2020-2021 Winter Season at the LCBO

[JaseWescott]

17937 Midnight Blackberry Sour
17816 Railway City - Merry & Bright Cranberry Lager
17859 Cameron's Winter Sampler
17934 Refined Fool, Can of Beans, Coffee Blonde
17941 Organic 4PM Sunset
17935 Volt Dry Hopped Blackberry Dessert Sour
17936 Defenestration Czech Dark Lager
13645 Caledon Hills Deadly Dark
18014 Dunkel
18005 Scotch Ale
18013 Strong Scotch Ale
18022 Big Chill IPA
18016 Raspberry Hibiscus Sour
18009 Drop Bear - Double IPA
13863 Dusk to Dawn White Stout
18011 Kichesippi Corktown Stout
437244 Broadhead Oatmeal Stout
18021 Old Tomorrow Double Double Coffee Milk Stout
138276 Brown Cow
18015 Sawdust City LDV Coffee Vanilla Imperial Stout
668764 Dubbel
18020 Waterloo Maple Spiced Pecan Old Ale
13828 Mares in a Jam
638874 MacLean's Armchair Scotch Ale
13851 Spice Factory winter warmer
549907 Walkerville Kremlin Russian Imperial Stout
13791 Winter
13647 Big Kahuna Imperial IPA
17887 Hop Blaster Sour Cherry IPA
18012 Lake Of Bays Apex Triple IPA
488072 Grand River Russian Gun
546523 Starry Night Chocolate Stout
18017 Cowbell Brewing Co. Double Exposure Double IP
644351 Left Field Brewery Go-Ahead Gose
643106 Peanut Butter Shake
17940 Left Field Brewery 10 Cent Beer Night
122272 Pitchfork Porter
18018 Mocha Stout
12284 Beau's DAVIDs TEA London Fog
18638 Good Time Session IPA
549691 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
19258 Raspberry Uber Sour Beer
442319 Collective Arts Stranger Than Fiction
15441 Collective Arts Raspberry Dry Hopped Sour
19262 Sawdust City Gnarnia Hazy Session IPA
18757 Omnipollo Bianca Maple Blueberry Pancake
543074 Winey Bastard
549865 Divercity Helles Lager
552687 Cheeky Bastard
438705 Bitter Waitress Black IPA
17906 Great Lakes-Hanlan's Point Coconut Coffee Porter
445577 Great Lakes Brewery - Lake Effect IPA
17671 Beau's LUG 2.5%


474072 Big Rig Midnight Kissed My Cow Stout
17944 Collective Arts IPA No. 15
296269 Wellington Imperial Russian Stout
17943 Nickel Brook IPA Mystery Pack
17945 Collective Arts Blueberry, Chocolate & Coffee Sour
543389 Kentucky Bastard 2020
543082 Cafe del Bastardo 2020
555474 Glory & Gold 2020
498576 Great Lakes Brewery-Robohop NEIIPA
13738 Great Lakes Brewery-As Far Back As I Can Remember
10197 Great Lakes Brewery-Meanwhile... Down in Moxee
17907 Je Ne Sais Quoi - Lemongrass Ginger Saison 2020
17910 Left Field Brewery Ice Cold Beer
482406 Loose Lips Lager
11226 Blood Moon Blood Orange Sour
17908 Fruit Jelly King - Raspberry & Black Raspberry
17909 Rizen
18117 Collingwood Freestyle Vanilla Oatmeal Stout

[Cadbury102]

Devastating to have missed GI's Bourbon County Stout this year. Sold out already

[JaseWescott]

Devastating to have missed GI's Bourbon County Stout this year. Sold out already

you didn't wait in line like a Sith Lord?

[seangm]

Devastating to have missed GI's Bourbon County Stout this year. Sold out already

You're a week late. I think it sold out online in about 25 minutes.

[cboden]

Devastating to have missed GI's Bourbon County Stout this year. Sold out already

You're a week late. I think it sold out online in about 25 minutes.

Less than that. I missed out on it and Muddy York's Inkwell this year. MY sold out of the Port cask in about 5 minutes and Sherry in 12. Both breweries offerings have always gone fast, but this year was a whole different speed.

MY sold everything they bottled. But what I don't understand GI though...that stuff is so mass produced and in some areas of the US sits on shelves for months. Yet it sells out in Ontario within minutes or hours every year. They know it will sell out because they put a 2 bottle per customer limit on it. Why don't they provide us with more inventory?

[Craig]

I suspect "they" sell out very quickly in the US too. They being GI, that is. It definitely sits on store shelves for a while.

[cratez]

There are no imports listed there?

[seangm]

Devastating to have missed GI's Bourbon County Stout this year. Sold out already

You're a week late. I think it sold out online in about 25 minutes.

Less than that. I missed out on it and Muddy York's Inkwell this year. MY sold out of the Port cask in about 5 minutes and Sherry in 12. Both breweries offerings have always gone fast, but this year was a whole different speed.

