THE CHICKENS FINALLY COME HOME TO ROOST IN VANCOUVER

Vancouver city council recently voted unanimously in favour of scratching out an old bylaw that prevented the rearing of chickens in residential neighbourhoods. This act reflects an urban trend that is currently in full flight in North American towns and cities. With varying conditions in all the many jurisdictions, it's legal to keep flocks in Victoria, Burnaby, New Westminster, New York, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville, San Jose, Houston, San Francisco and countless other urban and suburban roosts. But until a couple of days ago, Vancouver chicken cops were ready to pluck any outlaw hens from residences.

So why have so many city councils been brooding over this issue recently? Is it because the downturn in the economy has led people to scratch a living from their formerly ornamental gardens? Is it because so many urbanites see commercial, battery chicken farms as inhumane? Therefore some people think that they can lay claim to part of the free run, free range, organic, healthy living, anti-big business, anti-food importing attitude that is popular in certain circles, just by practicing a little backyard animal husbandry? I think the answer to the latter question is yes.

Backyard chicken flocks are a staple part of family meals for countless millions the world over and not for trendy reasons as is the case in rich North America. Where ever land is available and money is scarce people don't stew about issues such as whether or not the chickens can run free in the sun. Chickens are simply kept for food.

Here in Vancouver, a dozen eggs from a commercial farm costs around three dollars. Free run/range eggs cost a dollar or two more. These prices are hardly high enough to ruffle the feathers of locals, all of which count their incomes in the thousands of dollars. I recently bought a whole, fresh, three pound, fryer chicken at No Frills, a local grocery store, for a dollar a pound! I regularly lay more than that on the bar at Dix for a beer!

Although the repealing of this local bylaw might egg on a few dozen city dwellers to try their hands at raising chickens, I hardly think that we'll see hens cooped up on thousands of apartment balconies in Yaletown nor will we be hearing many cock-a-doodle-doos in the gardens of Kerrisdale mansions. Having said that, people do love their pets and hens make engaging pets. There are countless thousands of dogs and cats living in Vancouver apartments and they are all defecating in boxes and city parks. Adding a few layers to the list of pets isn't going to turn the city into a barnyard. But if a couple of rich celebrity chicks are seen on Robson street with hens' heads peeking out of their purses, old and young alike may pick up the trend of keeping chickens as pet companions. The next thing of course will be pet accessories and services for urban chicks. Diamond leg bands, feather dusters and hen parties will be all the rage this season, I predict. Empty nesters who are missing their children will start keeping exotic breeds for their distinct personalities. We'll probably have to stop eating chicken wings in bars because it will be seen as cruelty toward animals. No doubt Petcetera and PetSmart will start selling fancy, canned and organic chicken feed that' s advertised on TV. And of course, vegetarians will raise vegetarian chickens while carnivores will feed their chickens slugs and bugs. Local veterinarians will flock to refresher courses on chickens. Some conscientious new pet chicken owners will accompany their hens to obedience schools and focus groups but many will just wing it.

Since the change in the by-law was announced, inevitably there has been some clucking from people in various interest groups. Perhaps some of the few locals who farm vegetables in their urban gardens will take a gander at adding chicken coops to their urban home steads. After all, is a chicken in a cockamamie back yard cage any different than a cockatoo or a cockatiel in a gilded cage?...Well chicken eggs are bigger and size does matter which breeds another question. What about getting some ostrich sized eggs hatching in our backyards? This isn't just a little chicken shit! Having a few seven foot tall, three hundred pound birds scratching under the fence could really get the neighbours squawking. An owner would likely have to deal with less foul play from resident coyotes and hawks however.

Some have voiced concerns that aging layers will end up as home grown cockaleekie in city cock pots. Slaughtering a guinea hen in the garage is one thing, but slaughtering ostriches would certainly get people running around the neighbourhoods like chickens with their heads cut off! But giant African chickens will likely never come home to roost and I don't see this change to Vancouver's pet by-law as much to crow about.

JulianOnePlanet Publications Copyright 2009

BREWING WINDS BLOW COLD IN YALETOWN....DESPERATE TIMES CALL...

A decade or so after its birth, the off Yaletown,  much loved Dix BBQ & Brewery closed its doors seemingly forever without a peep of fanfare from the Mark James Group. That was not the reaction from the staff and regular patrons who took the rumours of the imminent demise of Dix to heart and celebrated the life of the little craft brewery throughout Vancouver Craft Beer Week and afterwards until the last day of business on May 22nd. 

Breweries rarely go broke but of course they have always been subject to the shifting sands of business.  With the projected opening of a new MJG craft brewery in the Olympic village and the longtime lack of upgrades at Dix along with property lease concerns the days of Dix have been numbered for a long time.

The 800 block of Beatty has never been an easy place to tap into the local food and beverage industry as has been seen by the changes in  virtually all of the adjacent business properties.  For Dix to survive ten plus years was unusual in the area.  The location, within minutes of stumbling distance from GM Place and BC Place Stadium, not to mention the ever growing residential Yaletown skyscrapers, makes the eight and nine hundred blocks of Beatty street a tempting location for a restaurant or bar. But for complex, local,  traffic flow reasons most businesses in these blocks are not able to generate enough cash flow to survive from event to event longterm.  But along with corporate support, Dix had something that no business in these two no man's land blocks has ever had and that is a custom made craft brewery.  Costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, the well designed, beer generating system inside 871 Beatty st. made it possible for one big man with a big heart to make thousands of liters of great beer a month.... all by himself!  All this points to a beautifully low cost of production of a very high quality product.

