Canada, BC: Vice & Virtue Brewing Co to shutter for good on December 21

Craft beer lovers in Kelowna only have a few days left to say goodbye to Vice & Virtue Brewing Co, Kelowna Now reported on December 14.

The North End brewery will be shutting its doors for the final time, at least in its current form, on Saturday, Dec. 21.

The ownership group of Matt Wentzell, Denis Shala, Carey Schell, David Paterson and Ryan Fipke has sold the business.

Wentzell told KelownaNow that it’s a “bittersweet time, of course,” as they’ve put a lot of effort and energy into the brewery, or "their baby" as he called it, since opening in the summer of 2018.

"To be quite frank, it's a tough time to be in the beer industry these days,” he said of the reason they decided to sell Vice & Virtue.

Wentzell won’t comment on the new owners, as it’s not his news to share, but expects those details to be revealed by the appropriate party relatively soon.

Since he chatted with KelownaNow, other local media outlets have reported that the nearby Red Bird Brewing is the purchaser, but no official announcement has been made.

What Wentzell could say, however, is that he expects the space to remain a “spot for people to congregate and enjoy delicious beer in the North End.”

“To my knowledge, it’s definitely staying a brewery and a restaurant,” he explained.

And since the sale includes intellectual property like beer recipes, it may not be the end of the road for Love Potion, a Vice & Virtue creation that has become one of the most well-known and popular beers in Kelowna.

“Hopefully the Love Potion will live on,” Wentzell said, adding that the brewery’s “iconic” signature beer was actually a bit of a happy accident.

The recipe for the Raspberry Berliner Weisse, inspired by a brewery in Western Australia, was created by one of the partners in late 2017, a few months before Vice & Virtue was set to open.

It was a perfect beer for their summer launch and they figured it would just be a seasonal offering, but feedback from customers put an end to that notion almost immediately.

“By the end of that first summer…I think it was outselling all of our other beers combined like two to one, so we made the quick decision to make that not a seasonal beer,” Wentzell explained, noting with a laugh that you have to “give the people what they want.”

Although the future of the Vice & Virtue space remains quite cloudy at this time, there are certainly hundreds of beer drinkers in Kelowna hoping that the Love Potion legacy will survive the sale.

For Wentzell and his four partners, the Vice & Virtue journey began long before they opened their doors in July 2018 and long before coming up with the recipe for Love Potion.

"We were just a group of friends making beer on a homebrew system that we fabricated in my buddy's garage,” he said of their first small taste of beer production.

At the time, Kelowna’s brewery scene was nothing like it is now and there were only a small number of establishments.

Tree Beer Institute (now Kelowna Beer Institute) was the original local craft brewery and BNA had just opened its door a couple years earlier, but the North End was still very much in a transition phase.

Shortly after Kettle River Brewing Co. and Red Bird opened their doors, Vice & Virtue did the same to complete the neighbourhood trifecta and really kickstart the movement.

According to Wentzell, when the space came available at 1033 Richter St., they “saw an opportunity and kind of jumped at it.”

Since then, more than six years have gone by and, despite the sudden sale, Vice & Virtue was able to establish itself as a cornerstone brewery in Kelowna.

And as Wentzell reflects on the journey, he’s grateful for all the “amazing people” that were a part of the brewery’s story.

“We’ve been lucky to have so many amazing people work with us as part of our Vice & Virtue team, we’ve had so many amazing regular guests that would come in, essentially the lifeblood of the business,” he said.

“I definitely want to make sure to give all of the people who have ever been a part of Vice & Virtue a very heartfelt thanks. We couldn’t have done this without all of those people.”

Despite the seemingly sudden end, it’s been a great six-year run for Vice & Virtue and we’ll have to wait and see exactly what happens with the space over the coming months.

Only time will tell whether the beloved and iconic Love Potion is part of the purchaser’s future plans.

15 December, 2024