Maple Ridge is not the first place that comes to mind when people talk about Metro Vancouver craft beer, and that is part of what makes visiting here worthwhile. The city sits at the edge of the Fraser Valley, surrounded by working farmland and the foothills of the Coast Mountains, and its breweries reflect that setting more than they imitate the industrial-warehouse taproom template found closer to downtown Vancouver. Some of these operations have been pouring pints for close to a decade. Others are new enough that the paint still smells fresh, including one built directly on land a local farming family has worked for generations.
What ties the scene together is scale and personality. These are small-batch operations where the person pulling your flight is often the same person who brewed it, and where a Tuesday afternoon can mean having the tasting room mostly to yourself. The city and the BC Ale Trail have both taken notice, packaging several of these stops into an official route that also reaches into neighbouring Pitt Meadows. This guide walks through what makes each taproom worth the trip and how to plan a day around them.
Ridge Brewing Company: An Original on Dewdney Trunk
Ridge Brewing Company opened its doors in July 2015, making it one of the earliest craft breweries to set up in Maple Ridge, back when the idea of a dedicated tasting room this far east of Vancouver was still a novelty. The brewery sits on Dewdney Trunk Road and has built its reputation on an open-concept layout that puts the brewhouse in plain view of the tasting room, so visitors can watch tanks and hoses at work while they drink.
The lineup leans toward approachable, food-friendly styles rather than chasing every passing trend, and the tasting room offers flights, pints, growler fills, cans, and kegs to go for anyone who wants to bring a taste of Maple Ridge home. Ridge Brewing does not run a kitchen, but the room is set up for lingering, with a family-friendly atmosphere that has made it a regular stop for locals rather than just a destination for out-of-town visitors.
Community programming is part of what keeps people coming back. The brewery has built a rotation of recurring events including trivia nights and crib tournaments, the kind of low-key, recurring gatherings that turn a brewery into a neighbourhood fixture rather than a one-time novelty. Checking the schedule before a visit is worth doing if a lively room matters to you, since a quiet Monday afternoon and a packed trivia night are very different experiences in the same space.
The Patch Brewery: Beer Grown on a Family Farm
The Patch Brewery is the newest addition to Maple Ridge’s beer scene, having opened in August 2024 on land the Laity family has farmed since 1879. The brewery was developed by brothers Jeff and Doug Laity, working alongside their wives Rebecca and Kate, turning a multi-generational farming operation into one of the first seed-to-sip breweries of its kind in the province, where barley grown on the property and BC-sourced hops go directly into the beer poured a few steps away.
The farm setting shapes the entire visit. The Patch operates alongside the family’s established pumpkin patch, so depending on the season a stop here can mean a pint on a patio surrounded by actual farmland rather than a parking lot, with the kind of unhurried, agricultural backdrop that none of the more urban Metro Vancouver taprooms can offer. Reservations are recommended and generally need to be made a couple of days in advance, since the space and its farm-to-table food program draw steady weekend crowds.
The recognition has followed quickly. The Patch was named Best New Brewery in The Growler’s 2025 Craft Beer and Cider Readers’ Choice Awards, a notable result for a brewery that had been open barely a year at the time, and a strong signal that the farm-grown approach is resonating well beyond the immediate neighbourhood.
Silver Valley Brewing and the Rest of the Local Lineup
Silver Valley Brewing rounds out the Maple Ridge cluster, having opened in 2017 as the newest of the city’s original wave of breweries. Its approach has centred on rich, unfiltered beer styles alongside a food menu built around locally sourced ingredients, a slightly different angle than the open-concept, industrial feel found at some of the city’s other taprooms. As with any small independent business, it is worth confirming current hours before making a special trip, since small-batch breweries can shift schedules or seasonal offerings more often than larger, chain-style operations.
Right across the street from Ridge Brewing on Dewdney Trunk Road sits Switchback Brewing, a small tasting room that opened in 2015 as Maple Ridge’s first microbrewery under the name Maple Meadows Brewing before new owners took over and rebranded the space in 2023. The compact tasting room typically keeps around ten beers on tap and has remained a fixture of the local scene through the ownership change, and it is one of the founding stops on the official Maple Ridge Ale Trail.
