Straight to the Pint taps those on the frontlines of our booming local craft-beer industry for stories about their biggest brewing successes, dream vacation spots, and which brand was always in the family fridge.

Who are you?

My name is Jack Bensley and I’m the brewmaster at Main Street Brewing Co.

Your Dad's favourite beer

Whatever the last batch of homebrew was. Dad and I still make time to brew 38 litres of something tasty every now and again in my garage.

First go-to brand

My formative beer-drinking years were in Victoria in the mid-’90s. There was a lot of Swans and Spinnakers consumed, with the bottled go-to being Vancouver Island Brewing’s Hermann’s dark lager.

Life-changing beer

Black Sheep Bitter on cask. My parents took my wife and I on a trip to Yorkshire and Northumberland (where I was born and my family is from). Drinking superbly kept real ale in a proper U.K. pub opened my eyes not just to real ale but also to flavourful low-ABV beer. Needless to say, the pub atmosphere didn’t hurt the experience either.

Dream destination

Islay, Scotland, for all of my favourite whisky, and Bamberg, Germany, to drink Rauchbier at Aecht Schlenkerla. It looks like I may be able to knock one of these off my list this year!

First beer brewed

Some kind of extract stout from a kit while I was at university. My birthday is really late in the year, so I may or may not have been of age at the time…

Crowning achievement

Being a part of building this brewery from nothing to where it sits now. We’ve just doubled our production for the second time in the two years since we’ve been open, and sales continue to skyrocket.

I’d love a beer with

My granddad. He was the first person I shared a proper beer with while staying with him in the U.K. at 11 years old. He was a funny, interesting guy and I’d love to have one more pint with him.