Throwback Thursday is a weekly online feature where we look back at an archived issue of the Straight to rediscover old stories and stir up a little nostalgia. 

In the Straight’s June 28 – July 5, 2012 issue, Tony Montague writes about the “hopping” craft beer scene in Mount Pleasant in a story called East Van beer renaissance. The tagline for the story reads, “With a new brewery in the works and Portland Craft restaurant now open, Main Street is the centre of a craft beer revival”.

In the story, the writer speaks with Nigel Pike, owner-operator of Mount Pleasant’s Cascade Room. (Pike, pictured on the issue's cover, also owns Main Street Brewing Company, El Caminos, and the Union). He delves into the history of the area, speaking of a pre-prohibition era East Side that was once referred to as Brewery Creek. Running from Main Street and 49^th Avenue to the banks of False Creek, it is touted as the original location of Vancouver’s brewing industry.

Prior to the banning of all alcoholic products in 1916, both the Vancouver Brewery and Ye Olde Brewery Garage were located in the neighbourhood in the early 1900s. (How no East Van beer aficionados have thought to reopen Ye Old Garage yet is beyond me).

“Before long there’ll be craft breweries here popping up right, left, and centre,” Pike predicted in the story.

Little did Montague know how thirsty Vancouverites would eventually become for unique, locally made brews. At the time, R&B was the area’s only brewery, but in three short years, at least four more have sprung up and now call Mount Pleasant home, including 33 Acres, Brassneck, Main Street, and Steel Toad, with Red Truck and Big Rock not far off.

More than 100 years later, it looks like Brewery Creek has made a triumphant return.

And the return isn’t limited to Mount Pleasant, or even East Van. Since January 1, 2013, the number of breweries in Vancouver has more than doubled, now totaling 25. Great beer can be found throughout the Lower Mainland too, with even more options in areas like Delta, Surrey, New Westminster, and the Tri-cities.

Whether it was demand from Vancouverites or the relaxing of liquor laws in March 2013 that fueled the explosion of the city’s microbreweries, the verdict is in: our overwhelming selection of craft beer is doing more than making our trips to the liquor store more difficult—it’s giving the people that like to refer to our little corner of the world as “No Fun City” a run for their money.

Looks like Mike Usinger’s new feature, Straight to the Pint, won’t be running out of interview subjects anytime soon.