FUSS Cards

The law demands that all liquor serving establishments publish their serving sizes, CAMRA BC’s FUSS (‘Fess up to serving sizes) campaign is to encourage and where necessary shame establishments into complying with this law, it might not seem important but in the age of $8 beers in pubs and the reality of sometimes receiving only 8oz or 12oz servings can be very annoying. Some bars are quite proud of their attempts to deceive the customer into buying these expensive short pours and use plenty of tricks to embarrass any customers who dare to complain. The other aspect of FUSS is the “pint”, a pint is a legally defined amount (20oz exactly), and yet bar owners still use it to describe servings from 12-16oz which is illegal.

Again – some people aren’t bothered, but imagine if you ordered a dozen eggs and there was only 10 or a bottle of wine that was only half full.

CAMRA BC – Vancouver Chapter is a consumer advocacy group and we believe 100% that consumers deserve all the information that the law demands at the very least.

I’m sure that most of you have experienced a short pour at some pub or other and wanted to bring it up with the server or the manager but didn’t want to create a “fuss”. Well we’ve got you covered! now rolling out in our membership packs are the first of our FUSS cards. These business cards can be kept in your wallet and if you experience a short pour or an illegal pint – or even don’t see the quantities on the menu then you can leave the card behind with the server  or manager to remind them of their legal and moral obligations.

FUSS cards were created by Scott from onceyougocraft.com a CAMRA member who emailed the idea to us out of the blue, we loved it and went straight into production:

If you have any ideas that could benefit CAMRA BC and in turn the craft beer culture in BC, don’t hesitate to email us info@camravancouver.ca .

The FUSS Campaign is still very important to us however there’s plenty of people who don’t deem it important.

When we met with Councillor Heather Deal we asked why the city licencing office wasn’t enforcing the law for bars and restaurants to publish their serving sizes, she said that it wasn’t their job to enforce government regulations!

I contacted the Better Business Bureau, who returned my emails after 2 months saying that it wasn’t something they were interested in.

So guess it’s up to us – let’s get these cards out there, if a bar manager starts getting these coming in from different customers then they’ll find out that there’s something wrong and that they can find out more by contacting CAMRA BC.

FUSS cards are available online here if you want to print your own or you can collect them from any event with a CAMRA BC – Vancouver Chapter booth and we’ll be sending them out in the new membership packs to you when you renew online!

Adam Chatburn,
President, CAMRA BC – Vancouver Chapter