Located at the corner of Mainland and Helmcken, Yaletown Brewing Company has been in business since 1994, and it’s one of my favorite brewpubs. Their website claims that it’s “Vancouver’s original and best Brewpub.” I can’t say that claim is true, since there are so many good brewpubs around here, but I’ve been going to Yaletown Brewing Company regularly since Spring of 2003, and I still have a long way to go before I start getting tired of it.

It’s good to go there almost anytime, except for late Friday and Saturday nights when it’s standing room only (unless you like that kind of thing), but I really recommend stopping by on Sunday. Sunday is the day when they have cheap pints of beer and cheap pizza.

Outside Yaletown Brewing Company

Special prices for beer and pizza on Sundays

Normally, their pizzas can range in price from $12.99 – $14.99, but on Sundays, you pay just $8 per pizza, and pints are just $4.50 each (tax included).

The most important thing to me, though, is the beer, and YBC has lots of good stuff. As I usually do when I go to a brewpub, I ordered a sampler of all their different beers. At YBC, it’s called “The Flight.”

The 7 beers of "The Flight"

As usual, when you get a taster round of beers at a brewpub, they give you a placemat, or in this case a reference card, so you can keep track of what you’re drinking. I ordered mine a few minutes after arriving, and it wasn’t long before I had my 7 6-ounce glasses set up in front of me.

The beer menu

Copied directly from their menu, here is a list of all the beers available at Yaletown Brewing Company:

Brick & Beam IPA First brewed for the colonial British in India, oak casks of IPA survived in the holds of ships sailing through the Indian Ocean. Since hops and alcohol help to preserve beer, it had lots of both. Although it isn’t aged in oak, ours has a powerful hop character.
Downtown Brown This real North Country brown ale is all about malt flavours using hops only as a balance to the smooth roast nut character
Mainland Lager A light straw colored lager brewed with Canadian prairie malt and hops imported from Germany and the Czech Republic. This is an exceptionally refreshing and quaffable beer.
Hills Special Wheat In Bavaria this style of beer is called Hefeweizen. Brewed with a unique yeast it is cloudy with refreshing spicy and fruity character.
Helmcken Black & Tan We have combined the smooth chocolaty character of our Stout with the fine hop flavour or our Pale Ale. The result is a careful marriage of flavours and aromas in this classic pub style favourite.
Warehouse Stout This rich, round and smooth ale has flavours of roast coffee, chocolate and smoke. It is brewed with oats to create a silky smooth texture and a firm body.
Nagila Pale Ale One of the most brewed styles in the world, Pale Ale usually reflects the place where it is made. With Pacific Northwest hops, Canadian prairie barley, and a traditional English ale yeast, ours is balanced with a depth of malt character and refreshing citrusy hop flavour.

One of the things that really struck me about these beers was the really hoppy character of a couple of them. Normally, you will get one in the set that is pretty bitter, and you know that’s the IPA. In this case, there is an IPA that I thought tasted even more bitter than your average one, and they also have an ale, called the Nagila Pale Ale, that I almost mistook for the IPA a couple of times because of its betterness.

Sometimes, you might get 8 glasses instead of 7, depending on how many beers they have available at the time. During the year, they brew a variety of special seasonal beers, as well, including one of my all-time favourites: the Raspberry Wheat.

Oh yeah, they also have what is called Cask Night, which takes place every Thursday beginning at 4:00 pm. That is when they open a special cask of beer that has been brewed in a small batch, and it changes every week.

The food

Their food menu is also pretty good, offering a variety of appetizers, sandwiches, salads, pastas, and pizzas. When we go on Sundays, though, we always just stick to the pizzas because they are so tasty and cheap. They have 10 kinds of pizzas to choose from, my favorites being the BBQ Chicken, BBQ Beef, and The Johnny Mac.

You can get these for just $8 each on Sunday

I was there with a group of 10, so we ordered one of every kind, and they all arrived within a few minutes of each other. Everything was really good. The only problem was with the way some of the pizzas were cut, but it worked in my favor when I grabbed a piece of the BBQ Beef pizza, and it was the size of 1/3 of the pizza.

We tried every kind of pizza.

One more thing  I should mention about Yaletown Brewing Company is that it is divided into 2 sections: on the left side is the pub section, and on the right side is the restaurant section. The difference in atmosphere between the 2 sections is quite big. The pub section looks like your typical pub with a pool table, couches, lots of televisions, tables and chairs scattered around, and dark lighting. You also have to find your own place to sit, which could be difficult during busy times and if you have a group of people with you. The restaurant section, on the other hand, is quite a bit brighter and nicer looking, and you are able to make a reservation. If you’re going there to mainly eat, and you want to be more comfortable, I recommend the restaurant section hands down. The service is also better on that side. Oh, but if you want to see the brewery and the nice real wood-burning fireplace they have there, you will have to stop by the pub section.

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