With the weather expected to be awful I decided not to go for a hike on the weekend and instead pulled my bike out of storage. I parked my car at Horseshoe Bay and hit the ferry to Nanaimo.
The ride to Longwood Brewery is not all that far from the terminal but is up hill for a good portion.
Walking through the door you will find a small tasting room where you can sample the beer before you get a growler fill, tall cans or bombers of their beer. The staff is really friendly and helpful with lots of knowledge about the beer they are serving. They have 6 different taps with at least one being a seasonal beer. Sadly like most of Vancouver Island they are not licensed to sell you glasses of beer and only serve small samples.
I was able to set up a tour of the brewery the day before heading over luckily. The brew house itself had to be specially made to fit underneath the mezzanine above it. On the mezzanine you find their grain storage and grain mill. Right beside the brew house you find their small tank farm. Over from their you find their canning line and bottling machine. The brewery recently took over the space beside them so they now have a large storage area that could take over packaging in the future to make room for more tanks.
No matter if you are on the Island or Mainland head to your local liquor store and pick up some of Longwood Brewery’s beer. That is of course unless you find yourself near Nanaimo then make sure to stop in to pick up their beer!
Longwood Brewery
http://www.longwoodbeer.com/
101A-2046 Boxwood Road
Nanaimo, BC V9S 5W7
250-591-BREW (2739)
Mike's Craft Beer 
[…] stopping in at Longwood Brewery I headed to where it all began at Longwood Brew Pub & Restaurant at the other end of Nanaimo. […]
What a neat idea.
Its funny, had you waited until the 8th of Sept, rumor has it that BC Ferries is slashing walk-on pricing in half.
At least you have an excuse to do this again.
I hike on weekends usually but with a nasty storm rolling through Metro Vancouver it would have been a bad time to be in the forest and there would be no views. I had not been on my bike in months but wanted a destination. I am also trying to do brewery tours of every single brewery in BC. Going to be hard but I have a good portion done already! The island is one area that I have not been to many as of yet.
Click here to find other BC Breweries
https://mikescraftbeer.com/bc-breweries/