As anyone in the wine industry will attest, while we all enjoy the swirling, sipping and spitting of dozens of wines at various tastings around town, there is absolutely nothing better after a long wine tasting than a fresh beer. With now on the horizon (see cover story), I thought that perhaps were due for a palate cleanser of sorts, breaking with 46 weeks of City Cellar tradition and talking about beer.
When it comes to talking beer, theres one guy whos become my automatic go-to, the one who not only produces , one of the headliner events of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Craft Beer Week, but the guy whos weathered the odd storm to find himself in a perfect one, creating a Mecca for Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»beer lovers that has grown in tandem with the local passion for all things hoppy and delicious.
Nigel Springthorpe grew up in Middlesbrough, England chasing trouble and girls before moving to Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»in 1997, the year he turned 20. Long before becoming co-owner of Gastowns , he was an employee of the place. In fact, its the only restaurant in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»where hes worked, having spent many of the Alibis early years managing a room that had an array of owners who werent engaged with the restaurant, and a revolving door of chefs putting out dishes that varied in quality and consistency in an unfocused room.
For many years the restaurant was rudderless, but Nigels commitment to the place began to turn in his favour on May 5, 2006 when he and his sister-in-law Raya Audet purchased the struggling restaurant, the genesis of its evolution into the modern tavern it is today.
Having a passion for craft beer, hed always been the kind of guy to seek out quality brews both at work and at play, and found himself delighted when there was an option to be the first in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»to put the then-quite-rare Brooklyn Brewing beers on tap a few years ago, at the dawn of Vancouvers craft beer renaissance. While they were more expensive than most of the other beers on tap, they were unique and had a solid reputation. His customers quickly drained as many kegs as he could bring in.
Nigel saw the glints of a burgeoning craft beer fandom and started literally knocking on doors of various local small breweries, asking them to do one-offs or rarities for him to put on tap. He had to do some convincing to many of them, but as the craft beer movement built in Vancouver, his seven taps became 10, which became 14, which became 20, and with growing numbers of Alibi Room fans thirsting for even more, resulted in the current mind-boggling 44 craft beers on tap.
People keep flocking to the Alibi Room to indulge in Nigels passion for local craft beer, which he proudly serves alongside of the best from the U.S. and beyond. After returning from the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego this week, hes confident our British Columbian ales deserve a spot amongst the best the rest of the world.
The best part is you just have to saddle up to his bar to give many of them a try.
While the Hoppapalooza event at the Alibi Room is sold out, Nigel says if he can break away from his taps a couple times, hed head straight to Brothers In Hops on Tuesday, May 24 which tours guests through four Pacific Northwest breweries and either of the official VCBW Festival evenings on May 25 and 26 when 50 different breweries will converge on the Salt Building in Olympic Village.
Head to VancouverCraftBeerWeek.com for tickets.
