New Arrivals at LCBO & TBS

[Blasphomet]

Loooool! Lake of Bays fucking suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. Honestly, that is the most laughable price of an OCB I've seen in some time considering how second tier of a brewery it is. Never had a beer of theirs that anything other than below average, and I am quite certain I will never purchase another of their brews because of that.... and this. Looooooool!

Now the OCB and LC are going to act as if bottling their beer in a growler is a favour and super special and we should be happy to pay ridiculous prices for it.

Good going Lake of Bays!

[MatttthewGeorge]

1) not the only growler at the LCBO
2) other growler at LCBO is the same price
3) beer plus growler is $15+ at any brewery

[mahcinesquad]

1) not the only growler at the LCBO
2) other growler at LCBO is the same price
3) beer plus growler is $15+ at any brewery

So the $15.95 includes deposit? How much is that? I don't remember growler fills being $15+ at most breweries.

[midlife crisis]

1) not the only growler at the LCBO
2) other growler at LCBO is the same price
3) beer plus growler is $15+ at any brewery

So the $15.95 includes deposit? How much is that? I don't remember growler fills being $15+ at most breweries.

Whether there is a deposit or not, you are purchasing the growler, which must factor into the cost.

[darmokandjalad]

1) not the only growler at the LCBO
2) other growler at LCBO is the same price
3) beer plus growler is $15+ at any brewery

These are valid points, but I don't find them nearly as compelling as these two:

An equivalent of less than a 6 pack for $16? Yeesh.

And the bonus is that you basically have to drink it all at once. Yay?!

The fact that their existing canned lagers are pretty bad does not do this one any favours, either. For the record, I have tasted pigskin pilsner, so I am not just trashing a product that I have never tried. It's better than Rock Cut, but that is not saying much at all, because Rock Cut is one of the worst 'craft' beers I've ever had.

To be fair, this is just a growler of pale lager with a football texture on the label. I really doubt it's being marketed towards the sort of beer drinkers who use sites like this. I guess if clueless consumers (or compulsive tickers such as myself) want to overpay for it, that's fine. It doesn't strike me as being a great long-term way to do things, though.

[napoleon]

I mean the weirdest thing is why anyone would want a pre-packaged growler from the LCBO. Growlers are normally for beers where the point is that
A) They're very freshly brewed and on draft.
B) Brewers that don't have bottling lines or have a one-off that's not worth bottling.
C) For the experience of taking something home from the brewery.

I've never really felt motivated to purchase something that large in the LCBO.

[Craig]

Sounds like a gimmick to me. People will buy them because the bottle looks cool. Maybe it will even be one of those flip-top growlers we used to see at Christmas sometimes.

[MatttthewGeorge]

(Disclosure: I work for LB, in case anyone didn't know)

It's not a flip top. I'm not too sure about the gimmick thing. Lake of the Woods only had growlers (not cans/bottles) and submitted to the LCBO. After their trial run they (LC) were looking for someone to do it province wide. We did it last year too, same beer. So from our prospective we're not doing it as a gimmick, we're doing it as that's what they asked. If they said we could have put the same liquid in a can we would have done that, but that wasn't an option. Will Joe Public buy it as a gimmick? Maybe. But that not the intent.

As for the liquid, that's not my place to comment. There's a lot of LB hate on here, and even if we released something amazing people will hate it just cause it's LB. So be it. I'm not a homer; I certainly don't love every beer we make and wouldn't pretend otherwise. But to say everything we do sucks is just not objective in the least. I'm not saying you should have to buy a $16 growler to be objective. If it's not the right price for you, or if LB hasn't made anything thus far you feel warrants that price, that's fine. But everything doesn't fucking suuuuuuuuuuuuck, and our pricing is no different than Monkeys or Muskoka or plenty of others.

(Insert haters gonna hate pic here)

[Belgian]

I don't hate Lake of Bays Porter at all, and the LCBO can seem silly in their arbitrary format changes (especially when it takes the power out of the hands of the brewer.)

[mahcinesquad]

My comment was just to the growler of pilsner. To me it seems pricey, and I'd have the same opinion if monkeys or muskoka released a similar beer in that format.

