Tour de Suds: Ski Magazine spotlights BC Ale Trail
The BC Ale Trail leads, often indirectly, to the province’s best breweries. Lucky for you, some of these happen to be in ski towns.
The Powder Highway isn’t actually one highway, and British Columbia’s Ale Trail isn’t really a trail. Both meander their way up, down, and around the mountain ranges that define B.C.’s landscape. But since skiing and après-ski beer go together like a boot in a binding, it’s fitting that the Powder Highway and BC Ale Trail overlap. Fitting—and great fun (as long as your road trip has a sober driver). Just don’t expect to travel in a straight line.
Our powder-meets-ale tour starts in Revelstoke. A local with a Ph.D. in nuclear physics launched Mt. Begbie Brewery in 1996, more than a decade before the debut of Revelstoke Mountain Resort. In 2017, Mt. Begbie—now with a big new tasting room—was named Canadian Craft Brewery of the year, and its Kölsch won World Beer Awards gold.
Next, Canada’s eastbound Highway 1 goes up and over the Selkirks at Rogers Pass, slicing through Glacier National Park. In Golden, dry snow coats the ridgelines of Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. At popular Whitetooth Brewing, a four-vessel system supports Belgian styles like witbier and dubbel plus West Coast microbrew standards like IPA and stout.
