News from CAMRA

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If you thought Richmond was only good for Asian cuisine and fish and chips, we hope Tour de Richmond helped you realize that it’s becoming a great destination for craft beer! CAMRA Vancouver would like to give a big thank you to the whole Beerthirst crew. It was great working with you guys, and it was great to see how much you guys have done for the city! Keep it up! Also, thank you very much to Fogg N’ Sudds, Kingswood Pub, Hogshack, Blue Canoe, O’ Hares Pub, Pumphouse Pub, and all of their amazing staff! Thank you to Russell Brewing for the casks, as well as Anders McKinnon and Scott Butchart for the fantastic home brew. Last but certainly not least, thanks you to everyone who attended! We hope you had a blast!

OK folks, it’s time to mark your calenders because we have a date set for the AGM. On Sunday January 22nd, we will have Smiley’s all to ourselves from 11am to 3pm for the CAMRA Vancouver AGM. Are you interested in nominating someone for the executive for 2012? or want to get more involved yourself? Full details TBA soon!

Typically the only people who look forward to Mondays are those who had way too much to drink on Saturday night. But I guess this Monday that passed was the exception because it was the grand opening of Bitter Tasting Room! Bitter is the latest of the ventures for the Heather Hospitality Group. It’s completely craft beer orientated, and apparently they have a house milk stout that’s brewed by R & B Brewing. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they’ll also have a cask engine very soon.

If Bitter wasn’t a great enough way to kick start the week, Tuesday was the grand opening of Top Chef Canada winner Dale Mckay‘s new restaurant, Ensemble Tap! They had a fire in the kitchen during the weekend, but it looks like they were able to open on time.

Things just got really awesome for the people in the Ladner area. No, they are not building a another tunnel to ease that nasty rush hour traffic, but now they have a reason to stick around town. Sharkey’s Seafood Bar and Grill has started a cask program, and they’ll be tapping their next cask on Tuesday December 20th at 5:15pm. The cask will be the Russell Black Death Porter.

P.S. Be sure to visit our Web site for CAMRA Vancouver’s Guide to Good Beer. And don’t forget our Facebook Pagewhere you can discuss beer-related topics and contribute photos, videos, and links.

CAMRA Executive Update:

Notice of CAMRA BC AGM and Executive elections

Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting and election period will commence Jan 1, 2012 until Jan 30, 2012.  Nominations for CAMRA BC Executive will be accepted Dec. 6 – 18, 2011.

Please read here for full information.

Fess Up to Serving Sizes (FUSS) Campaign

As many or most of you know, CAMRA Vancouver launched its Fess Up to Serving Sizes (FUSS) Campaign two weeks ago in hopes of getting licensees to openly declare their draft beer serving sizes so that customers know exactly what they are ordering in advance of actually ordering. It is not a campaign aimed at favouring certain serving sizes, pints over sleeves as an example, or forcing licensees to change the pricing of their draft beer as some seem to have interpreted. Those are completely separate and completely valid issues that can be tackled in the future if need be. FUSS, on the other hand, is simply about licensees being transparent about what they are serving and eliminating the misrepresentation, whether accidental or intentional, of draft beer serving sizes. Personally, I have received a lot of support verbally from individual and corporate members, as have my executive, but this has not translated into much action as of this time. After two weeks, we have only 117 signatures on our on-line petition, a good start, but considering that CAMRA Vancouver has close to 550 members, CAMRA BC over 1,000 members and that this newsletter goes out to over 1,300 people, a little disappointing…read more.

To go straight to the Petition, continue HERE.

