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We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
Private Ordering
- Wheatsheaf
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: Midtown
- Contact:
Private Ordering
There was a thread last October about the LCBO's private ordering program (click here to have a look at it). Lately, a few people have expressed interest in getting some otherwise unavailable beers like Fuller's Vintage Ale and Bear Republic, and I'm currently on a quest for Schultheiss Berliner Weisse and Schlenkerla UrBock, so I'm wondering if anyone has pursued anything else and wants to share their successes and failures (mostly the latter, probably).
I take it that several people have managed to get some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and that it's available for a pretty reasonable price. Is that still the case? Has anyone tried to order anything else from them like Celebration or Bigfoot? Any luck with other California brewers like Stone, Alesmith, or North Coast?
The low cost of shipping from California compared with everywhere else (going by what the LCBO's website says) would seem to weigh heavily in favour of that state's breweries in terms of overall cost to the consumer here. I suppose that shipping costs would be a lot more from states that don't already send large quantities of wine or spirits to the LCBO. Has anyone asked about other US breweries--maybe Three Floyds, Kalamazoo (Bell's), or Hair of the Dog? What about European beers? Are the costs exorbitant? Surely someone, either on a whim or in all seriousness, has submitted a request for some De Dolle, Drie Fonteinen, Fantome, J.W. Lees...
I'm guessing that the most common response to these kinds of requests is: "sorry, unavailable." I really don't think for a moment that there are a whole bunch of breweries out there eager to take tiny and sporadic orders from a few people in Ontario, but there doesn't seem to be any harm in trying to find out if there are more that just one or two who are willing to do so. And it would be nice to know who they are and what we can get from them. When you're starting to drown in a sea of cookie-cutter pale lagers from around the world, you need options, don't you?
* * *
On a related note, does anyone have any experience with private ordering in Quebec? I've posted a few of the relevant links below for anyone who hasn't looked into it before. If nothing else, beer enthusiast groups like Bieropholie and L'Institut de la Biere seem to be better organized to facilitate such orders than we are. Prices are pretty good, and the selection of beers available for order appears to be getting better and better, and now includes Fantome, Stone, hard-to-find beers like Rochefort 6, and, yes, Cantillon (even the Kriek!).
Bieropholie Importations Privee (orclick here for a crude, but understandable, translation courtesy of Google)
L'Institut de la Biere Importations Privee (orclick here for the Google-translated version)
Office des Grand Crus (one of the Quebec agents)
* * *
A bit long-winded, perhaps, but I thought that I'd throw it out for discussion.
I take it that several people have managed to get some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and that it's available for a pretty reasonable price. Is that still the case? Has anyone tried to order anything else from them like Celebration or Bigfoot? Any luck with other California brewers like Stone, Alesmith, or North Coast?
The low cost of shipping from California compared with everywhere else (going by what the LCBO's website says) would seem to weigh heavily in favour of that state's breweries in terms of overall cost to the consumer here. I suppose that shipping costs would be a lot more from states that don't already send large quantities of wine or spirits to the LCBO. Has anyone asked about other US breweries--maybe Three Floyds, Kalamazoo (Bell's), or Hair of the Dog? What about European beers? Are the costs exorbitant? Surely someone, either on a whim or in all seriousness, has submitted a request for some De Dolle, Drie Fonteinen, Fantome, J.W. Lees...
I'm guessing that the most common response to these kinds of requests is: "sorry, unavailable." I really don't think for a moment that there are a whole bunch of breweries out there eager to take tiny and sporadic orders from a few people in Ontario, but there doesn't seem to be any harm in trying to find out if there are more that just one or two who are willing to do so. And it would be nice to know who they are and what we can get from them. When you're starting to drown in a sea of cookie-cutter pale lagers from around the world, you need options, don't you?
* * *
On a related note, does anyone have any experience with private ordering in Quebec? I've posted a few of the relevant links below for anyone who hasn't looked into it before. If nothing else, beer enthusiast groups like Bieropholie and L'Institut de la Biere seem to be better organized to facilitate such orders than we are. Prices are pretty good, and the selection of beers available for order appears to be getting better and better, and now includes Fantome, Stone, hard-to-find beers like Rochefort 6, and, yes, Cantillon (even the Kriek!).
