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Archive record · Brewery

Victoria Brewery / Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Co.

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Also known as Victoria Brewery, Victoria Brewing and Ice Co., Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Co.

Closed · 1954Ownership unknownMicrobrewery
Founded
1858
Closed
1954
Archive ID
TB-VCJJ0J5A
Last checked
Not yet checked

Who owns this brewery?

Not yet establishedNot yet established

The archive is still digging. That is a gap in the research, not a finding of independence.

Know who owns it? Tell us, and we will correct the record.

01

From the record

Summary

SFU Archives dates the lineage: Victoria Brewery 1858-1891, Victoria Brewing and Ice 1891-1893, Victoria-Phoenix 1893-1954. This is treated as one continuity lineage rather than three unrelated breweries.

A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.

Tally’s Take

Victoria's first brewery and the one that outlasted everything else: ninety-six years under three names. It opened in 1858, the year the Fraser River gold rush turned a Hudson's Bay fort into a port city, and it grew by absorbing rivals rather than outselling them — Victoria Brewery to 1891, Victoria Brewing and Ice to 1893, then Victoria-Phoenix after the merger with the Phoenix Brewery, running until 1954. The archive keeps it as one lineage rather than three breweries, because that is how SFU's BC beer history archive dates it and how the business itself behaved.

Ownership & corporate history

  1. Merged into Coast Breweries Ltd.1928
    What the sources say

    Evans (Victoria Historical Society newsletter, Summer 2007): Coast Breweries was formed by Robert Fiddes and Associates to hold the assets of Silver Spring and Victoria-Phoenix and two other breweries. Corroborated by the BC registry (OrgBook): Victoria Phoenix Brewing Company Limited (QE0003080) and Coast Breweries Limited (BC0005558) both carry a status credential dated 26 January 1928. CONTRADICTION kept: BC Archives' Labatt fonds dates Coast Breweries to 1921.

Ownership history is kept as dated events, so a change of owner never overwrites the one before it.

02

The Museum

Timeline

  1. 1858
    Victoria Brewery opens

    The city's first brewery, in the year the Fraser gold rush made Victoria a port.

  2. 1891
    Victoria Brewing and Ice

    Continues under a new name; ice was as saleable as beer before refrigeration.

  3. 1893
    Merger with Phoenix

    Absorbs the Phoenix Brewery Co. and becomes Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Co.

  4. 1928
    Into Coast Breweries Ltd.

    Evans (Victoria Historical Society, 2007): Coast Breweries was formed by Robert Fiddes and Associates to hold the assets of Victoria-Phoenix, Silver Spring and two other breweries. The BC registry shows Victoria Phoenix Brewing Company Limited and Coast Breweries Limited each with a status credential dated 26 January 1928.

  5. 1954
    Closed

    Ends a continuous ninety-six-year run, the longest in Victoria brewing.

  6. 1954
    Owner renamed Lucky Lager Breweries

    Evans (2007): "In 1954, Coast Breweries Ltd. became Lucky Lager Breweries." A change of the owner's name, which may be what this record's 1954 closure year actually marks.

  7. 1982
    Government Street plant demolished

    Unknown Victoria (2008): Labatt "decided in 1982 to move its production to the mainland, and tear the old building down." CHEK News also reports the demolition in 1982. Contradicts the 1954 closure year above; see the disputed claim.

04

The Beer Library

Beers

Phoenix Export Lager

Historical

Export Lager

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Jack O’Hearts Pale Export Beer

Historical

Pale Export Beer

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XXX Colonial Ale

Historical

Ale

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What the archive does not know yet

Open questions

  • DisputedclosedClosure year DISPUTED. This record gives 1954, from the SFU Archives timeline. Three secondary sources (Unknown Victoria, 2008; CHEK News; Wikipedia's Lucky Lager article) say the Government Street plant kept brewing under Lucky Lager and then Labatt until 1982, when it was demolished. 1954 is also the year Coast Breweries Ltd., the owner since 1928, was renamed Lucky Lager Breweries (Evans, 2007). A primary source is needed before either year is chosen. Also unresolved: whether Labatt bought the business in 1957 (CHEK) or 1958 (Evans; Wikipedia).

Know the answer? Write to [email protected] with a source, and the record is corrected and credited to you.

08

Show your working

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 reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-19
    Claim last checked 2026-08-19
  2. historyProbable

    Lineage dates from SFU's BC Beer History Archive as recorded in BC Pass 57: 1858, 1891, 1893, 1954.

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

    CommercialMedium reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-19
    Claim last checked 2026-08-19
  3. closedDisputed

    Closure year DISPUTED. This record gives 1954, from the SFU Archives timeline. Three secondary sources (Unknown Victoria, 2008; CHEK News; Wikipedia's Lucky Lager article) say the Government Street plant kept brewing under Lucky Lager and then Labatt until 1982, when it was demolished. 1954 is also the year Coast Breweries Ltd., the owner since 1928, was renamed Lucky Lager Breweries (Evans, 2007). A primary source is needed before either year is chosen. Also unresolved: whether Labatt bought the business in 1957 (CHEK) or 1958 (Evans; Wikipedia).

    Victoria Historical Society — Brewery consolidation history

    ScholarlyMedium reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-23
    Claim last checked 2026-10-01

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.

09

Straight answers

Common questions about Victoria Brewery / Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Co.

Is Victoria Brewery / Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Co. still open?
No. Victoria Brewery / Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Co. has closed (1954). SFU Archives dates the lineage: Victoria Brewery 1858-1891, Victoria Brewing and Ice 1891-1893, Victoria-Phoenix 1893-1954. This is treated as one continuity lineage rather than three unrelated breweries.
When was Victoria Brewery / Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Co. founded?
Victoria Brewery / Victoria-Phoenix Brewing Co. was founded in 1858 in Victoria, Canada.
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