There’s a New Buoy in Town

Whistle Buoy Brewing Company, a locally owned craft brewery and taproom, is now open in Historic Market Square, Victoria.

Whistle Buoy Brewing Company opened on June 26, 2019. We serve five rotating beers that are made in house and change weekly. We have 51 seats inside and a 57 seat patio in the courtyard of Market Square.
Our space was designed by Studio Roslyn from Vancouver. Our food menu consists of sandwiches and snacks made fresh daily by Little June cafe in Fernwood. We also encourage people to bring in food from outside to enjoy whatever they choose with our beer.

Whistle Buoy is owned and operated by five partners all in their late 20s and early 30s. We all have our own expertise including brewing, marketing, hospitality management, HR, and finance.

Our head brewer, Matt West-Patrick is born and raised in Victoria. He has been studying and working in the brewing industry for the past five years and now has full creative control of his own brewery. He got his brewmaster’s certificate from the World Brewing Academy in Chicago and Munich and brewed at Spinnaker’s for the past few years spending much of his time on the barrel-aged program there. Matt has been preparing for this new chapter and couldn’t be happier that it’s finally happening. According to Matt, “It’s been a dream of mine to make lots of interesting beers and serve them to a small audience in a cool space. We’re now doing exactly that and it’s really exciting for me.”

Whistle Buoy Brewing has a tank to glass model where we focus on making small batches of fresh local beer to serve in our space, or in 32 oz crowler cans to-go.

We were fortunate to take advantage of last year’s zoning bylaw change which allows beer, wine and spirit production to occur in the downtown core, permitting 65% of our floor space is dedicated to a retail component. Our new lounge endorsement license is a very welcomed change from previous rules, which we think will allow Victoria to start offering high-quality craft brewing experiences similar to what is available and flourishing in Vancouver.

Whistle Buoy has a commitment to using local and high-quality ingredients whenever possible, with the desire to have a minimal environmental impact in its operations and promote that concept within the industry.

Our summer hours are: Thur-Sat: Noon-Midnight, Sun-Wed: Noon-11pm, Tues: Closed.
Whistle Buoy is located at
unit 63 – 560 Johnson St, Victoria BC.

Photo Credits:
The Jump by Jeremy Koreski
Interior by Christian Tisdale
Brewers Chatting by Laughing Dog Photography
Whistle Buoy Alley by Jesse Hlady