LCBO Beau's Brewery Feature

cfrancis · Post by **cfrancis** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:06 am

I think there would be a whole lot less backlash to this feature if the beers were not $10 a bottle.

I love the Beau's people and the business model but it's going to be tough for me to run out and grab these like I have with mostly every other offering they have done.

That is a steep price when I thought they had a ton of margin in their existing $7.85/bottle for specials.

The selection in the LCBO has improved greatly in the past couple of years and to stand and look at the shelves and see the alternatives to the Beaus release at a much reduced price it's a difficult pill to swallow.

darmokandjalad · Post by **darmokandjalad** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:23 am

cfrancis wrote:I think there would be a whole lot less backlash to this feature if the beers were not $10 a bottle...

The selection in the LCBO has improved greatly in the past couple of years and to stand and look at the shelves and see the alternatives to the Beaus release at a much reduced price it's a difficult pill to swallow.

I tend to agree, but as others have already said, a lukewarm response should be expected when you follow up a Founders' feature with an Ontario brewery feature.

I will stop and think long and hard (at least most of the time) before spending $10+ on a bottle of a proven, world-class beer from Europe or the States. I've probably only had 6-7 Beau's beers, all of them at least decent, but none of them were anywhere near worth that price. And yes, I'd agree with the consensus that their products are overpriced to begin with.

Not that it really matters, because my area never sees these special releases, and I'm certainly not driving to London for ten dollar Beau's one-offs.

jaymack · Post by **jaymack** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:33 am

A chilled Lugtread on a summer day tastes perfectly fine to me. I, too, would be happy to buy more Beua's but does the price tag justify the means?

A bottle of Lugtread in a 4-pack works out to 3.96 a bottle. Very reasonable.
Adding up all their other offerings, the average price is almost double at 7.47.

codfishh · Post by **codfishh** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:06 am

Beers are all barrel aged as well, at least the ones on the brewery website are anyways.

Ashnan
Wild Oats No. 40
Wheat Wine (Aged in Chardonnay Barrels) • 9.8% alc/vol

Gilgamesh
Wild Oats No. 37
Old Ale (Aged in Rum Barrels)• 8.9% alc/vol

Sargon
Wild Oats No. 39
Ginger Beer (Aged in Rum Barrels) • 6.0% alc/vol

Siduri
Wild Oats No. 38
White Pepper Saison (Aged in Red Ice Wine Barrels) • 10.2% alc/vol

spinrsx · Post by **spinrsx** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:06 pm

well that somewhat explains the cost I guess..

codfishh wrote:Beers are all barrel aged as well, at least the ones on the brewery website are anyways.

Ashnan
Wild Oats No. 40
Wheat Wine (Aged in Chardonnay Barrels) • 9.8% alc/vol

Gilgamesh
Wild Oats No. 37
Old Ale (Aged in Rum Barrels)• 8.9% alc/vol

Sargon
Wild Oats No. 39
Ginger Beer (Aged in Rum Barrels) • 6.0% alc/vol

Siduri
Wild Oats No. 38
White Pepper Saison (Aged in Red Ice Wine Barrels) • 10.2% alc/vol

TheSevenDuffs · Post by **TheSevenDuffs** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:16 pm

codfishh wrote:Beers are all barrel aged as well, at least the ones on the brewery website are anyways.

Ashnan
Wild Oats No. 40
Wheat Wine (Aged in Chardonnay Barrels) • 9.8% alc/vol

Gilgamesh
Wild Oats No. 37
Old Ale (Aged in Rum Barrels)• 8.9% alc/vol

Sargon
Wild Oats No. 39
Ginger Beer (Aged in Rum Barrels) • 6.0% alc/vol

Siduri
Wild Oats No. 38
White Pepper Saison (Aged in Red Ice Wine Barrels) • 10.2% alc/vol

Oddly enough, they posted a picture of the 4 bottles on their FB page. The make no mention of barrel treatments there either.

But... if i take a close look at the labels (looks like they've done the whole 'wrap-the-bottle-in-paper' thing, which I just don't get), I can't make out the words but it does appear that the words "aged in XXX barrels" do appear in small text below the beer names.

If these beers are barrel aged, I am really confused... one thing that most of us agree on is that Beau's does a great job marketing and the lack of disclosure (pre-release) on these as being barrel aged it baffling...

spinrsx · Post by **spinrsx** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:19 pm

also says that they will be available tomorrow at the lcbo

Kekumba · Post by **Kekumba** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:19 pm

They're described as "Beau’s LCBO Barrel Aged Beer Feature for spring 2014" on the website. Perhaps multiple people updating things.

I've been quite pleased with the last few Greener Futures releases (likely because they stopped using only bourbon barrels), so hopefully these are even better considering they were intended to be put in barrels from the start. I'm actually really looking forward to trying that saison.

Oh, and you guys will love the over the top Beau's packaging on these...

TheSevenDuffs · Post by **TheSevenDuffs** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:21 pm

OK, did a little more digging and found this:

http://beaus.ca/beer/wild_oats/gilgamesh

"Beau’s LCBO Barrel Aged Beer Feature for spring 2014 is inspired by the art and mythology of ancient Mesopotamia."

So, this is a barrel aged feature. Not sure if the LCBO is to blame for not properly communicating this to Greg, but this could have at least changed the discussion on the pricing in this tread had we known from the beginning.[/b]

liamt07 · Post by **liamt07** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:42 pm

If these are barrel aged, I'm assuming they're part of the Greener Futures project as well. Which means I've already paid for them. I guess that's a good thing?

lister · Post by **lister** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:44 pm

I might give the Siduri a go. I'm curious about the red ice wine influence.

TheSevenDuffs · Post by **TheSevenDuffs** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:46 pm

lister wrote:I might give the Siduri a go. I'm curious about the red ice wine influence.

Same here. I am definitely going to pick this one up now. Might give one of the other ones a go, too (probably the Old Ale).

groulxsome · Post by **groulxsome** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:42 pm

TheSevenDuffs wrote:Not sure if the LCBO is to blame for not properly communicating this to Greg, but this could have at least changed the discussion on the pricing in this tread had we known from the beginning.

I don't think they wanted any information out about them until they finalized a few things about the release. Probably including the exact ABV, since they were barrel aged. I e-mailed when they were listed on the LCBO website to try to get the drinkvine release page written up for them and they said there were some things sill being finalized, so weren't revealing anything until today. Speaking of that drinkvine release page, I ought to get on that...

MatttthewGeorge · Post by **MatttthewGeorge** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 5:06 pm

Just saw a tweet saying they're at Queen's Quay, with this photo:

So the price is starting to make a bit more sense now, with the barrel-aging and the pretty packaging.

TheSevenDuffs · Post by **TheSevenDuffs** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 5:08 pm

MatttthewGeorge wrote:
So the price is starting to make a bit more sense now, with the barrel-aging and the pretty packaging.

I think the packaging makes it look like wine cooler that are being marketed to teenage girls. And paying for extra layers of packaging is not something I support.

That being said, just taking the barrel aging in to account makes the prices seem reasonable now.