About Our Brewery

The Brewery at Spinnakers Brewpub was manufactured by SPR in Ramsbottom, near Manchester, England. At the time Spinnakers was developed, there were no manufacturers of micro and pub brewery package plants in North America. The decision to import a packaged plant came as a result of the initial work of John Mitchell in setting up the brewery at the Troller Pub in Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver, where he discovered all too quickly the pitfalls of pieced together used dairy equipment. Spinnakers is still using the original stainless steel plant imported in 1984, although it has been expanded to allow for increases in brewing capacity.

The present configuration of the Spinnakers pub brewery includes a grain storage loft with a holding capacity of 25 tons of bagged malt, a grist mill located in the grain loft with gravity feed into a grist case above the mash tun, an electrically heated brew kettle, 4 computer controlled open fermentation vessels, 7 primary conditioning tanks and 15 secondary conditioning and serving tanks located in a cellar beneath the restaurant bar.

Spinnakers' ales are brewed using a single step infusion mashing process. The malted grains are primarily from Simpson's, an old style malting house in England. Hops are selected from crops grown in the Yakima and Willamette Valleys, and are sometimes offered beside those available from the U.K. or European sources. Brewers yeast has traditionally been selected from the National Yeast Collection in England, and is propagated in-house. Because no filtration is used, yeasts have been selected which will produce naturally bright beers. After appropriate fermentation, our ales are transferred by gravity to the serving cellar where they are hand pumped to the bars above.

A limited amount of beer from each brew is bottled into 22oz. (650ml) brown bottles, and hand labeled with a unique label which is batch numbered and dated. We brew in small batches, bottle in smaller batches and offer our staple beers along with a great selection of seasonal beers.

The Brewers

Spinnakers has been fortunate to have spawned a great lineage of brewers over the past dozen years. Here you will find some of the pioneers of the North American craft brewery movement, people who have been responsible, in very significant ways, for assisting in the establishment of what has become an explosive growth period in the revival of real beer in North America, Asia, and other parts of the world.

John Mitchell
Founding partner and brewer for the first six months. John's name is still carried on an original beer, Mitchell's ESB. The other beers bearing John's distinctive mark include Mt. Tolmie Dark, and Empress Stout. In his 1988 New World Guide to Beer, British author Michael Jackson describes John's ESB as "beautifully balanced, the Mt. Tolmie Dark as a classic strong mild, of which Britain should be envious and the Empress Stout as a model of the style."

Brad McQuhae
Hired by John Mitchell in the Fall of 1984, Brad held the position of Spinnakers brewer for several years until moving on to work in the field of brewery equipment design and manufacturing. Now a principal of Newlands Services, he is involved in new brewery consulting work all over North America, Asia, Japan and Russia.

Michael Tymchuk
Initially hired as a cook shortly after Spinnakers Brewpub opened, Michael was brewer for little over a year in 1987, leaving to pursue brewery development opportunities in Alberta and Saskatchewan. He still works as a brewer in Alberta but finds the time to work with Specific Mechanical Systems of Victoria in their installations particularly in South-East Asia, China, and Russia.

Jake Thomas
Another brewer who emerged from the kitchen of Spinnakers Brewpub, Jake took over under Brad's direction shortly after having attained his Chef's papers in 1988. Jake holds the distinction of having brewed the greatest number of beers, and having brewed some of the most unusual. Many remember the October 1993 Michael Jackson Dinner which featured the likes of a geuze, a rodenbach styled peche, and his classic Old Ales, beer which Jackson recalled as the first of their style this side of the Atlantic.

Barry Ladell
An avid home brewer for many years, Barry found his home in the Spinnakers brewery, in the Spring of 1995. Barry carefully and methodically crafted masterpieces of various classic styles, ranging from Spinnakers famous India Pale Ale, to Tsarist Imperial Stout and Dunkelweizen Brau. Barry moved on to open a new microbrewery in the North of Vancouver Island in the spring of 1999.

Lon Ladell
With a passion for the craft, Lon began in 1996 and has to date, produced some of Spinnakers finest ales. Lon pursued brewing opportunities in France in the Fall of 1999.

Lon Ladell and Matt Phillips
Prior to the departure of Lon Ladell (left), Matt Phillips (right) joined Spinnakers in the Spring of 1999. Cohesively they applied their knowledge, continuing the house tradition of furthering quality and consistency. Matt brought forward his skill set and expertise, taking Spinnakers into a new era of brewing, exploring new beer styles and influences. As Lon moved abroad, Matt was key to moving Spinnakers ales and lagers into new markets.

Rob Monk

Rob Monk's career in the brewing industry started at the Yukon brewing company in 2000. During his time at Yukon Brewing Rob learned the fundamentals of brewing and moved up to the position of Crew Chief. When Rob moved to Victoria in 2002 he started as a part time employee at Spinnakers brew house. With 7 years of experience under his belt Rob became Head Brewer in January 2007. He says his main focus is "upholding the high standard of brewing that Spinnakers has. There are a lot of great brewers that have come through these doors, and it is a privilege to be a Head Brewer at Spinnakers."

Today, Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub & Guesthouses is proud to have Rob Monk as Head Brewer. With the assistance of Tommy Grant and Doug Foss, Rob applies his knowledge and diverse methodologies to a craft range of ales and lagers in line with the Spinnakers tradition. Brewing with only whole hops and the purest ingredients, their work is at the forefront of the brewing art.