Phoenix Brewery / Phoenix Brewery Co.

The brewery that lost the merger and won the building. Phoenix ran from 1868, became Phoenix Brewery Co. in 1891, and merged into Victoria Brewing and Ice in 1893 — the combined firm took the Victoria-Phoenix name and brewed until 1954. But the City of Victoria Archives identifies the Phoenix plant itself as the site later operated as Lucky Lager and then Labatt's. The name did not go with the independence, though — the merged firm traded as the Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Company, and the 1895 Williams' Official BC Directory lists it that way on page 304. So Phoenix lost its company in 1893 and kept its name for another sixty-one years, while the plant it left behind went on making beer for most of a century under other people's.

1. 1868
   Phoenix Brewery opens

   Founded a decade after Victoria's first brewery.

2. 1891
   Phoenix Brewery Co.

   Reorganised under a company name.

3. 1893
   Merged away

   Absorbed into Victoria Brewing and Ice, forming Victoria-Phoenix.

4. 1959
   The plant brews on

   City of Victoria Archives identifies the former Phoenix plant as later Lucky Lager and Labatt's.

1. 1868Founded
2. 1893Merged away

   Absorbed into Victoria Brewing and Ice, forming Victoria-Phoenix.

Sources

1. recordProbable

   Brewery record taken from Tally's British Columbia master, Pass 57, which cited https://www.sfu.ca/archives/archives-program/research/bc-beer-history-archive/bc-beer-history-archive-resources/timeline-pre-prohibition.html for this entry. The cited page has not been opened by the archive.

   Tally's British Columbia master, Pass 57 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026

   CommercialMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-19Reviewed 2026-08-19
2. historyProbable

   Lineage dates from SFU's BC Beer History Archive as recorded in BC Pass 57: 1868, 1891, 1893, 1959.

   Tally's British Columbia master, Pass 57 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026

   CommercialMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-19Reviewed 2026-08-19
3. tallysTakeConfirmed

   The Phoenix name survived the 1893 merger: the combined business traded as the Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Company, per the 1895 Williams' Official BC Directory, page 304. This corrects an earlier statement on this page that the name was gone by 1893 — a claim that also contradicted the archive's own Victoria-Phoenix record. Correction supplied by the City of Victoria Archives.

   Williams' Official British Columbia Directory, 1895 · Williams · 1895

   PrimaryHigh reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-20Reviewed 2026-08-20

Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.