Srewpu TODAY’S Ripping, Yaras brings you more tales about beer and business. The nwo are having a tough time working in concert in this province of economic anemia. Of coune, vou can’t heap everything upon the shoulders of the socialists in Victoria — they don’t control world com modity prices and as far as 1 know did not have a hand in the Asian economic collapse ~- bur their ability to scare off business new and old is second to Rone. So when homegrown enterprise takes it on the chin from the forces of bureaucratic inertia there is reason to do more than sigh. Noise needs to be made. And when it involves a product as near and dear to the hearts of the blue-collar heartland as beer, more then noise is called for. Today’s tale is another culled from the pub files. A previous Ripping Yarns dealt with the sad case of Nick Vavaris and his unsuccessful seven-vear battle to secure a pub licence tor his Nick's Pace restaurant at the foot of . Lonsdale. His story did not have a happy ending. We hope for better results this time around. The battle ground today is centred on the province's liquor laws and liquor control administration. Labyrinthian grounds, indeed. But before we go much yarns farther, understand this: fam not advocating wholesale over: haul of B.C. liquor laws when it comes to the availabiliry of drink across the land. E doar't sce anvone going thirsty these days. The province has come a long way since the days of the Good ‘Templars, Anti Saloon Leaguer and People's Prohibitionists. But while B.C. restaurants have been allowed to serve alcohol with meats tor rhe past 40 years and men and women no Jonger have to enter beer parlours through different doorways, hangovers from the restrictive post-prohibition days remain. For instance, controls on entertainment in restaurants, such as arbitrary limitations on the size and number of TVs, and the oddball restrictions on the service of liquor with food are still very much 2 part of dining B.C. style. The recent announcement thar Victoria plans to take another swing at ironing those wrinkles out of B.C. fiquor laws has a hopeful ring to it. But back to business and beer. Micro-brews are good news, Not too many ale afi- bs hatti cronados would disagree with thar, Vanety is nood: competi Ron is wood tor all living things and businesses, Se beheve the brewpub owners of BC. fnitially they were licensed to brew lager, ale, porters and other brew for their own pubs Sailor Hawar’s became the first North Shore brewpub in May 1994, when the North Vancouver acighborhood pub's ownership unveiled its H)-heetolitre brewery to pro- duce cntiltered, unpasturized lagess, ales and special scasariat brews tor the adjacent pub. The Riedlinger family sunk an estimated $500,006 into the brewpub brewery and fix- tures. It has since met with good avighborhood success. Bur the enterprising, Ricdlingers, ever restive, want their brewery and its products to reach a wider market. In the argot of the "90s, they want to grow their ale- producing business and create more local employment. But enterprise and growth are not high on the job descriptions of bureaucracies. Their job is to control, hobble and stifle. Thus we have the current situation in which brewpubs, which have been pushing for expanded markets for the past two years, were initially led to believe that their request to secure a Liquor Distribution Branch listing would be approved only to have it sud- denly rejected. Brewpub owners such as Paul Hadfield of Spinnakers in ng burea Vietona charge that the approval was withdrawn “duc to the vigorous lobbying efforts of larger breweries... 7 Ofcourse, the grumbling of brewpub owners is self-serv- ing all the wav. Thev knew the costs and restrictions of brewpub licences when they applied tor them, Now they want to bend the rules to inerease produc tion and protit. Other beer producers such as the Craft Brewers Association of B.C, don't fike it. Their opposition is under: standable. ‘They too have invested in the beer industry and they too would like to expand noc ungrow their busi nesses. They argue that allow: ing brewpubs to sell their beer and ales in venues other than their pubs would force craft brewers to seek brewpuls licences, thereby sparking an all-out war on the brewing front. But the brewpub lobby packs a lot of common sense on its side. It argues, for instance, that while B.C. brewpubs are pre- vented from marketing their brew in B.C. liquor stores, brewpubs located in the states of Washington, Oregon and California and other countries such as England, Belgium and Germany are not similarly restricted, Brewpub production would also be minuscule com- pared with brewery produc- tion, Sunday. November 22. 1998 -- North Shore News - 7 cratic And brewpubs like Sartor Hagar’s are charged the same production dures, levies, mark-ups and taxes as other brewenes, but do not have the sate Opeti access to markets. Sample response from ene L.DB manager to Hadtield when he raised the issue of foreign brewpubs having dis: mibution access in BCL take your brew and “ge and sell in Washington State.” ‘Thanks tor the enzourage- ment, Mr. Bureaucracy. Well, here is the Ripping Yarus response: there is ae good reason why B.C. brew pubs should nar nase their products sold in BC. liquor stores, Ef their products are good, they will sell; if chev aren't, the won’. That, according te my research, is how the free market works. B.C. has grown adept at suffocating homegrown busi- nesses and discouraging enter- prising people, Tr needs instead to learn the fine art of cultivating those kev elements of economic and soctal satatity, Vl drink to that. §. 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