CAMRA Vancouver 2012

With 2011 drawing to an end, the CAMRA Vancouver Executive are busy planning for our AGM taking place on Sunday January 22nd and readying themselves for the nomination process for next year. Since I have taken over as President in May, I have had many people approach me saying they want to be more involved and in order to help CAMRA Vancouver keep moving forward in the current direction. If you are one of those people, I hope, when the nomination process begins, you become involved, get yourself nominated and run for the executive. Competition is healthy and it keeps all on their toes. If you do not want to run for one of the executive positions, consider becoming an active member of one of the sub-committees that we hope to have operating next year to make CAMRA Vancouver a more effective organization. Full information including position descriptions and nominations will be posted on our website soon.
CAMRA Vancouver is a member-driven group and without active, informed and committed members, the organization will have difficulty reaching the goals of those very members the executive represents.

Your questions/comments/feedback always welcome. Email CAMRA Vancouver President Paddy Treavor at president@camravancouver.ca

Upcoming Events

December 10 @ 6-8pm 

On Tap Beer Pairing and Social Event   

Full details and ticket purchase ($30) in link. **The first 10 CAMRA members to email events@camravancouver.ca will get a discounted ticket price of $25. ** 

December 12, 13, 14

Alibi Room 300th Rotation

3pm to close all three days. Featuring select special beers in a 10oz glass for $3. Follow their Twitter for updates @alibiroom

December 13 @ 7pm

Eat Local/Drink Local at Darby’s

Central City Brewing and Darby’s are working together to present a 4 course meal with pairings of Red Racer beer for each course. Tickets available at the pub. $40

December 31 @ 7pm

New Year’s Eve at Central City

The Canucks game at 7:00pm, followed by the Phil Dickson Band as soon as the game ends. Dinner and cask specials will be created by Chef Carl Sawatsky and Brewmaster Gary Lohin. They’ll be giving away a ton of prizes, complimentary bubbly for the countdown, and much-much more! There is NO COVER CHARGE, but foodbank donations are greatly appreciated.   

December 31 @ 8pm

NYE Beer Thirst Long Table at The Pumphouse Pub

7 courses of beers matched with 6 specialized dishes from Chef Daniella Iaci. Tickets $50+tax

Party starts at 10pm, and your Longtable ticket includes entrance to the party.

If you would like your EVENT listed in our Newsletter please contact events@camravancouver.ca with your information.

Pouring cask all day every day (supply permitting) you’ll currently find:

The Cascade Room: Red Truck Mad Scow Stout

BierCraft Cambie: R&B Eastside Bitter w/Chinook – up next Driftwood Blackstone Porter

BierCraft Commercial: Red Racer Winter Ale with Rosemary – up next R&B Double Devil Pale Ale

The Whip: Mission Springs Jasmine IPA

Alibi Room: check their twitter for updates @alibiroom

For the full list of what Casks are on around town this week and coming up in the month please click here. **We do update this sometimes during the week so check back if something you were looking for is missing.

New Beer Arrivals/Restocks/Seasonals

Beerthirst have a weekly Fresh Sheet newsletter full of their own restock and seasonals along with events they are involved in. Visit their site and sign up.

Central City Liquor Store has a list of their entire Craft Beer stock! Check it out here.

Firefly Cambie will have Greg from Bravo Beer Co in on Saturday, Dec. 10 from 3-6pm for some Belgian Christmas Beer tastings.

St. Augustine’s has a LIVE BEER MENU!! Check it out anytime for a full update on what’s pouring and how much is left.

Darby’s rotating taps: Granville Island Fresh Hop ESB, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale 

The Whip’s rotating tap: Mission Springs Pumpkin Winter Ale

Biercraft: Deschutes Jubelale, Red Racer Winter Ale, Coming soon – Deschutes The Abyss. Limited supply left of Westvleteren 8, Delirium Nocturnum  *Early Christmas shopping? Biercraft are selling a limited number of $100 gift cards for just $60 until December 24th, or until they run out. Valid at all out locations (including Incendio)*

For the full list of what New Beer Arrivals/Restocks/Seasonals are featured this week please click here.  **We do update this sometimes during the week so check back if something you were looking for is missing.   

Would you like to be included in our list? Email events@camravancouver.ca