Just in Time for Spring, Beer Bike Tours Pedal Into B.C.

Feel the wind in your hair as you make your way from one craft brewery to another in Metro Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna.

There are a number of ways to tour the high population of craft breweries and microbreweries in Metro Vancouver (by foot and guide-equipped bus being just two of them), but by bike has to win for being the most fun and time efficient. Not only is cycling good for you (endorphins!) and convenient (designated bike routes!), it’s also an easy way for you to clear your head before your next brew stop in case you’ve had one too many sips of that much-stronger-than-it-has-any-business-being Flanders Red Ale.

Luckily for B.C.ers, Canadian Craft Tours is making it even easier for imbibers to go from brewery to brewery by two wheels this spring with the recent introduction of its guided beer bike tours. Now available for booking in North Vancouver, the jaunt involves a 15-passenger cycle bike—equipped with a rain/sun roof, seatbelts and steering wheel—that takes participants to three breweries in two hours.

“They’re so much fun,” says Joscelyn Werner, sales and marketing lead at Canadian Craft, which offers a range of guided brewery, wine and food tours by minibus and foot in cities across Western Canada. “We can’t wait to be able to do something with our guests that’s outdoors.”

The cycle bikes’ seats are arranged around a bar-top table and each one is positioned above its own pair of pedals. (You may have seen similar models rolling around cities like Portland.) A Canadian Craft guide will drive the bike by steering, braking and controlling the headlights and turning signals, so participants may enjoy a beer or three without worry.

However, drinking while on the bikes is not permitted.“In B.C., it’s probably going to be a while until that is a possibility,” saysWerner.

The beer bike tours in North Vancouver include stops at breweries and brew pubs like Streetcar Brewing, Tap and Barrel and House of Funk Brewing Co. (Canadian Craft is also working on a wine bike tour for this area that will spotlight businesses like The Gull Bar and Kitchen and Finch and Barley.) Beer bike tour launches in Kelowna, Victoria and Port Moody will follow in May.

A rollout in Calgary is also scheduled, though beer bike tours in that city are already available through another company.

The 15-passenger cycle bikes are custom-made in Europefor Canadian Craft. Werner says the company has plans to expand the fleetshould the beer bike tours prove successful. “We’re going to see how these onesgo, but we definitely want to have them in more cities eventually,” she says.

Canadian Craft’s guided beer bike tours are available for daily public tours and private parties. Prices range from $35 to $45 a person online.