Hello Friends!
I hope that spring is treating you all well and are all very excited to get ramped up for beer festival season. I know our team is very excited to be involved with all the major events on the horizon, and are looking forward to seeing you all there.
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What a first month we have had so far as a new executive in this CAMRA Community. We have had a few events happen, a new liquor reform and some new initiatives that I am very excited to share with you all. But first, I invite you to take part in our annual survey. As an executive we want to know how you feel about CAMRA Vancouver and what you would like to see! So please take five minutes to answer just a few questions.
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Hello members and community friends,
The time has come for me to resign as Vancouver Branch President. As you may know, I recently became co-owner of Vancouver hottest new craft beer pub: 12 Kings. I’m also going to help open Callister Brewing in East Van and these projects have been taking up more and more of my time.
Earlier this year at CAMRA Vancouver’s CiderWISE festival I met CAMRA BC members Dennis & Peggy Maynes who told me of their plans to open BC’s first Gluten-Free Brewery. For years Dennis had been home brewing a range of beers made from sorgum, rice and lots of other GF fermentables. Let me assure you, as a homebrewer and former brewer, making good beer without malted barley is really difficult, even the most seasoned brewer struggles to make something worth trying.
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CAMRA BC, Vancouver Branch’s Education Program has been one of the most successful parts of the last 2 years. Danny Seeton our Education Liaison and Amanda Barry – Buchart have worked hard putting together the classes which have run at Steamworks Brewpub. Almost every month we put on a sold-out class featuring some of the best local beer experts sharing their love of craft beer and cider.
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Today the BC Government made a few announcements but didn’t really make any announcement that wasn’t already known or long overdue.
I was recently contacted by Scott Colbourne of One City Vancouver who told me of their “Fun City” Plan, part of which was to ensure that establishments that posted “a pint” serving delivered a 568ml pint. They call it “A PINT IS A PINT IS A PINT”. After I spoke to Scott I pointed out that CAMRA had been contacting the city licensing offices with this for many years and had gotten no response. We also pointed out that rather than force places that are incorrectly advertising pints to replace their glassware, they should simply be encouraged to correctly post their actual serving sizes (not glass sizes) and be fined if it is found that they are not delivering on that.
Another BC Beer Awards is in the books and my thanks to the whole team who worked so hard on this wonderful celebration and my congratulations to all the winners. The fact that there was so much diversity amongst the winners with no brewery dominating and so many brand new breweries placing, shows that the craft beer revolution is still in progress and it bodes very well for the future of BC craft beer.
Another year, another adventure for the brave souls who boarded a school bus from East Van to Powell River, another dash for the ferries and another legendary visit to the Sunshine Coast. Thanks again to Cedric and the Townsite Brew Crew for hosting a pre-festival cask event and brewery tour where we met up with dignitaries visiting from CAMRA Victoria Branch and the CAMRA BC Exec.