Author: CAMRA Vancouver

  • Homebrew Happenings: Rye Pumpkin Ale

    The season is upon us, pumpkin spice everything. It always stirs up contention in the brewing world, and probably the rest of the world as well. You can read a bit more on the history and the debate on pumpkin beer here. Every year I brew up a batch or two of pumpkin beer, tinkering…

  • Autumn, Spice and the Pumpkin Debate

    With summer over and fall upon us, we turn away from the light and easy drinking lagers and wheats for something with a bit more body, more flavour and inevitably, more spices. October is the traditional month for the pumpkin spice beers to come out, but right around the corner we will see the winter…

  • Advocacy Update – October 2016

    Since the AGM last February, we have had a lot of curve balls thrown our way, wrenches in our wheels and general unforeseen happenings arise. As a result, I would be lying if I said we had gotten traction we wanted on anything we wanted to sink our teeth into. After a few months trying…

  • President’s Update – October 2016

    It’s been a busy little while for CAMRA Vancouver and CAMRA BC – some of it exciting, some of it not so much; but that is the nature of the gig! President David has a few updates for you on the goings-on in and around the CAMRA Vancouver Community.

  • BC Beer Awards 2016

    The 7th annual BC Beer Awards, taking place at the Croatian Cultural Centre, once again aims to showcase the wonderful brewing talent from across the province. The Awards are held in October, falling within BC Craft Beer Month, a month dedicated to showcasing the best that BC has to offer. With categories that allow long…

  • President’s Update: September 2016

    People often don’t realize how much work goes into the roles of our executive team. Often, people ask me how much I get paid to do this job; they are shocked when I tell them that the positions are unpaid and are done out of our sheer passion for beer and  love for the community.…

  • Events Update: September 2016

    It’s been a summer packed full of events for our CAMRA Vancouver members, we’ve enjoyed brewery crawls, the brew cruise, cask fests and plenty of education evenings! It’s been a fantastic summer and we can’t wait to bring you even more events in the upcoming months!

  • What is Cask Ale?

    Cask ale or cask-conditioned ale is beer that is both conditioned in and served from a cask. Cask conditioned ales are not filtered or pasteurized, and contain live yeast which adds to the complexity, flavour and aroma of the beer. Think of it as a bottle-conditioned beer but in a big metal bottle.

  • Wet Hop Beer

    It’s the most wonderful time of the year for West Coast beer lovers! That’s right – it’s wet hop season!

  • Beer Tasting 101

    With great weather, fun new releases, and an ever-growing list of beer festivals around BC, summer’s a great time to try new beers. With that in mind, here’s a bit on how I like to taste beer to get the most out of trying new brews – maybe it’ll work for you.

  • Events Update – August 2016

    July was a busy month for CAMRA members: from Bingo, to Baseball, to a Brewery crawl in Port Moody, we did it all. We were also treated to a sneak peek at Faculty Brewing, and it’s safe to say that it will be our new brewery hangout of choice. Our Vice President Kerry and Education…

  • Community Spotlight: R&B Ale and Pizza House

    Wrap your head around this: if R&B were a person, they would be of legal beer-drinking age.  That’s right; R&B has been a Mount Pleasant mainstay since 1997, brewing beer for the community since long before craft beer was a “thing” in Vancouver. The Brewery Creek veteran has recently revamped their Growler Station and upgraded…

  • Advocacy Update: August 2016

    A few weeks ago I was perusing twitter and I came across a tweet by Kennedy Stewart, MP for Burnaby South (and my MP in the house of Commons.) As one of his constituents I found his social media feed to be a bit… safe, predictable and repetitive.

  • Intro to Summer Beer Styles

    With the temperatures increasing and the sun staying up later, I am sure you are all looking for some clues on what kind of beers are out there and what you should be looking for. I am a big fan of drinking whatever style or beer is your particular favourite, but I am also always excited to drink…

  • Homebrew Happenings: What to do when you can’t save a brew?

    Welcome back to Homebrew Happenings! As every Homebrewer knows sometimes your batch just does not turn out right. Brewing at home can mean less than ideal conditions and equipment, and sometimes just plain bad luck.  So what can you do if you end up with some “different” or “bad” beer…

  • Cooking for a Summer BeerBQ

    Looking to add a whole new dimension to your summer cooking? Crack your favourite brew to add body and flavour to some of your favourite dishes! Bringing in the bitterness from hops and sweetness from malt can help take your cooking to the next level.

  • FUSS Update – July 2016

    A few months ago I announced that CAMRA Vancouver was going to be reinvigorating an old initiative in the F.U.S.S. campaign. For those that don’t know, the Fess Up to Serving Sizes campaign was aimed at educating consumers on the legal requirements of bars and breweries when it came to posting the size of their…

  • Homebrew Happenings: The Wit

    With the hot weather recently we’ve been enjoying various summer beer styles and we thought we would detail one of our favourite styles to brew in summer!

  • Community Spotlight: Faculty Brewing

    Patience is a virtue. This is what I have been reminding myself since I first met Mauricio almost a full year ago to chat about Faculty Brewing, Vancouver’s newest kid on the Brewery Creek block. I was immediately excited and inspired by his vision, the tasting room space (although it was barebones at that time),…

  • Farmhouse Festival and CAMRA’s Safe Ride Home Bus

    Hard to believe my favourite beer festival of the year has come and gone! Farmhouse Wild Ale and Saison festival was a fantastic time. CAMRA Vancouver organized a safe ride home initiative to get people from UBC to easily accessible skytrain stations. Click here to read my thoughts on our initiative and a little tie…