What starts off sounding like a rather personal question is actually becoming an issue for beer lovers in British Columbia. This past weekend the Vancouver Sun reported on how there is no such thing as a true pint in our province. Although this is a substantial issue, it’s just a small part of the beer drinker’s pain here in British Columbia.
So what’s the problem? Well, if you recall back to my conversation with Garrett Oliver, its difficult for people to export their beer into Canada usually resulting in expensive prices for out of country craft. Sadly, things are only going to get more costly with a harmonized sales tax coming shortly after the olympics raising the price of beer another 7%. Add to this the fact we have no such thing as happy hour, bars face restrictive and expensive liquor licensing requirements (as described by this article), and you’ll start to see that being a passionate beer drinker is not exactly easy north of the 49th parallel.
Although some people may see all of this as a bunch of small issues, it’s the collective effect that is crippling BC’s craft beer scene. It’s impossible to expect a newcomer to find their passion for beer when they are forced to purchase small sleeves labeled as pints for an exorbitant amount of money, and then told to go home at midnight. Not only that but they don’t even get to pick from a respectable variety. I’m all about supporting local, but to appreciate what we have here we need competition. Expansion of this scene will only happen when people get to taste real beer and expand their pallets. Once they understand and love craft beer their natural evolution will be to support local.
No one is going to do this for us. If you’re a true craft lover and you want to see the BC scene grow you need to go out and support it. Even if you’re not a resident of BC but want to see the scene expand to the point where you can taste our beers in your bars, you need to support the BC scene. Talk to the good people at CAMRA to see what you can do in order to help change these laws. We may not be able to fix all, or even any of them, but without people trying we go from a small change to no chance at all. Its either that or we all have to move to Portland.
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Besides your excellent points on BC brews I find it interesting on how they contradict some of the Canadian Federal laws. One of these laws besides stating a pint HAS to be 20oz it dictates the actual size of the head. Not followed here?
Posted by ilikemybeers on August 25th, 2009.
Could not agree more. Very strange and a bit disconcerting. Clearly its some archaic law that has long since passed its use by date. I guess we’re stuck with it for now, but hopefully the article will cause enough of a stir that it will be stricken from the law books.
Posted by cbjerrisgaard on August 25th, 2009.
In the late nineties, CAMRA campaigned to get a legal pint and for all glasses to be standardized at a pint (or a half pint). CAMRA Victoria’s John Rowling met several times with the B.C. government’s Industry Compliance Officer. His verbal replies were that it would not be fair to require all pubs restaurants, etc., to change their glassware, and that, even if a change was made, there would not be enough staff in the province to enforce such a regulation. CAMRA noted that most bars could phase in the new glassware as breakages cause a thirty percent turnover in glasses annually. CAMRA then asked that at least the price and volume be prominently posted in establishments, and that it would then be up to the customers to figure it out for themselves.
CAMRA was successful in this and for a while it worked fine, but of course not everyone complied. And with no enforcement, it has gone back to the way it was. Under the current regime in Victoria, one can expect the lack of enforcement to continue.
Posted by Rick Green on August 25th, 2009.
That is a shame, but at the same time nice to see that CAMRA has tried, and partially succeeded. Although things have reverted back maybe the article by the Sun will help bring it into the light again.
At least there is an organization out there trying to expand the love and support for craft beer here in BC. We need more people interested in this topic and I think you guys are doing a great job of that. Hopefully we’ll be able to discuss this in further detail at the craft crawl on Saturday.
Cheers,
Posted by cbjerrisgaard on August 25th, 2009.
I grew up in the times of the Plimsoll Line (before pints were even thought of). Once the head settled it had to be at least on the line. That was “back in the days” when one could not even stand with a glass in the hand. Wanted to change tables, the waiter had to move your beer
Posted by ilikemybeers on August 25th, 2009.
[...] I posted about pint sizes in British Columbia. Although this is a major issue for beer drinkers here, we’re not the only people who are [...]
Posted by How to Measure Missing Beer | truecask.com on September 2nd, 2009.
[...] glasses for sale in addition to the glassware we have for sale now Gouden Carolous, New Belgium …How big are your pints? | truecask.comWhat starts off sounding like a rather personal question is actually becoming an issue for beer [...]
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