Ale-tercation brewing at Vancouver beer house over decade-old mural

There's conflict brewing at one of Vancouver's most storied craft breweries.

Storm Brewing on Commercial Drive one of the first microbreweriesto open in the city, in 1994 posted to social media earlier this week saying that it's been informed that the iconic mural on the side of its building is in contravention of Vancouver bylaws.

General manager Mike Crozier told CBC News that the city informed the brewery that the artwork didn't abide by Vancouver's mural guidelines.

"At the end of May, we received a letter from our building manager [telling us] that we required mural permits for the murals we had outside. We didn't really think anything of it. I thought it would just be doing some paperwork and giving them some money, and then it would go away," Crozier said.

"Unfortunately, when I started to figure out what permits we needed, we were told that we had to paint over our mural because it had beer and branding So because it had those two aspects in it, it didn't follow the guidelines [for the city] murals."

Crozier said the letter came as a surprise a brewed awakening, as it were to both him and Storm Brewing owner James Walton. The mural has covered the outside walls of the brewery since 2014.

In a statement, the City of Vancouver said the mural is unpermitted, and bylaw officers became aware of its existence as part of a regular patio program review.

The city's mural program, which has been in place since 1988, requires all murals in the city to be permitted.

The guidelines say "elements of advertising, promotion, signage, branding, or product placement for a business" are ineligible for the program.

Crozier said that appears to be the crux of the problem with the current mural the fact that it includes the word Storm, along with artistic depictions of beer and rats (which are part of the business's branding).

He said he thinks the mural should be regarded differently from a normal sign advertising a place of business and he's hoping the city reconsiders the bylaw, not only as it relates to this mural but as a whole.

"It's not realistic, and it's very black and white, where I think there should be exceptions especially for a lot of the small businesses. If you drive around most of the city after reading the bylaws, you realize most of these places are breaking them," he said.

"I don't want them to be enforced. I want the bylaw to be changed so that [those businesses] don't have to deal with this as well."

Councillor supports mural

Storm Brewing's social media post received dozens of supportive replies, including from city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, who told CBC News she paid the brewery a visit on Thursday to discuss the matter.

Kirby-Yung described the mural as "beloved and iconic."

"They are, I think, trying to wrap their heads around why this would even be an issue. They have people that come not just locals, but people that come from all over the world, to take pictures with the mural, and I think they were really taken aback by the level of support," she said.

"But also the fact that this mural has been there for 10 years. And as I said, it's not hurting anybody. It's a great piece of public art, and they're just kind of shaking their heads."

Kirby-Yung plans to propose changes to the mural program at next week's city council meeting and wants to look at potentially grandfathering Storm Brewing into those changes so that the mural can remain untouched.

"I think one of the considerations is going to be: what's the difference between signage and public art? We want to uphold the sanctity of that. We don't want to have advertising posters around the city," she said.

"But what I'm looking to change in the bylaw is really the ability for self-expression for individual businesses on their own premises."

The City of Vancouver told CBC News that Storm Brewing has not received any fines or tickets.

"The city has been in contact with the property owner and awaits their application for a permit. We look forward to working with them to bring the mural into compliance," a spokesperson said.