Last weekend CAMRA BC – Vancouver Chapter, in partnership with the Portside Pub hosted the Annual Spring Sessional Cask Festival. I’m not alone in saying that it was the best event CAMRA BC has ever hosted. It boasted a great selection of session-strength beers featuring tasty offerings from both the stalwarts of Vancouver’s brewing scene as well excellent work from some of the new kids on the block. A sell out crowd drained the casks in record time!
I’d like to thank again a few people for their hard work, especially Amanda Barry, CAMRA’s Event Coordinator, and Aja Tylor from the Portside; together they made it all work beautifully. All the volunteers – you are the very best part of CAMRA BC we wouldn’t exist without you; the staff of the Portside Pub and all the breweries who took part. Thanks too to #YVRBeertweetup for running their twitter board, trivia and prizes, the BJCP judges who tried all the beers there and picked Bomber Brewing’s bitter as the best and of course all of you who came out to support craft beer in Vancouver – your vote in the people’s choice award showed how sophisticated your collective palates are when you voted for the same Bomber Bitter that the judges picked. My final thanks are to Education Liaison Danny Seeton and Steamworks Brewer Tak Guenette who joined me at 4am to go into the Portside Pub where we spent 3 hours setting up, venting, tapping and cooling the casks so that they would drop clear in time for the festival.
Also at the festival CAMRA BC – Vancouver Chapter welcomed Wendy Turnbull (@djwendo) as our 1,000th individual member. I feel very privileged to have been involved with CAMRA BC reaching this milestone – thanks to all 1000 of you, all of our other members and supporters for joining us in support of craft beer.
One of the problems that comes with this rapid growth is that it creates an increasing amount of work for our volunteers. I know that some of you have had problems with your memberships – long delays, not receiving cards etc. and I apologise for that – CAMRA BC has come a long way in a short time and our processes have struggled to keep up, but we are about to premiere our new membership system which will simplify and speed up the process so that we are free to keep growing.
One of the more fun aspects of our new membership system are our beautiful new membership cards which are now being rolled out to new members and renewals – so why not renew early and get your new card! We are also hoping to be able to process memberships and renewals in full at our events – you’ll get your new card there and then – no waiting by your post box.
Upcoming CAMRA events include “English Ales”, the next in our education series at Legacy Liquor store, only a few tickets remain and our past 2 events there have both sold out. CAMRAPALOOZA at the Alibi Room, this event is our regular unofficial Vancouver Craft Beer Week tie-in where we try to finish off what’s left from the legendary HOPPAPALOOZA. Unfortunately, CAMRAPALOOZA is totally sold out. Keep an eye on our website, twitter and newsletters for more CAMRA BC craft beer events coming soon and the VCBW website for information on their other events.
Adam Chatburn
President, CAMRA BC – Vancouver Chapter
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