Vancouver’s newest brewery and taphouse is opening next week in east Vancouver.
Barlows Brewery, an extension of its waterfront restaurant, has already started brewing beer and will open Feb. 21 at its new taphouse at 705 S.E. Park Crest Ave., Suite 430., in the Mill Plain Center at the southeast corner of Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and Southeast Park Crest Avenue.
The new brewery will have 20 beers on tap, aimed to supply Barlows Public House and its self-serve “tap wall.”
Barlows’ two brewers, Eric Van Tassel and Bryan Hochrine, who both worked for Portland-based Fat Head’s brewery, will have 12 to 16 house beers on tap at all times and plan to be continually creating new beers.
As of Monday, they had plans to brew a Canadian lager made with Canadian malts, a strawberry American beer and an American brown.
Two beers are already available at the waterfront Barlows: Out of the Gate Saison and Hard Labor Porter.
“We’ll kick out tons of styles,” said Brian Rummer, co-owner of Barlows. “The size (of the brewery) is for making lots of different beers.”
The Barlows seven-barrel brewing system can produce about 750 barrels of beer a year, and the brewers will be ramping up production as demand increases, they said.
Barlows will also self-distribute kegs to local breweries and taphouses.
The new taphouse can seat about 30 patrons, and it can sell crowlers, which are 32-ounce cans filled and sealed on demand.
Barlows will also fill growlers, 64-ounce glass jugs, but it won’t sell them, Van Tassel said.
Rummer said he chose the spot in east Vancouver because there weren’t any others brewing in that part of town.
“It was to fill a need in the area near Mill Plain,” he said.
The interior of the new Barlow’s is decorated with national park posters, and Rummer will fill in more wall decor as he finds it.
Workers will install drinking rails and outdoor seating for warmer days, Rummer said.
Food options for the new brewery include light snacks, such as nuts and jerky, but Rummer is also trying to secure Goldie’s BBQ food truck to regularly park in the Barlows lot and serve food.
Behind the concrete countertop, Van Tassel poured a pint on Monday.
“This is one of our West Coast IPAs,” said Van Tassel. “And so it begins.”
“And So It Begins” is the actual name of the beer, named for the beginning of Barlows brewing, he said.