I also agree with growlers being an inconvenient size. When breweries offer a quart growler as opposed to the traditional half gallon, I generally go for that, even when it's more expensive per ml.

I've had LB products that I like and some that I don't. LB being the brewer didn't really factor in to it.

[JerCraigs]

As for the liquid, that's not my place to comment. There's a lot of LB hate on here, and even if we released something amazing people will hate it just cause it's LB. So be it.... I'm not saying you should have to buy a $16 growler to be objective. If it's not the right price for you, or if LB hasn't made anything thus far you feel warrants that price, that's fine. But everything doesn't fucking suuuuuuuuuuuuck, and our pricing is no different than Monkeys or Muskoka or plenty of others.

I think that saying people hate it just because it's Lake of Bays is wrong, but "fucking suuuuuuuck" is also probably a bit harsh. I rated the Pigskin Pilsener as my top beer from LoB, and that's not even a style I am particularly fond of. That said, I have mostly stopped buying the 750mL bottles because the quality is generally average at best, and having to commit to $10 and a large bottle to find out when there are other more proven options available at comparable (or sometimes lower) price points makes that tough.

I have similar issues with Flying Monkeys - personally think that many of their large format beers would be better served in smaller less fancy packaging because of the nature of the beers and the fact that the packaging adds to the cost. That said, in both cases, LoB and FM have (presumably) determined that for every person like me that hums and hahs about it, they gain sales from people that are drawn in by the packaging etc. It swings both ways.

[atomeyes]

(Disclosure: I work for LB, in case anyone didn't know)


As for the liquid, that's not my place to comment. There's a lot of LB hate on here, and even if we released something amazing people will hate it just cause it's LB. )

not to tangent too much. just being honest.
someone like me sees your hockey series as a total gimmick and selling beer to hockey dummies who normally reach for Molson Canadian. i received a few bottles of the Chelios beer as a gift and it is drinkable at best. i keep it for parties for people who bring meh beer and run out of beer and I don't want them touching my homebrew or my cellar. and I've yet to have a LoB beer that i say "that's actually quite nice."

sometimes when there's smoke, there's fire. you guys appear to only be fanning the flames instead of investigating if you should put out the fires.

[Kel Varnsen]

I mean the weirdest thing is why anyone would want a pre-packaged growler from the LCBO. Growlers are normally for beers where the point is that
A) They're very freshly brewed and on draft.
B) Brewers that don't have bottling lines or have a one-off that's not worth bottling.
C) For the experience of taking something home from the brewery.

I've never really felt motivated to purchase something that large in the LCBO.

The choice of a growler seems weird considering that for most people at best once you drink it, it becomes a conversation piece. I mean it is not like you could take it to another brewery and get it filled. And it I would assume that if you took it back to the beer store as a bottle return you would get a 20 cent deposit back.

That said I do have one growler that I bought once that was non-returnable. It was from Big Rig in Ottawa and it was a charity/commemorative brew as part of the Ride for Dad charity event. Basically that growler goes in my car anytime we make a cross border trip and I can fill it up somewhere in New York.

[midlife crisis]

The irrational hate of a few for LoB is weird and unjustified - a bit reminiscent of how some on here feel about Beaus, in my view. The LoB beers that I have tried have mostly been average. That is not high praise but they certainly didn't "suuuuuck", either. I especially liked the Vienna Lager in the hockey player series. Also, if you ever get the chance to go to Baysville, they have an attractive location with a sweet little beer garden attached. I wish more craft brewers in Ontario would do something like that. Having said all that, I rarely buy LoB beer. The pricing (especially of the one-offs like the hockey player thing) is just too exorbitant for me to justify. The growler is actually pretty fairly priced when you consider you're ending up with a $5 bottle too, but as said above, who needs another empty growler?

[jeremyg]

i don't buy LoB stuff (don't like it, tho the pilsner was quite good) but i'd certainly say there are far, far worse stuff on the shelves at the lcbo for equally high prices. Beaus and Flying Monkeys comes to mind.