Arts
About the Guest: Joe Wiebe, the “Thirsty Writer,” is the author of Craft Beer Revolution: The Insider’s Guide to B.C. Breweries, the definitive guidebook to British Columbia’s burgeoning craft beer industry, currently in its second edition. The first edition of Craft Beer Revolution was a B.C. bestseller for 2013 and won the Gourmand Award for Best Beer Book in Canada. The completely revised and updated second edition released in March 2015 includes profiles of 90 breweries compared to 50 in the version that came out just two years earlier. Joe has been a freelance writer for 20 years, writing hundreds of articles on a wide range of subjects including arts and culture, sports, business and travel, but since 2008 he has mainly written about craft beer in publications including British Columbia magazine, Sip Northwest, BeerAdvocate, BCBusiness, The Growler, WestWorld, Beer West, Taps, Publican, NUVO, Taste, Alive, Westjet magazine and Boulevard. Joe is a co-founder and Beer Director of Victoria Beer Week, which takes place annually in early March, and the BC Ale Trail project, for which he is the Content Manager. He produced the Victoria Beer Map and is the beer columnist for CBC Radio’s All Points West program and often appears on other radio and TV shows as a craft beer expert. He emceed the Canadian Brewing Awards in 2016 and the Business of Craft Beer conference several times, and regularly hosts panel discussions on craft beer. Joe presents beer seminars in venues throughout British Columbia and leads a monthly beer tasting session in Victoria. He acts as a beer judge for the Okanagan Fest of Ale and the BC Beer Awards, and hosts visiting media on tours of the craft beer scene in British Columbia. Follow him on Twitter, and on Facebook.