Home of the BrewNosers

Hello all,

Wondering if my friendly neighborhood brewnosers can help me.

My 10 year anniversary is coming up and I am looking for a hall to rent to have a party.

We are trying to keep costs low and really just having a party, no other real crap.

All of the places we have contacted in were either no alcohol or they provided the bar.
I want to provide my homemade beer and wine.

Our preference would be in and/around Lower Sackville as we live here.
Any type of destination location would probably be out, just due to cost of everyone having to pay for accommodations.

Timing for this is late Fall any my backyard has the potential to be a swamp otherwise we would have it in our backyard.

Any and all ideas are welcome and appreciated.

You are going to be in tough on a BYO bar. Breaks lots of laws.

my friends had their wedding at the hall in highfield park and they brought their own booze.

I think Hatfield Farms allows you to bring your own.

amartin wrote:I think Hatfield Farms allows you to bring your own.

Yes Hatfield is near where I grew up, also when I worked in tourism in peggy's cove we had many parties at hatfield, all were byob. This was 10or11years ago

mr x wrote:You are going to be in tough on a BYO bar. Breaks lots of laws.

Well, yeah, but there are any number of halls that aren't too particular about laws. A good friend was looking to rent a local hall for a gay dance. Now, we're out on the Eastern Shore, so he thought there might be a little bit of prejudice about having something like that out here, where if you're gay you stay firmly in the closet. So, he was a little surprised that he met no resistance until he mentioned getting a liquor license. Suddenly there was a problem. It turned out, they couldn't care less about renting it for a gay dance, but they were worried that if he got a liquor license, it would set a precedent for the hall - they'd never had one before.

ok thanks guys

breaks laws hey, i guess its different from where you are from then?
i though i remembered in ontario (where i grew up) you could give away any booze you wanted at a party
as long as you weren't making money
or serving to minors

ive done official business things mind you where we've had to get one
but really just wanted to have a party

ill check into Hatfield for sure

thanks again

http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/paal/snsmr/paal205.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations - Alcohol and Gaming Division

Liquor Licence: Special Occasion
Who Needs This Licence?
1) Anyone who wishes to provide liquor service at private functions such as weddings, anniversaries, banquets where liquor is given away

If you're able to find a place without their own established license, you can buy your own for a one-off event for $11.43.

Good luck in your search, I'm sure you'll find something good.

does this mean all of our brewnosers events are breaking the laws?

Pretty much if you are transporting homebrew.

sleepyjamie wrote:does this mean all of our brewnosers events are breaking the laws?

As well as any competition AFAIK...

Second Lake at the end of Metropolitan Avenue is where we had those sorts of parties in high school. No liquor licences were involved, as I'm sure you can imagine. And it's not too far from your place.

Kyle,

do you mean the kinsmen hall there right on the lake?
if so we did try them and they have to supply the alcohol i believe

reaching out to hatfield today

thanks for the license info too chalmers
its good to know that info in case we speak to a hall we can mention that we can get one
at least sound a bit more like we know what we are doing

thanks again all for the disucssion

Keep in mind, even with a license, you can't bring your own brand of liquor.

oh

It all has to be NSLC sourced (taxed) alcohol at the end of the day, IIRC. In other words, you can't transport a keg from NB on your own, and you definitely can't bring your homemade wine or beer or spirits.

mr x wrote:It all has to be NSLC sourced (taxed) alcohol at the end of the day, IIRC. In other words, you can't transport a keg from NB on your own, and you definitely can't bring your homemade wine or beer or spirits.

Yeah, this is pretty much it. Having just got married last week, the best we could do was find a venue down on the South Shore that just didn't care about the rules.

Jimmy wrote:

sleepyjamie wrote:does this mean all of our brewnosers events are breaking the laws?

As well as any competition AFAIK...

Afaik, too, but we have managed to hold the Canadian Amateur Winemaking championships in Wolfville, at licensed establishments, twice now. Once at Acadia and once at the curling club. I know there was a fair bit of discussion with the NSLC in both cases, though I don't know how the legal issues were actually resolved.

Downs wrote:ok thanks guys

breaks laws hey, i guess its different from where you are from then?
i though i remembered in ontario (where i grew up) you could give away any booze you wanted at a party
as long as you weren't making money
or serving to minors

You can give away booze without a license - but even in Ontario, you can't legally do that in a public hall.

Right, I guess I was just a kid back then and didn't worry or think about the legalities, or it was just a lot easier back in the day.

sigh

What about renting a tent and hiring a cleaning company afterwards?

That might be one of your best bets. You could no doubt do it.

You should be aware that *technically* you would still "require" a liquor license for this and wouldn't be able to serve homebrew and would have to get the Provincial Fire Marshall's approval, etc. I'm pretty sure nobody would search you out in this case.

Obviously I didn't just rent a tent and serve homebrew at my wedding ... that would be illegal.

Yeah, liquor laws still apply, but it's easier to run the tent as you like.

vgoreham wrote:That might be one of your best bets. You could no doubt do it.

You should be aware that *technically* you would still "require" a liquor license for this and wouldn't be able to serve homebrew and would have to get the Provincial Fire Marshall's approval, etc. I'm pretty sure nobody would search you out in this case.

Obviously I didn't just rent a tent and serve homebrew at my wedding ... that would be illegal.

Technically, as far as I can tell you do not require a liquor license for a tent on your own property. The Liquor Control Act says:

[2x] "residence" means

(i) any building, part of a building, tent, mobile home, trailer, ship, yacht or boat where a person resides, including lands appurtenant and adjacent thereto that are essential or appropriate for the private use, occupation and enjoyment thereof, but does not include...

and:

Possession of liquor permitted

62 (1) Except as otherwise provided by this Act or the regulations, liquor lawfully purchased from the Corporation by any person may and is hereby authorized to be kept, had, given and consumed in his residence.

and there doesn't seem to be any relevant exception to 62(1).

So, you should be able to throw a party in a tent on private property without an issue if you've purchased the booze from the NSLC. There doesn't actually seem to be anything in the Act permitting even the consumption of homebrew by the brewer. I expect the Fire Marshall is still an issue, but my experience is that unless the drinking is so out of control as to cause a fire hazard (largely controlled if you insist on no smoking in the tent - which the Fire Marshall would insist on anyway) the Fire Marshall isn't interested in liquor laws.

mmm a tent hey
that is an idea
i think i said originally our anniversary is the end of oct right
that is the challenge
but ill pass that onto the boss and see what she thinks
thanks team