MY sold everything they bottled. But what I don't understand GI though...that stuff is so mass produced and in some areas of the US sits on shelves for months. Yet it sells out in Ontario within minutes or hours every year. They know it will sell out because they put a 2 bottle per customer limit on it. Why don't they provide us with more inventory?

Yea I'm not sure why it's so limited here as there's clearly demand, but perhaps that's how they justify charging $23. I've seen it as low as $9.99 in the US so the rarity and price for us is definitely artificial. Perhaps they could still limit the bottles per person but offer more variants? Guess we'll see what happens next year.

[beerstodiscover]

Yea I'm not sure why it's so limited here as there's clearly demand, but perhaps that's how they justify charging $23. I've seen it as low as $9.99 in the US so the rarity and price for us is definitely artificial. Perhaps they could still limit the bottles per person but offer more variants? Guess we'll see what happens next year.

I suspect it's either a marketing strategy to create hype around the GI brand or perhaps corporate half-assery.

Previous BCBS releases in Toronto entailed lineups at Summerhill during business hours and pretty high prices, which were easy to forgo. I remember picking up a four-pack of 12-oz BCBS for under US$25 about 5 years ago in NYC without seeking it out. This year's price wasn't too bad and the process was much simpler for me to partake.

[cboden]

Yea I'm not sure why it's so limited here as there's clearly demand, but perhaps that's how they justify charging $23. I've seen it as low as $9.99 in the US so the rarity and price for us is definitely artificial. Perhaps they could still limit the bottles per person but offer more variants? Guess we'll see what happens next year.

I suspect it's either a marketing strategy to create hype around the GI brand or perhaps corporate half-assery.

Previous BCBS releases in Toronto entailed lineups at Summerhill during business hours and pretty high prices, which were easy to forgo. I remember picking up a four-pack of 12-oz BCBS for under US$25 about 5 years ago in NYC without seeking it out. This year's price wasn't too bad and the process was much simpler for me to partake.

I'm going to put my money on corporate half-assery. The CEO of GI publicly admitted the declining interest in BCBS each year and how they're trying to come up with innovative ways to keep people engaged. I was in Chicago in March 2019. Stopped in at their brewhouse and picked up bottles of 2018 and 2017. There might be actual limited availability for Proprietor’s and certain variants, but the core is plentiful. They seem to do a sub-par job maximizing allocation destinations.

In the book Bourbon Aged Stout and Selling Out the author describes how ABInBev's distributors who push the most volume year round are "rewarded" with high allocations of BCBS when it's released. This doesn't necessarily correlate to BCBS sales though. If one distributor sells tons of macro a year their patrons probably aren't interested in BCBS, which is why it sits on some shelves all year.

[Belgian]

It seemed Bourbon County had more bourbon barrel character in 2007 or so when I first tried it.

That first small bottle was so intense, I had to share it. Can still remember the flavor impressions.

[beerstodiscover]

ABInBev's distributors who push the most volume year round are "rewarded" with high allocations of BCBS when it's released.

This sounds about right for ABInBev, where BCBS is likely a tiny drop in their massive bucket. But I guess these allocations don't cross the border where we drink a lot of macro too. IIRC LCBO got 570 bottles of BCBS total this year.

[Belgian]

IIRC LCBO got 570 bottles of BCBS total this year.

That's actually funny, for all of Ontario? The world's largest buyer of alcoholic beverages that totally controls its market gets only 570 single units?

One person could drink that many beers in a year... Ontario has 13 million people.

[jp_jkl]

This sounds about right for ABInBev, where BCBS is likely a tiny drop in their massive bucket. But I guess these allocations don't cross the border where we drink a lot of macro too. IIRC LCBO got 570 bottles of BCBS total this year.

570 is more than they got in previous years. In 2017 and 2018 when the only location selling BCBS was in Toronto, it was between 100 to 200 bottles. Still not enough to meet demand. It would be nice if we got the variants here, or just a larger amount of it. For 4 years in a row, it's sold out instantly and the LCBO doesn't even promote it on their social media accounts. Clearly it's popular.

I've managed to pick up 2 BCBS bottles every year since 2017 by getting in line early or on the website at the correct time. I love drinking one on Christmas Day and I don't mind the cost as it's a once a year thing.

Every year people say it's cheaper in the US, just buy it there, it sits on the shelves. I've never seen it just sitting there for $9 all year long. It's difficult to find and quite expensive in Michigan. This year my brother-in-law in Ann Arbor bought 5 BCBS bottles, 2 of those were variants, and paid $110. It seems to sell out quickly in western New York as well.

[portwood]

... but perhaps that's how they justify charging $23...

I suspect it's either a marketing strategy to create hype around the GI brand or perhaps corporate half-assery.

Both of these are true, however, the fact the beer is 14.6% ABV does not help. If I remember correctly, in ON beer over 12% is considered a spirit and attracts much higher tax - this is why all (?) Ontario barrel aged and imperial stouts are labeled as 11.9%