STAY CONNECTED TO VIBRANTVICTORIA
WHAT'S HAPPENING ON CITIFIED VICTORIA
SHANNON KARI Globe & Mail POSTED ON 28/12/06
VANCOUVER -- Like many of his fellow students, Matt Phillips enjoyed a few cold beers in the mid-1990s while attending Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B.
But Mr. Phillips, 32, took the pastime a step further and produced his own beer. He even incorporated it into his microbiology studies.
A little more than a decade later, Mr. Phillips has gone from making home brew to becoming the craft-beer-industry version of a top chef, attracting praise for his innovation and blend of flavours.
Phillips Brewing Co. is part of a renaissance within the craft-brewing industry in British Columbia, producing some of the most adventurous beers in the country. And although Phillips remains a tiny operation in the Victoria suburb of Esquimalt, its reputation for producing quality beer grows each year.
Its original India Pale Ale and Maple Cream Ale received the top prizes in their categories last year at the Canadian Brewing Awards. Recently, Phillips was named the top brewery in B.C. by readers of the Northwest Brewing News, a 60,000-circulation publication that reports on the craft-beer industry in California, Oregon, Washington State, Alaska and B.C.
Five years after he founded the brewery, Mr. Phillips jokes that "the banks are a little happier to talk to me now," but it's clear he still has a boyish enthusiasm for experimenting with ingredients to develop new products.
"There is a lot more that can be done with beer," he said, explaining that one of the things he is looking at is the "interface" between spirits and beer.
His beer-making curiosity was triggered when he was in university, taking road trips to the United States, where he was exposed to craft beers for the first time.
Back on campus, he built an incubator and used the residence-hall kitchen to boil beer. "Some people love the smell of beer while it is being cooked," Mr. Phillips said. "Most people hate it."
He had intended to pursue a master's degree, but after travelling across the country and getting a job at a brew pub in Canmore, Alta., Mr. Phillips decided not to return to school.
From there, he worked as a sort of apprentice chef at Whistler Brewing Co. and then Spinnakers brew pub in Victoria, before starting his own company in 2001.
As a result of developing some industry contacts, Mr. Phillips was able convince local bars and some provincial liquor stores in Victoria to sell his beer.
"There is a lot of enthusiasm about good beer within the community," Mr. Phillips said.
The sense of camaraderie within the beer-producing and beer-drinking communities in Victoria and on Vancouver Island is echoed by Gerry Hieter.
"If it is brewed here, people will buy it," said Mr. Hieter, chairman of Victoria's annual Great Canadian Beer Festival, the longest-running craft-beer festival in Canada.
It wasn't just local loyalty that led to the Phillips' success, Mr. Hieter said.
Some craft breweries in B.C. and Ontario have produced bland beers, in hopes it would increase sales, but not Phillips.
"Matt has been unafraid to take chances," Mr. Hieter said. "I have been in this business for 20 years. The word-of-mouth is just huge."
It's certainly made a difference for Phillips' original India Pale Ale and its Amnesiac Double IPA.
The craft-brewed IPA, with a higher hop and alcohol content, is the signature brand of the booming craft industry in the Pacific Northwest and in California.
A Double IPA has even more hops, usually from the Yakima Valley in Washington State, more alcohol and a more bitter flavour.
Alan Moen, the editor of the Northwest Brewing News, said the IPA is "a classic beer that was largely forgotten" until it was revived by the craft-brewing industry. "A lot of movements start by going backwards."
Mr. Phillips "is the rising star of that beer," Mr. Moen said. "It is very tricky to make a good IPA. Some are out of balance, and you are left with a mouthful of bitterness."
The Amnesiac Double IPA matches up with the best of that brand produced in the United States, Mr. Moen said.
Although many craft beers and especially IPAs have higher alcohol content, they are more flavourful, and Mr. Moen said they should be savoured, in the same way that a good wine is savoured.
Phillips annually produces slightly more than 4,000 hectolitres (each hectolitre is 100 litres) of beer -- a relatively small amount -- and it's available only in B.C.
But there appears to be an increasing demand for its product and that of the more than two dozen other craft-beer makers in the province. Overall craft-beer revenue has increased by more than 16 per cent in the past year at the government-owned B.C. Liquor Stores.
"Most craft beers do very well in the region where they are produced," said Michele Green, a spokeswoman for B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch.
Even with increasing recognition and sales, Mr. Phillips is adamant that there are no plans to grow to a certain size and sell the company.
"I am still a young guy. I am having too much fun," Mr. Phillips said. "The bigger we get, the more time I have to play with new beers."
===========
A delicious product. You kiddies can have your Bud Lite. Us manly he-men are well satisfied with our IPA!
