The story of Spinnakers dates back to the summer of 1982 when founding partner and Canadian craft brewing pioneer John Mitchell opened a small brewery, on the property of Sewell’s Marina in West Vancouver, to brew and supply real ales to his Troller Pub, located down the street.  This pioneering effort, although short-lived, paved the way for subsequent developments by creating a crack in Provincial “Tied-House” laws which had previously prohibited any individual or company from being involved in both manufacturing and retailing beverage alcohol in British Columbia.

Realizing the shortcomings of the Horseshoe Bay installation, Mitchell set off to UK in the early fall of 1982, returning with inspiration in the form of potential new brewing equipment and a suitcase filled with 14 different English ales.  A second founding partner, Victoria born but then Vancouver based architect, Paul Hadfield attended a gathering of talented beer aficionados at the Pickled Onion, a private pub in the basement of a west side Vancouver residence where the group tasted their way through John’s beers, along with several examples of, mostly east coast North American beers and a collection of homebrews brewed and brought by the attendees.  To partner, Paul Hadfield, who describes this event as one of those eureka moments, two things instantly became clear.  Firstly, here was a fascinating and diverse range of beer styles and flavours which were unavailable in the Canadian marketplace yet would command broad consumer appeal and secondly, the best tasting beers were those produced by the home brewers, meaning the technology was at hand to potentially meet the demand. 

As a result, a partnership came together involving Mitchell who was to be responsible for brewpub operations, Hadfield who was to be responsible for design, development and construction and a third founding partner, Victoria based chartered accountant Raymond Ginnever who was responsible for assembling the financing required to undertake the development and for ongoing financial controls.

From idea to opening day, over a period of 18 months, the team managed to put together what became Canada’s first in-house brewpub of the modern era.  During this timeframe the team was involved in the creation of a new municipal plan for the neighbourhood of Vic West, creation of new zoning bylaws to enable a brewpub as a use within this plan, creation of new provincial regulations within BC’s Liquor Control and Licensing Act to provide an ongoing exclusion from the Tied House provisions and the creation of an amendment to the Federal Excise Act which provided a similar exclusion from the long standing prohibition of being both a producer and a retailer of a commodity subject to Federal excise taxes.

Given that a brewpub comes with additional capital costs and given the regulatory capacity constraints, it was immediately evident that there was a need to maximize revenue opportunities per seat.  To be successful, Spinnakers would have to break the mould of the conventional bars of the time.  

To that end, the essence of Spinnakers began to take shape.  A south facing waterfront location at the end of a derelict industrial area adjacent to the under-developed neighbourhood of Vic West, a short distance from downtown, was selected as it would offer patrons an opportunity to get out of the traditional windowless hotel pub environment.  The building design echoed that of a colonial field house with expansive patron area windows overlooking Victoria’s inner harbour, with views to fisherman’s wharf and the snow-capped Olympic Mountains on the American side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  A south facing licensed patio enabled patrons to take their pints outside into the fresh air, all with a view towards promoting activity during non-traditional bar time frames.

As a measure of a good pub is in it’s ability to provide a good meal along with a good pint, food service was given equal weight to bar service with an open self-serve kitchen adjacent to the self-service bar.  It was an intention that patrons would strike up the same sort of relationship with the cook as was conventionally done with a bar tender.  Food was elevated from traditional packaged, processed bar snacks, mystery meats and objects floating in brine in gallon jars on the bartop to a range of appetizers, soups, salads, entrees and what became famous as mile high apple pie as the only dessert.

The brewery was considered to be a production facility and was separated from the licensed portion of the pub, located immediately behind the kitchen on the parking / entrance side of the building, wrapped in glass and visible to patrons upon entering and exiting the pub.

Although the building was a renovation of a single family house which dated to the 1910’s or early 1920’s, the alterations involved significant additions to accommodate the brewery and public seating areas and resulted in significantly expanded floor plates for both the main and upper levels.  All of this was tucked under a complex, yet traditional multi-faceted roofline that belied the actual size of what was within.  The interiors were fashioned after craftsman style interiors with rich wainscotings of local Douglas fir, typical of the mansions that were built at the turn of the previous century.  The intent was to provide a rich, unimposing comfortable public living room that would quickly take on a patina of age and tradition.

With hours of receiving an occupancy permit and approval of the liquor license, Spinnakers quietly opened its doors to the locals who had been anxiously waiting.  By 8PM, the pub was filled to capacity with a broad mix of patrons, some of whom are still patrons today.  The date was May 15^th, 1984.  Having obtained a license to operate, brewing activities were able to begin and the first 3 brews, Spinnakers Ale, Mt. Tolmie Dark, and Mitchell’s ESB were introduced a month later, on June 16^th, 1984.

The creative work that led to the development of Spinnakers carried on over the years as the list of beers quickly grew to 4, and later 5 hand pulled draft lines, followed by the introduction of European styled colder more carbonated ales and occasional lager beers.  By the early 1990’s the standard lineup consisted or a selection of 9 or 10 styles, some as mainstays with others rotating in and out on a seasonal basis.  

Always an important aspect of Spinnakers, the kitchen followed in the artisan roots of the brewery with a growing involvement and leadership in the pursuit of local, sustainable foods, prepared on site, from scratch.  Today, Spinnakers is known equally for the efforts of its Chef and kitchen crew and for the innovative use of beer and brewery bi-products in its culinary creations.

The late 1990’s saw the addition of the first of the guesthouse rooms with the restoration and redevelopment of the Heritage Guesthouse.  Originally constructed in 1884, 100 years before the opening of Spinnakers Brewpub, the guesthouse became an instant home for Spinnakers patrons from outside of Victoria.  With its 5 luxuriously appointed rooms, out of town patrons were able to move in, have Spinnakers be their “local” and become part of the fabric, if only temporarily.  Ultimately the success of the Heritage GuestHouse led to the development of other adjacent properties with the addition of the GardenSuites in 2001 and the Bungalow in 2008.

Having a brewery in a pub is much like having a kitchen in a restaurant in that the brewery provides opportunities to explore culinary creations.  One such opportunity that Spinnakers has led the way with in North America is the malt vinegar brewery which takes beers such a Scottish ale, India pale ale, barley wines, porters & stouts and even Belgian ales, turning them into malt vinegar by traditional and  forced aeration methods.  These are the vinegars that we sprinkle on fish and chips, employ as the base for a soup, sauce or gravy, use as the basis for a vinaigrette, use to replace the acid typically derived from citrus sources for squeezing on raw oysters or for marinating ceviche.  Compared with commercially produced vinegars they are like craft beers to industrial lagers, full of natural flavours and character.

Pubs are places for people to share stories and Spinnakers has certainly been home to many characters and the stories they evoke.  Whether it was the crew of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Princess Marguerite, who conspired to weld the Johnson Street (Blue) Bridge shut so that they would not miss last call on their daily return from Seattle, or the crew from the space shuttle Discovery, who carried some northern brewer hops aboard their 42^nd flight and provided them to us so that we could brew Discovery Ale, hosting the flight crew with the commander tapping the cask of the first beer dry hopped with hops that had been to outer space and back, Spinnakers has become home to a great many people and the stories they tell.

We invite you to join us and share a few of your stories and become another one of ours.

Cheers!