sessions 