The Bar Towel

Tapsucker wrote:

saints_gambit wrote:

sprague11 wrote:JSJ for best beer writer at the next Golden Taps?

Victory in our time will be reward enough.

Or some more book sales!

aw shucks, I'm shilling now...

Oh crap! I forgot!

HEY EVERYONE! BUY MY BOOK!

http://www.bargecraftbeer.ca/wp-content ... Reform.pdf

Barge's proposal to the government to fix the beer laws and drop their lawsuit. Basically means allowing private retailers, I wish them luck.

Craig wrote:http://www.bargecraftbeer.ca/wp-content ... Reform.pdf

Barge's proposal to the government to fix the beer laws and drop their lawsuit. Basically means allowing private retailers, I wish them luck.

I don't know it will work, but more pressure can't hurt and it forces The Beer Store to fight on several separate fronts in terms of messaging. Clever move from a PR perspective, and the simplicity of the change sought might go viral for its brevity.

http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/ ... opoly.html

Sousa says he's going to "redesign" and "reassess" TBS. The Star says changes are going to come in the March budget. Sounds promising that something will change, but it would be nice to get an idea of what.

Craig wrote:http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/ ... opoly.html

Sousa says he's going to "redesign" and "reassess" TBS. The Star says changes are going to come in the March budget. Sounds promising that something will change, but it would be nice to get an idea of what.

I don't know how a minister of finance can redesign a non-governmental institution. Maybe they're going to nationalize the sucker.

saints_gambit wrote:

Craig wrote:http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/ ... opoly.html

Sousa says he's going to "redesign" and "reassess" TBS. The Star says changes are going to come in the March budget. Sounds promising that something will change, but it would be nice to get an idea of what.

I don't know how a minister of finance can redesign a non-governmental institution. Maybe they're going to nationalize the sucker.

Sousa will make Beer Store Ted an offer he can't refuse...

I can see it coming. All the Wynne government is going to do is introduce a fee/tax/monopoly service charge to extract more money from the Beer Store. Nothing else is going to change. The big brewer's monopoly is going to be legitimized (hey, we are paying for it!). Face it. Except for a few of us beer lovers no one is even talking about change anymore. Wynne promised change just to buy time until the joe six packs found another news story to distract them. Yes, I'm pretty cynical, but I'm sure we aren't going to be buying Stone Ruination at a new Premier Wines Yonge Street location in my lifetime.

Cagiva650 wrote:I can see it coming. All the Wynne government is going to do is introduce a fee/tax/monopoly service charge to extract more money from the Beer Store. Nothing else is going to change. The big brewer's monopoly is going to be legitimized (hey, we are paying for it!). Face it. Except for a few of us beer lovers no one is even talking about change anymore. Wynne promised change just to buy time until the joe six packs found another news story to distract them. Yes, I'm pretty cynical, but I'm sure we aren't going to be buying Stone Ruination at a new Premier Wines Yonge Street location in my lifetime.

I suspect you are right for now. Polling seems to show that more and more people are becoming frustrated with our beer situation. The last one I heard said 66% wanted some sort of reform and the status quo camp garnered only something in the low 20s.

Nothing much is going to happen this round but maybe if we can keep the chatter up it will become an issue in the next election. Parties keep floating it and TBS lobbies them to drop it but eventually a party will decide that the small amount they get from this lobby isn't enough. I think that time is coming soon.

IMO, there's only been in my drinking lifetime three "significant" changes to the way beer is sold in Ontario:

1. Sunday retail hours
2. Extending last call to 2am
3. Permitting brewery tied houses

Other improvements we've seen in the beer scene (such as LCBO improving import selection) has had more to do with market forces rather than structural change.

Even though the awareness of TBS being bad is as prevalent as it has ever been in history, I'm pessimistic that the March budget will add a #4 to the list above. I hope I'm wrong.

Cass wrote:IMO, there's only been in my drinking lifetime three "significant" changes to the way beer is sold in Ontario:

1. Sunday retail hours
2. Extending last call to 2am
3. Permitting brewery tied houses

Other improvements we've seen in the beer scene (such as LCBO improving import selection) has had more to do with market forces rather than structural change.

Even though the awareness of TBS being bad is as prevalent as it has ever been in history, I'm pessimistic that the March budget will add a #4 to the list above. I hope I'm wrong.

I agree that it is unlikely there will substantive changes to TBS.

It is likely there will be some offering to the craft's in terms of distribution.

If not, she will be taking some major heat for destroying business in Ontario.

I hope it's not just sales at farmers markets (which she has already has given to wineries) and has been holding onto to throw us a bone. That will be incredibly lame.

Rob Creighton wrote:That will be incredibly lame.

This is what we pay them for.

Sadly, I agree with everything above. The Libs will extract a bit more cash from TBS's bulging coffers, and declare victory.

Cass: what about the lowering of the drinking age to 18 and then the subsequent semi-reversal to 19 as another significant event in our lifetimes? (Or mine, anyway - others may not be so old).

midlife crisis wrote:Cass: what about the lowering of the drinking age to 18 and then the subsequent semi-reversal to 19 as another significant event in our lifetimes? (Or mine, anyway - others may not be so old).

Well, that didn't happen during my *drinking* life

The reduction from 21 to 18 in 1971, while not quite in my (legal) drinking life, had a huge impact on my high school and the de facto age at which many started drinking.

Yeah, that was quite a bit before my time. My folks were teachers so they remember boozy students in the afternoons.