Love Local: A Shopping Guide
Mid Island Liquor is proud to carry so many incredible local products!
We’ve rounded up some of our favourite Vancouver Island and BC-based brewers, distillers, and beverage makers to highlight the best local brews available at Mid Island Liquor locations.
Vancouver Island — Beer
Wolf Brewing: Located in the heart of Nanaimo, Wolf Brewing mixes the Vancouver Island lifestyle with traditional European brewing styles to create the best of both worlds. Wolf’s brews are the perfect companion for all of your outdoor adventures.
Longwood Brewing: Nanaimo based and describing themselves as “obsessively local”, Longwood Brewing Co. takes pride in using locally farmed ingredients in their brews, with the majority of their barley and hops coming from BC. Recently, they’ve partnered with The Whale Interpretive Centre to help raise funds to rebuild the centre after a devastating fire.
Mount Arrowsmith Brewing: Based in Parksville on beautiful Vancouver Island, Mount Arrowsmith Brewing was created to meet the community’s demand for high-quality, locally-crafted beer. Having already lived and worked in the area for three generations, the Hill family took it upon themselves to meet this demand.
Hoyne Brewing: With a storied history dating back to the 70s, Hoyne officially opened in 2011 and quickly grew throughout its hometown of Victoria. Soon after the company brought in larger tanks and expanded their product offerings to share with happy customers across Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, and the rest of British Columbia.
Driftwood Brewery: Innovative and fun, high-quality and handcrafted, Driftwood brewery is the poster child for craft beer. Started in 2007 in Victoria, Driftwood has stayed true to their southern Vancouver Island roots as more people have discovered their delicious brews.
Phillips Brewing & Malting: From humble beginnings in a tiny apartment in Esquimalt, to becoming one of the most beloved breweries in BC, Phillips Brewing Co. has built their success on consistency and quality.
British Columbia — Beer
Steamworks Brewing: Opened in 2013, Steamworks brews their iconic offerings in their Burnaby brewery, with tap and kitchen locations in Gastown, Mount Pleasant, and North Shore. Their carefully curated selection celebrates the history of beer making in the Vancouver area with inventive artwork and nods to historic events.
Stanley Park Brewing: Born from a love of the outdoors and a passion for exploration, Stanley Park Brewing is located in Vancouver’s iconic Stanley Park. From IPAs to sours, to each of Stanley Park’s Award Winning brews represent a tasty tribute to BC’s west coast lifestyle.
Balderdash Brewing: Best known for their Sneaky Weasel beer, Balderdash is a well-known and well-loved brewery based out of Vancouver. Their goal is to create delicious craft beers at a great price and have fun while doing it.
Red Truck Brewing: “Built on the values of simpler times”, this Vancouver-based brewery has three loves: hard work, red trucks, and cracking open a cold, delicious beer.
Vancouver Island — Ciders, Coolers, Cocktails
The Strait & Narrow: Victoria-based and inspired by the West Coast, Strait & Narrow cocktails are crafted with custom spirits made by in-house distillers. With unique flavours you won’t find anywhere else, the company prioritizes using locally-sourced Vancouver Island and BC ingredients including rosemary, lavender, and rhubarb.
Merridale Cidery: This family-owned orchard in Cobble Hill is crafting refreshing beverages from their own apples. The growing, pressing, fermenting, and bottling processes all happen on site to create the freshest ciders.
Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse: Since 2007, Sea Cider has been crafting traditionally fermented ciders from 50 varieties of organically grown apples, harvested from 1,300 trees. With 16,000 cases produced annually, every bottle delivers the taste from their Saanichton orchard right to your glass.
British Columbia — Ciders, Coolers, Cocktails
Hey Y’all: Inspired by southern sweetened iced tea, this Canadian-owned company has been brewing their hard ice teas from real black tea leaves since 2014. Now introducing hard lemonades, the Vancouver-based brand continues to offer new and exciting products.
Nude Beverages: Founded in Vancouver with the goal to be the best-tasting low calorie drink in the market, Nude offers a selection of unsweetened vodka soda beverages. Through their #pawsofnude program, Nude donates a portion of all sales towards local animal rescue organizations in each area their products are sold.
Olé Cocktails: A producer and retailer of non-alcoholic cocktails and mocktails based in Vancouver, Canada. The cocktails are made with premium quality blue weber agave tequila from Jalisco, México, real fruit juices, organic agave nectar, and a pinch of sea salt. The company's canned Paloma and Margarita are some of our faves!
Vancouver Island —Wines
Unsworth Vineyards: Built by the Turyk family and named in honor of Tim Turyk’s mother, Unsworth winery in the Cowichan Valley thrives in a perfect climate for winemaking. Across 10 acres of carefully cultivated grape varieties, they handcraft wines that reflect the rich history and vibrant terroir of this special place.
Alderlea Vineyards: Zac and Julie took over Duncan's Alderlea Vineyards in April 2017, from Roger and Nancy Dosman whose strong vision for an island vineyard and skilled winemaking made Alderlea one of the pioneers in Vancouver Island winegrowing.
40 Knots Winery: Nestled in the Comox Valley, 40 Knots crafts exceptional wines and ciders from sustainably farmed vineyards and orchards across Vancouver Island. With a deep commitment to excellence, they bring coastal flavours to every bottle.
Blue Grouse Estate Winery: As the second-ever licensed winery on Vancouver Island, Blue Grouse carved the way for Vancouver Island winemaking. The Duncan-based winery blends tradition with sustainability, crafting high quality products while using Eco-Glass bottle to reduce carbon emissions.
Church & State Winery: Originally established on Vancouver Island in 2004, Church and State have added an additional 80 acres in the Okanagan Valley to produce even more of their delicious blends. Each bottle is BC VQA and contains 100% BC-grown grapes, highlighting truly the best of the region.
Vancouver Island — Spirits
Stillhead Distillery: Crafting small-batch whiskies, gins, vodka, and brandy in Duncan, Stillhead showcases Vancouver Island’s flavours with wild-picked berries, locally farmed rhubarb, and aging in Cowichan Valley wine barrels. We love Stillhead so much we partnered with them to create an exclusive single-cask rye whisky!
Sheringham Distillery: Winner of one of the world’s biggest gin competitions, Sheringham Distillery infuses West Coast culture into every bottle. Partnering with local artisans like Westholme Tea, Sirene Chocolate, and Victoria Lavender Farm, they craft spirits that celebrate the rich heritage and flavours of Vancouver Island.
Arbutus Distillery: Fermented, distilled, and bottled in Nanaimo, Arbutus Distillery spirits are crafted from 100% BC-grown fermentables, with many botanicals grown on-site. Inspired by folklore, myths, and the occult, each bottle created is a tribute to the magical world of distillation.
Shelter Point Distillery: Founded in 2011 in Campbell River, Shelter Point’s award-winning single malt whiskies are crafted with the finest BC-grown two-row barley. Every bottle utilizes slow fermentation and double distillation, resulting in a product that’s renowned worldwide.
Shop these and other amazing local products at our 17 locations across Vancouver Island!