Britannia Brewing Company is located in Richmond BC and has only recently opened. This brewery has taken a much different approach than most as their brewery is located in Eastern Richmond while their Restaurant and tasting room is located in West Richmond in the Village of Steveston.
Starting with the Tasting room / restaurant.
Located on the main drag across the street from the waterfront in Steveston you wont get a much better location for a tasting room. This is a fairly small restaurant that acts as the tasting room for Britannia Brewing. They have picked a fairly stark white colour scheme with small notes of natural wood to counterpoint the white. The beer is tasting pretty darn good right now and they had 4 of their own, one collaboration with Big Ridge Brewing and a guest tap. I found the price of the brunch to be a bit steep when I was there but the food was very tasty.
Leaving Steveston Village I stopped into the brewery itself which is hidden in the area near Fuggles & Warlock Craftworks. Currently the brewery does not have the licensing to sell beer or growler fills so there is no reason for the average person to stop in. For me though I am always more interested in checking out where the beer is actually made. In the first photo you can see the grain mill that his located to the right of the bags of grain in the second photo. The next two photos are views of the brew house. Photo 5 shows the plate chiller beside the brew house that is used to reduce the heat of beer before sending it to the fermentors. The next two photos are of the tank farm. The tank farm currently consists of 2 10HL tanks with one 20HL tank and one bright tank if I remember correctly. Photo 8 is a view from the back of the brewery looking towards the front. It gives and idea of just how small this space is. Photo 9 gives a view of the elevated platform that houses the boiler. This is really advantageous in the summer as heat rises and does not bring the temperature of the brewery up. Photo 11 is of the test batch brew house. Photo 12 is of their brand new packaged product that will be going out to stores asap. The last photo shows taps that are plumed with the hope that they get licensed to sell growler fills and glasses of beer in the future.
While I am not a big fan of having the brewery and the taproom separate I am happy with what Britannia Brewing Company is doing so far and I look forward to what the future has to offer.
Britannia Brewing Company
http://www.bbco.ca/
Taproom
Unit 250 - 12240 2nd Avenue
Richmond, British Columbia V7E 3L8
(604) 270-9252
BreweryUnit 110-12500 Horseshoe Way
Richmond, British Columbia