The Bar Towel

Open event, with tickets for the Zwanze pour going on sale today. Who's all in?

Going to sit this one out. Got a wedding that day and timing doesn't work out with how spread out everything is.

$20 for a 3 ounce pour. Hard pass.

I got a single ticket. Website wouldn't let me buy two for some reason. Guess the wife and I are sharing!

BakaGaijin wrote:$20 for a 3 ounce pour. Hard pass.

The cost of the beer is $7.00 (3oz) and the glass is ($13).

Keep6 Imports wrote:

BakaGaijin wrote:$20 for a 3 ounce pour. Hard pass.

The cost of the beer is $7.00 (3oz) and the glass is ($13).

I don't need a glass. The cost of the beer is $20.

Well, no one *needs* a taste of Cantillon Zwanze, either. Glass and beer come as a package. You've made a choice. Others will have chosen differently.

nickw wrote:Well, no one *needs* a taste of Cantillon Zwanze, either. Glass and beer come as a package. You've made a choice. Others will have chosen differently.

Fair enough.

This used to sell out in minutes. Been days and still tickets left. Seems others share this sentiment as well.

I bought a ticket but can't seem to find any sort of confirmation email. Maybe it went to spam....hmmm.
Im going to miss Cask days this year and have skipped a lot of other events, so I don't mind the exaggerated price for the Zwanze taste.

BakaGaijin wrote:

nickw wrote:Well, no one *needs* a taste of Cantillon Zwanze, either. Glass and beer come as a package. You've made a choice. Others will have chosen differently.

Fair enough.

This used to sell out in minutes. Been days and still tickets left. Seems others share this sentiment as well.

I wonder if a move to a non-ticketed event (as opposed to a ticked beer) has also dissuaded people. It used to be that your ticket got you into Volo for Zwanze + all other beers hours ahead of everyone else, thereby maximizing possibilities to try before kegs were gone. Now, if you don't want the beer itself, you can still get in when it opens and be able to drink tastes of Lamvinus, Vigneronne, Gueuze etc throughout the day.

I think Nick is right that the move to non-ticketed may had dissuaded people, but I think the bigger issue is that this comes hot on the heels of the (incredible) Cantillon event, which had a much more impressive lineup of beers. Other than last year (which was a bit of a different situation), a big part of the appeal of the Volo Zwanze events was several Cantillon beers on tap. This year comes across as unexciting by comparison to the recent Cantillon event, so I am not surprised there is less interest.
That said, I have a ticket for the Zwanze, and am actually very glad they have done it this way, as it allows me to pop in at a time when I shouldn't have to line up to get in.
Ren

nickw wrote:

BakaGaijin wrote:

nickw wrote:Well, no one *needs* a taste of Cantillon Zwanze, either. Glass and beer come as a package. You've made a choice. Others will have chosen differently.

Fair enough.

This used to sell out in minutes. Been days and still tickets left. Seems others share this sentiment as well.

I wonder if a move to a non-ticketed event (as opposed to a ticked beer) has also dissuaded people. It used to be that your ticket got you into Volo for Zwanze + all other beers hours ahead of everyone else, thereby maximizing possibilities to try before kegs were gone. Now, if you don't want the beer itself, you can still get in when it opens and be able to drink tastes of Lamvinus, Vigneronne, Gueuze etc throughout the day.

The tap list doesn't really excite me either. Sure, St. Lam and Vig are great...but they don't tap until 7pm and 10pm. If the bar is full you won't get in....even if you have a Zwanze ticket. In the past they had a better selection available all day and bigger pours.

Rather spend my money at Witchstock on Trillium, Other Half, and Wakefield......5 oz pours that cost $3.

I was planning to go to the Vancouver event, but it has been postponed by a week or two due to border issues.

What a time for beer in Toronto when I could just stroll into Volo yesterday at 7pm and walk up to the bar and order a Zwanze.

Didn't need to worry about a ticket, didn't need to deal with lineups. And there was 20 more things I wanted to try but only wanted to do a quick stop.

We're so flush with good beer & events that even Zwanze can assimilate into a regular Saturday night.

Was the list back to being good again? I waited in line for hours last year for a huge disappointment. Previous years were, of course, the stuff of legend.