GOLD
Best New Brewery
SILVER
Best Tasting Room
Best Branding/Packaging
In an alternate universe, the City of North Vancouver never renamed itself after the English sea captain and explorer George Vancouver, but instead chose to make official its late 19th century nickname, Shaketown, in recognition of the local cedar logging industry.
Also in that alternate universe lives Shaketown Brewing Co., an active member of the Shaketown Business Association, along with the Shaketown General Store and Shakey’s Liquor & Convenience. The Shaketown Preservation Society, in conjunction with the Shaketown Artists’ Guild, has done tremendous work to ensure that alternative history hasn’t been lost to the sands of time. In fact, you can read all about it in the Shaketown Gazette!
But, while the modern Shaketown lives only in the imagination of the good folks at Shaketown Brewing Co., the beers they brew are very real, and very good.
Which is to be expected, frankly, when the man behind said beers is none other than Dave Varga, previously of 33 Acres Brewing and one of the most impressive free agent signings in recent B.C. craft beer history.
Located on the increasingly crowded craft beer row of East Esplanade in North Van Shaketown, the brewery’s tasting room overlooks the Vancouver harbour and manages to stick out in all the right ways.
Great beer, great tasting room, great marketing, it’s little wonder Shaketown took home the Growlie for Best New Brewery.
—Rob Mangelsdorf