But all this is now a part of local history and for those of us who benefited from the constant flow of friends and brew at the now closed brewery the question is where will we meet to watch hockey, complain about the government and drink beer?  Well the Dix tradition of cask night has spread to other breweries and tap rooms around town so as long as we're willing to pay we can drink ...check the CAMRA  site  and subscribe to the newsletter to stay up to date.

Since we're on the cusp of summer we can use Facebook to organize outdoor gatherings which leads me to bring up the question of how to keep the cost down to a king's ransom.  The BCLDB will take all our money eventually, given the chance, just as surely as any government, casino, dealer or thief will...So what are we to do?  The answer of course is to home brew.  Even the coming HST tax grab won't raise the price of home brewing.  There's no free beer,  but with a little effort we can drink very cheap, good,  craft brewed ales....AND PAY NO TAX at all.   It's true that the equipment would attract the HST when purchased new, but craigslist is loaded with used equipment and most days of the week one could buy basic equipment from an online seller, stop at Dan's Homebrewing Supplies for malt and hops and have a 25 liter carboy bubbling away on the counter at the end of the day with change from a hundred dollar bill!  Yes! Including the cost of equipment which would be a one time purchase the cost per pint for the first batch would be LESS THAN 50 CENTS!   I dropped into Firefly on Cambie recently for a six pack of fine, craft brewed Dogfish Head IPA and $20.00 didn't cover it.  I had a pint of it at the Alibi Room on Wed. and it cost $7.50...These are great establishments and I love Dogfish Head IPA but we don't need to do the math to figure that if you like beer and funds are limited home brewing makes sense.  
Water is free and pure, add 4 or 5 kilos of malt extract @ $4.00 a kilo, some hops and yeast for a few dollars more up to thirty dollars or so and besides time and effort that's all it costs for at least sixty pints!  Classified as food products, brewing supplies are tax free.   All the information required to make beer is readily available free on the web.  Wine is similarly cheap to make at home from kits. 

So if the government milks the public for hundreds of millions a year through its monopoly on booze sales and brewing is not only very cheap but  tax free the obvious question is...why doesn't everyone do it?  It's a simple question but the answer isn't simple.  First of all making commercial quality beer at home isn't as easy as buying it.  And, in a busy world where conveniences like fast food, gas stations and demand hot water are the norm, adding a fairly time consuming cooking project to one's routine isn't going attract everyone.  Even using a U-Brew is too much trouble for most folks.  By the way, using a U-Brew will approximately double your cost of brewing...but you won't have to do the dishes, you'll have hands on instruction and it's one stop shopping.  Even using a U-Brew beats buying beer at the liquor store. 

Making 25 liters of good quality beer at home using liquid malt extract and hop pellets takes several hours and there aren't any short cuts.  It's basically a cooking project like making bread or a dinner where part of the meal is prepared days in advance.  Another discouraging factor to consider is that the results, while predictable, are not guaranteed....yeast is a living organism, conditions in the home are not 100% controllable...some batches turn out better than others especially for beginners.  Nevertheless, I'm convinced that mainly because of the crushingly high taxes on store bought beer, spending a little time, effort and money to homebrew makes sense.  Once the equipment is aquired and some of the supplies are bought in bulk it's more convenient for me to brew at home than it is to go to a U-Brew.   I can have the beer on the counter beginning to ferment within two hours from start to finish.   Bottling takes about the same two hours a few days later....one hour if I hurry and use big two liter bottles!  A two liter bottle is about a six pack and it can be made at home for two or three dollars.

I consider home brewing a minor form of protesting..and while I'm "protesting"...I get to drink fifty cent IPA with about 65IBU.......that's bitter...but I'm not...Now that Dix is closed it seems even more worthwhile!

Notes to consider: 

-Making generic yellow lager at home that is exactly the same as industrial lager ie Molson Canadian is not easy....in fact, it's the most difficult style of beer to make at home ....but it's the cheapest beer to buy of all.

-Guiness style stout is among the most expensive beer to buy and it's easy and cheap to make at home 

-Industrial yellow lager is brewed to have LESS taste whereas craft brewed ale is brewed to have more taste.

-Homebrewers can easily make ancient, traditional and obscure beverages like ale, mead, braggot and metheglin that are generally not available in stores because in the old days folks used simple household equipment to make beer....just like homebrewers today.

-Making beer is about as difficult as making bread.

-The cost savings found in homebrewing are realized because of high taxes on store bought beer not because the supplies and labour are cheap.

-Most people find that overindulging in home and unfiltered craft brewed ales doesn't cause a hangover because of the vitamin B component of suspended yeast.

Compared to a similar quantity of store bought beer, you'll save money on your very first batch of beer....especially if you buy cheap used gear...the price goes down every time you brew thereafter. 

-Like most hobbies things can be as simple or as complex as one wishes....I've been writing on the subject of brewing with malt extract....more money can be saved along with the potential for better tasting beer realized, by brewing all grain beer, but it takes more time and skill.

-If you have a batch of beer that doesn't turn out well you can always distill it to make whiskey....but that's a subject for another blog.