Southern Tier price point

Jon Walker · Post by **Jon Walker** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 4:33 pm

j0eb0nd7 wrote: Some great Ontario micro-brewed alternatives chock full of hoppy goodness include:

Millstreet Tankhouse Ale
County Durham Signature Ale
Wellington Arkell Best Bitter
Route 666 Pale Ale
Scotch-Irish Sgt Major's IPA

Mmmmmmm!!

Decent beers but they don't hold a candle IMHO to ST IPA.

Illuminatus · Post by **Illuminatus** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 4:36 pm

Jon Walker wrote:
j0eb0nd7 wrote: Some great Ontario micro-brewed alternatives chock full of hoppy goodness include:

Millstreet Tankhouse Ale
County Durham Signature Ale
Wellington Arkell Best Bitter
Route 666 Pale Ale
Scotch-Irish Sgt Major's IPA

Mmmmmmm!!
Decent beers but they don't hold a candle IMHO to ST IPA.

I find the Durham Signature isn't particularly hoppy, its appeal is in the maltiness. The Great Lakes Devil's Pale is quite good, but it's not as citrusly-hoppy as the ST.

El Pinguino · Post by **El Pinguino** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 11:40 pm

Illuminatus wrote:
Jon Walker wrote:
j0eb0nd7 wrote: Some great Ontario micro-brewed alternatives chock full of hoppy goodness include:

Millstreet Tankhouse Ale
County Durham Signature Ale
Wellington Arkell Best Bitter
Route 666 Pale Ale
Scotch-Irish Sgt Major's IPA

Mmmmmmm!!
Decent beers but they don't hold a candle IMHO to ST IPA.
I find the Durham Signature isn't particularly hoppy, its appeal is in the maltiness. The Great Lakes Devil's Pale is quite good, but it's not as citrusly-hoppy as the ST.

Can't comment on Wellington Arkell, but agree that these beers don't match up to ST IPA.

When the ST IPA arrived at Smokeless a month (or more?) ago, I grabbed one. DAMN tasty. I then asked for the 'next' hoppiest beer they had at the time. Was served a Sgt. Major IPA - it tasted like water after the ST IPA.

esprit · Post by **esprit** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:34 pm

Belgian, your comments about relative pricing between Ontario and the U.S. are puzzling as it would appear that you rarely shop in the U.S.. I am regulatly in New York, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco, Miama and our pricing in Ontario for wines & beers is invariably lower than in most major U.S. markets. Where do you get your facts? I'll be in New York next weekend and I'll survey beer prices but I'm sure I'll find that our prices are either comparable or a bargain. Stop this fallacy about price discrepancies as it's just that...we have great pricing here...what we don't have is selection.

crawler · Post by **crawler** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 3:01 pm

New York City is more expensive than Ontario for beer bottles in stores...

but it's definitely cheaper in Maryland and Massachusetts than it is here.

Prices are highly localized, based on state/city alcohol excise taxes etc.

esprit · Post by **esprit** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 7:52 pm

Prices are higher in most places in the U.S. and state this from personal experience. There may be some expections but I've been to small towns in California, Oregon and NY state as well as large cities and, for the most part, we get a great deal here. Check our Premier Gourmet as the best and closest example. I call them all the time to get comparable pricing and I don't recall the last time they were selling for less than it sells for in Ontario. The difference between our markets is that I can go to a tiny town in California and find all the Chimays, all the Smiths, all the Lindemans products in a small corner convenience store...now that's convenience!

crawler · Post by **crawler** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 8:45 pm

I agree that when you compare UK imports, it is cheaper here in Ontario than in the U.S.

Comparing local micros vs. local micros, because of lower excise taxes, I can go into a supermarket in Massachusetts and definitely get a 6 pack from a local New England microbrewery (~$9) for less than when I'm in Ontario and want to get a 6 pack from a local Ontario craft brewer (~$12 for Mill Street as an example), regardless of the channel (direct from the brewer or LCBO).

viggo · Post by **viggo** » Sun Jun 22, 2008 9:04 pm

Most of the Euro beers we get here are way cheaper than anywhere else.

Tapsucker · Post by **Tapsucker** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:51 pm

I just picked up a couple sixes od ST without twist-offs or stickers. No price reduction though.

You'd think for the premium price they would at least put 'em in the cooler!

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:01 pm

EVERY time I crack one of those paper seals is an affirmation that 1) paying 30 cents for it sucks and then 2) I'd rather drink proper good IPA than give a tinker's fuck about that 30 cent piece of paper on my Southern Tier.

Hell, 30 cents is just the amount of parking you over-pay in Toronto because the meter clocks are deliberately set back a few minutes. It's just the daily Pound of Flesh the world takes from you, let it go.

Bought a Dragon Stout to try out... The Grolsch Weizen is still decent but you need to drink this style really fresh. Stuart's Session Ale kicks. SnowFresh is okay but weird. Schoffenhofer Grapefruit is refreshingly juice-like in almost a beer kind of way but not really a beer, good though.

dutchcanuck · Post by **dutchcanuck** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:28 am

Well guys,
I am done buying beer at the LCBO. Drove over to Niagara Falls, NY, from St. Catharines, took less than 30 minutes and stopped in at Consumers Beverages. Low and behold, they had Southern Tier IPA sittingly nicely in the fridge. So I walked over while I admired the belgians and british imports and I picked up a twelve pack of that IPA, which has alluded me for weeks and the price tag was $14.99. Yeah...for an extra 90 cents, plus the "exchange" rate I got double the number of wonderful bottles of ST IPA. Throw in the fact that I tanked up my car at $4.26 a gallon...roughly $1.09 a litre and was waved through at the border on the way home.
So yeah, goodbye LCBO...hello free market beer economy.

Ale's What Cures Ya · Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:57 am

dutchcanuck wrote: So yeah, goodbye LCBO...hello free market beer economy.

Congratulations on experiencing the light good sir!

Jon Walker · Post by **Jon Walker** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:49 am

dutchcanuck wrote:Well guys,
I am done buying beer at the LCBO. Drove over to Niagara Falls, NY, from St. Catharines, took less than 30 minutes and stopped in at Consumers Beverages. Low and behold, they had Southern Tier IPA sittingly nicely in the fridge. So I walked over while I admired the belgians and british imports and I picked up a twelve pack of that IPA, which has alluded me for weeks and the price tag was $14.99. Yeah...for an extra 90 cents, plus the "exchange" rate I got double the number of wonderful bottles of ST IPA. Throw in the fact that I tanked up my car at $4.26 a gallon...roughly $1.09 a litre and was waved through at the border on the way home.
So yeah, goodbye LCBO...hello free market beer economy.

But without the paper LCBO tamper strips how will you ever know if the beer is safe to drink?

Ale's What Cures Ya · Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:53 pm

bujubanton · Post by **bujubanton** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:32 pm

good luck dutch...you are a brave man to drink it without LCBO lab testing!!