Bieropholie Importations Privee (orclick here for a crude, but understandable, translation courtesy of Google)
L'Institut de la Biere Importations Privee (orclick here for the Google-translated version)
Office des Grand Crus (one of the Quebec agents)
* * *
A bit long-winded, perhaps, but I thought that I'd throw it out for discussion.
Heard from the LCBO a couple of weeks back regarding the possibility of obtaining some Old Rasputin from North Coast; the brewery had a minimum order of 72 cases.Wheatsheaf wrote:Any luck with other California brewers like Stone, Alesmith, or North Coast?
Thanks for the Quebec-related links btw -- will have to look into that later tonight.
I ordered some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and it came in at around $47.00 a case(24x 341mL bottles). I ordered it last December and it arrivied in early April. At $47 a case or $11.75 a six pack it is 30 cents more than a Ontario micro such as Black Oak Pale Ale. I think the reason it took 4 months to arrive is that the LCBO waited till they had a large shipment of California wine before they shipped my beer.
- Wheatsheaf
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: Midtown
- Contact:
Well, it would be to Quebec provided you're in Quebec. If you live in Quebec, those are the beers you can order. You place your orders on the websites, send a deposit, and collect your beer at your nearest SAQ.JerCraigs wrote:Are you talking about ordering stuff FROM Quebec or to Quebec?
But I just posted the links out of interest and for the sake of comparison. I'm not planning on ordering anything.
And I was thinking about New Glarus, too, but they hardly even ship outside of Wisconsin--so no real surprise there.
- Wheatsheaf
- Posts: 411
- Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: Midtown
- Contact:
Just an update on a couple of beers that I've asked about...
Schultheiss Berliner Weisse: The LCBO didn't receive any reply to their queries, so I sent them some additional contact information. I'm still waiting for a concrete yes or no, but I doubt it's going to go any further.
Hair of the Dog Adam: It's available, but the minimum order is 40 cases. (It's almost hard to believe that HotD Fred was actually available at the LCBO once--in 1998, if I'm not mistaken.)
Schlenkerla UrBock and Weizen: I contacted the agent, H.H.D. Imports, and eventually got a polite reply saying that they could offer both. And for a good price, too (around $70 per case of 20, or $3.50 per bottle). One problem: a minimum order of five cases per product. I sent a reply back, basically saying that five cases was too much for me to order on my own, but that there is probably sufficient interest out there to justify a bigger order provided that the minimum could be dropped to one case. I haven't heard back yet, so I don't know if that's a possibility or not. I might follow-up on this in the future, and anyone else who's interested should feel free to do the same (the relevant contact info is on their website).
Schultheiss Berliner Weisse: The LCBO didn't receive any reply to their queries, so I sent them some additional contact information. I'm still waiting for a concrete yes or no, but I doubt it's going to go any further.
Hair of the Dog Adam: It's available, but the minimum order is 40 cases. (It's almost hard to believe that HotD Fred was actually available at the LCBO once--in 1998, if I'm not mistaken.)
Schlenkerla UrBock and Weizen: I contacted the agent, H.H.D. Imports, and eventually got a polite reply saying that they could offer both. And for a good price, too (around $70 per case of 20, or $3.50 per bottle). One problem: a minimum order of five cases per product. I sent a reply back, basically saying that five cases was too much for me to order on my own, but that there is probably sufficient interest out there to justify a bigger order provided that the minimum could be dropped to one case. I haven't heard back yet, so I don't know if that's a possibility or not. I might follow-up on this in the future, and anyone else who's interested should feel free to do the same (the relevant contact info is on their website).
- DukeofYork = Richard
- Posts: 159
- Joined: Sat Sep 21, 2002 8:00 pm
- joey_capps
- Bar Fly
- Posts: 592
- Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2001 7:00 pm
- Location: Waterdown
I remember hearing that either Three Floyds or Bell's (can't remember which) will only distribute to regions in which they can employ a full time sales representative. Makes sense for a craft brewery in terms of quality control.Wheatsheaf wrote:Has anyone asked about other US breweries--maybe Three Floyds, Kalamazoo (Bell's), or Hair of the Dog?
Joe.