Vancouver Island has its own brewing history, its own cluster of taprooms and its own recent round of losses, and the ferry is a genuine break rather than a commute. The Island's modern brewing begins in 1984, the same year as the mainland's, when Vancouver Island Brewing started as Island Pacific Brewing in Central Saanich. It moved to Government Street in Victoria in 1996 and took the name it still trades under, and it built a following on lager at a time when most new breweries were reaching for pale ale. That history is still visible in what the region drinks, which is more varied and more lager-weighted than the mainland stereotype suggests.
The Island Closures, Moves, And Survivors
- Vancouver Island Brewing left its Government Street site after a 35 per cent rent increase, closing the taproom in September 2024 and production in November, with the brand moving to Phillips Brewing under a co-packing agreement.
- Lighthouse Brewing closed at the end of January 2026 after nearly thirty years, and its brands also transferred to Phillips.
- The Island is not the IPA province its name suggests, because Vancouver Island Brewing led with a lager and a dark lager rather than pale ale and IPA.
- Salt Spring Brewing works with island heather and wild gruit and is moving toward spontaneous fermentation in a coolship, which makes it the region's most distinctive operation.
What Closed On The Island Recently
Three changes are documented clearly enough to state, and they cover three different situations. Vancouver Island Brewing announced in August 2024 that a rent increase of about 35 per cent at its Government Street site had ended the operation there, with the taproom closing in September and the brewery ceasing production in November. The brand did not disappear: production moved to Phillips Brewing under a co-packing agreement, and Phillips was explicit that the ownership of both companies was unchanged. Lighthouse Brewing, founded in Esquimalt in 1998, closed at the end of January 2026 after nearly thirty years, and its brands transferred to Phillips. Swans Brewery, which had been a Victoria brewing fixture since 1989, stopped brewing at the end of August 2024 while keeping its pub and hotel open and serving other breweries' beer.
There is also Cliffside Brewing in Nanaimo, which closed sometime after the middle of 2025. Its exact closing date could not be pinned down, so it is worth knowing as a closure without a date attached. Each of these endings came down to a lease or a change of interest rather than to the beer, and two Island businesses changed shape rather than closing. Moon Under Water, a Victoria brewery opened in 2012, was sold in August 2025 and now trades as Brass Monkey Brewing and Taproom, keeping its distillery under the old name.
The Breweries Pouring Now
Victoria and Esquimalt hold the densest group. Phillips Brewing, founded in Esquimalt in 2001 and now on Government Street, is the one that picked up both the Vancouver Island Brewing production and the Lighthouse brands, which makes it the practical centre of the Island scene right now. Île Sauvage Brewing works out of Bridge Street and has built a reputation on sour and wild Belgian-style ales. Driftwood Brewing, founded in 2008, moved to a large Viewfield Road facility in Esquimalt in 2021, and Spinnakers on Catherine Street has been operating since 1984 as the country's oldest brewpub. Also currently trading on the Island are the Comox Valley's RAD Brewing, formerly New Tradition, Cumberland Brewing and Gladstone Brewing in Courtenay, and Land & Sea Brewing and Ace Brewing.
Nanaimo and the Cowichan Valley have their own cluster. Longwood Brewery and White Sails Brewing are both in Nanaimo, and Wolf Brewing Company has been at its Old Victoria Road location in the city since 2010. Rusted Rake in Nanoose Bay is genuinely farm to tap, growing its own barley, which is a real distinction rather than a label. Duncan has Craig Street Brewing and Red Arrow Brewing, and Deadhead Brew Co. is also in Duncan, while Bayview Brewing opened in Ladysmith in 2022. On the Gulf Islands, Salt Spring Brewing has been working out of the Fulford Valley since 1998 and is the Island's most distinctive operation, brewing with island heather and wild gruit and working toward spontaneous fermentation in a coolship. Mayne Island Brewing and Hornby Island Brewing are both running as well.
Beach Fire Brewing is in Campbell River, and the Alberni Valley has Dog Mountain Brewing and Twin City Brewing. The Sunshine Coast and Powell River are often added to Island lists in conversation and should not be, because Gibsons, Sechelt and Powell River are on the mainland, and the breweries there, including Persephone, Tapworks and Townsite Brewing, are Lower Mainland businesses on the wrong side of the water for this page.
The Island Is Not An IPA Province
It is tempting to assume the Island runs heavy on hops because the name Vancouver carries that expectation, and the assumption does not hold. The best independent account of the region's scene describes a deliberately varied culture with only a modest concentration on very hoppy ales, and the Island's own brewing history backs that up, since Vancouver Island Brewing's original range led with Goldstream Lager and a dark lager rather than with pale ale and IPA. Some Island breweries are emphatically not lager-focused, and Salt Spring in particular has gone the opposite direction from its region's norm. The accurate summary is that the Island drinks across a wider range than the mainland, with lagers and Belgian-style sours sitting comfortably beside the pale ales that dominate elsewhere in British Columbia.
One regional claim that appears in guidebooks is worth retiring, because it is a conflation rather than a style. The pale ale that is sometimes described as the Vancouver Island signature is a Halifax beer, Alexander Keith's, whose lineage is Nova Scotian and has no Island connection at all. What the Island genuinely has is a sourcing tradition that is brewery by brewery rather than island wide, built around island-grown barley, local malt and island botanicals, and Salt Spring's coolship plans are the most concrete example of anyone trying to move past local ingredients into spontaneous fermentation. Check any Island taproom's current status directly, since the BC Ale Trail brewery directory tracks the region and is a better starting point than any printed list.