Maple Ridge’s brewery scene also includes smaller, tightly focused operations built around limited seating and a frequently rotating tap list, prioritizing variety over volume in tasting rooms that can hold only a handful of visitors at a time. That scale is part of the appeal for people who want to talk to the brewer directly rather than order from a long, static menu.
Together, these breweries give Maple Ridge a genuinely varied lineup for a city its size, spanning the open-concept industrial taproom, the farm-to-table destination, and the small-batch specialist, all within a short drive of one another along the city’s main east-west corridors.
The Maple Ridge Ale Trail
The breweries in Maple Ridge are connected by an official Ale Trail, a route developed with the BC Ale Trail and recognized by the City of Maple Ridge, that links the city’s taprooms with a brewery in neighbouring Pitt Meadows and a couple of local pubs known for strong craft beer lists. The trail gives visitors a built-in itinerary rather than requiring them to piece one together from scratch, and it has become a recognized part of how the region promotes its food and drink scene.
Because the breweries sit a short drive apart rather than clustered in one walkable block, planning matters more here than it would in a denser urban tasting district. Arranging a designated driver, a rideshare, or spacing visits across an afternoon is the practical way to see more than one stop safely, and several of the breweries are close enough to Golden Ears Provincial Park and the Alouette River that a day combining a hike or a paddle with a couple of tasting room stops is easy to build.
The trail has also produced its own collaborations over the years, including a joint seasonal beer brewed across several of the participating breweries to mark shared anniversaries, a reminder that this is a genuinely connected local scene rather than a handful of unrelated businesses that happen to share a city.
What Makes Maple Ridge’s Beer Scene Distinct
The defining feature of Maple Ridge’s breweries is how directly they connect to the land around them. The Patch Brewery growing its own barley on a farm worked by the same family since the 1800s is the clearest example, but the broader pattern holds across the city: small operations, local ingredients where possible, and tasting rooms sized for conversation rather than crowds.
The city’s location also plays a role. Sitting between the Fraser River, Golden Ears Provincial Park, and the farmland of the Fraser Valley gives Maple Ridge’s breweries a setting that most Metro Vancouver taprooms cannot match, and several visitors treat a brewery stop as the second half of a day that started with a hike or a paddle rather than the whole point of the trip.
None of these breweries is trying to be the loudest or largest operation in the region, and that restraint is part of the appeal. A visit here tends to feel more like dropping into a neighbourhood spot than joining a lineup at a big-name destination brewery, even for the breweries that have picked up regional recognition.
Tips for Visiting Maple Ridge Breweries
Check hours before heading out. Several of the taprooms keep more limited weekday hours and expand on Fridays and Saturdays, so a weekday afternoon visit should be confirmed ahead of time rather than assumed.
Book ahead for The Patch Brewery, especially on weekends. Its farm setting and food program draw steady crowds, and reservations are generally requested a couple of days in advance.
Plan transportation if you intend to visit more than one brewery in a day. The taprooms are spread across the city rather than clustered together, so a designated driver or rideshare is the practical way to sample more than one stop.
Pair a brewery visit with the outdoors. Several taprooms are a short drive from Golden Ears Provincial Park or the Alouette River, making it easy to build a day that combines a hike or paddle with a stop for a pint afterward.
Questions Often Asked
What is the oldest craft brewery in Maple Ridge?
Ridge Brewing Company, which opened in July 2015, is one of the earliest craft breweries established in Maple Ridge and remains an active part of the city’s beer scene.
What is The Patch Brewery known for?
The Patch Brewery, which opened in August 2024, is known for being built on farmland the Laity family has worked since 1879, using barley grown on site along with BC-sourced hops. It was named Best New Brewery in The Growler’s 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards.
Is there an official brewery trail in Maple Ridge?
Yes. The Maple Ridge Ale Trail, developed with the BC Ale Trail and recognized by the City of Maple Ridge, links the city’s breweries with a brewery in neighbouring Pitt Meadows and local pubs known for craft beer.
Do Maple Ridge breweries serve food?
It varies by location. Some, like The Patch Brewery, run a food program built around local ingredients, while others focus on beer alone and welcome outside food or occasional food trucks.
Do I need a reservation to visit a Maple Ridge brewery?
Most taprooms welcome walk-ins, but The Patch Brewery generally recommends reservations, particularly on weekends, given its limited seating and farm-to-table food service.
