Black Irish Plain Porter at LCBO store # 200, London

[SteelbackGuy]

Hey folks,


We've got a limited supply of this porter from Scotch Irish at my store. If you're in the London areas, come by and grab some. It is selling really well.

Despite my alcohol restrictions, I tried 2 last night, and they were both dericious with dark chocorate fravours and a roasty coffee finish. Rearry dericious prus tax. You can carr me at the store at 519-451-0220 to set some aside. Good ruck!


Ren

[cratez]

I recently bought a couple bottles of this at the Wellington & Bradley LCBO and they were both flat and sour. The bottles were fresh and refrigerated so the poor quality of each was almost certainly the brewery's fault. This is why many of us have given up on Scotch Irish (Heritage) and Trafalgar.

If you managed to get a couple normal bottles that is great news, but I'm personally not willing to the take the risk and potentially waste more money on SI beers.

Right now I'm still waiting for an Ontario brewer to put a true robust American style porter on retail shelves that doesn't suffer from sour/infection/QC issues or have boatloads of coffee in it. Maybe one day we'll see Nutcracker at the 'BO? I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[matt7215]

I recently bought a couple bottles of this at the Wellington & Bradley LCBO and they were both flat and sour. The bottles were fresh and refrigerated so the poor quality of each was almost certainly the brewery's fault. This is why many of us have given up on Scotch Irish (Heritage) and Trafalgar.

If you managed to get a couple normal bottles that is great news, but I'm personally not willing to the take the risk and potentially waste more money on SI beers.

Right now I'm still waiting for an Ontario brewer to put a true robust American style porter on retail shelves that doesn't suffer from sour/infection/QC issues or have boatloads of coffee in it. Maybe one day we'll see Nutcracker at the 'BO? I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

if the bottles you had were infected, please, please, please return them to the LCBO. if you dont then only the 11 people who read this forum will know. if you do the LCBO will document the product complaint and the brewery will be notified.

[SteelbackGuy]

I recently bought a couple bottles of this at the Wellington & Bradley LCBO and they were both flat and sour. The bottles were fresh and refrigerated so the poor quality of each was almost certainly the brewery's fault. This is why many of us have given up on Scotch Irish (Heritage) and Trafalgar.

If you managed to get a couple normal bottles that is great news, but I'm personally not willing to the take the risk and potentially waste more money on SI beers.

Right now I'm still waiting for an Ontario brewer to put a true robust American style porter on retail shelves that doesn't suffer from sour/infection/QC issues or have boatloads of coffee in it. Maybe one day we'll see Nutcracker at the 'BO? I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

if the bottles you had were infected, please, please, please return them to the LCBO. if you dont then only the 11 people who read this forum will know. if you do the LCBO will document the product complaint and the brewery will be notified.

Thanks Matt.


I'm always amazed that people DON'T return product they claim is spoiled. If you buy butter, and it is rank when you get home, you return it, and the same goes for eggs, milk, etc.
So if you buy wine or beer, or whatever, and it is spoiled, please return it. There is no way ANYONE WILL KNOW ABOUT IT, unless you return it and complain. You do a disservice to all of us if you just drain pour it and say.........oh well.

If I have a bottle of beer or wine that is off, I return it immediately and get a full refund, plus the lick bo gets the info on the bad bottle!

[cratez]

If you buy wine or beer...and it is spoiled...You do a disservice to all of us if you just drain pour it and say...oh well.

LMAO! Lenny, you're a dear friend, but this is one of the most hyperbolic and outrageous statements I've seen on here in my short time as a member! To say that the customer is at fault for an incompetent brewer putting a shit product on the shelves of a government retail monopoly that refuses to bring in better year-round porters - which would give consumers actual options - is ridiculous.

I bought the Black Irish because I like porters and, in our sad system, it's the only non-coffee option available to us. The bottles were flat and sour in a 'tolerable' way since I was able to finish 1/2 to 3/4 of the first bottle and shared the second one with my brother (who didn't really care). So I'm not gonna return the bottles if I managed to finish most of each. At the same time, though, I won't purchase the Plain Porter again because it wasn't enjoyable and sourness of any sort isn't appropriate for the style.

Beyond this, complaining to a monopoly that has no competition doesn't accomplish anything. How many Towellers have returned sour, infected, or nasty Trafalgar products to the Board? And yet time and again this brewer is given preferential treatment with seasonal releases and shelf space. It doesn't matter if you complain - the Board will bring in shit products and force them upon people regardless of how they feel about it.

My preferred approach is to simply support quality brewers by spending my money on their beers while ignoring the brewers who can't deliver a consistent product. Speaking with your dollars and telling others to stay away from SI and Trafalgar likely has more of an impact than complaining to a monopoly that doesn't care.

[matt7215]

If you buy wine or beer...and it is spoiled...You do a disservice to all of us if you just drain pour it and say...oh well.

LMAO! Lenny, you're a dear friend, but this is one of the most hyperbolic and outrageous statements I've seen on here in my short time as a member! To say that the customer is at fault for an incompetent brewer putting a shit product on the shelves of a government retail monopoly that refuses to bring in better year-round porters - which would give consumers actual options - is ridiculous.

I bought the Black Irish because I like porters and, in our sad system, it's the only non-coffee option available to us. The bottles were flat and sour in a 'tolerable' way since I was able to finish 1/2 to 3/4 of the first bottle and shared the second one with my brother (who didn't really care). So I'm not gonna return the bottles if I managed to finish most of each. At the same time, though, I won't purchase the Plain Porter again because it wasn't enjoyable and sourness of any sort isn't appropriate for the style.

Beyond this, complaining to a monopoly that has no competition doesn't accomplish anything. How many Towellers have returned sour, infected, or nasty Trafalgar products to the Board? And yet time and again this brewer is given preferential treatment with seasonal releases and shelf space. It doesn't matter if you complain - the Board will bring in shit products and force them upon people regardless of how they feel about it.

My preferred approach is to simply support quality brewers by spending my money on their beers while ignoring the brewers who can't deliver a consistent product. Speaking with your dollars and telling others to stay away from SI and Trafalgar likely has more of an impact than complaining to a monopoly that doesn't care.

if you return your bottles you get free beer and the LCBO and/or the brewery loses money. even monopolies dont like giving stuff away for free so they will likely go after the brewer.

if you pour your beer down the drain you lose.

you're going back to the LCBO eventually, so return you infected beer when you do

[TJ]

There is no way ANYONE WILL KNOW ABOUT IT, unless you return it and complain.

Well you could always contact Heritage directly via phone or email.

That's what I did when I had a couple of bad bottles of the Porter and John By last year. I exchanged several emails with an Emily (emily@heritagebrewing.com) there back in November of '09 who said they were taking steps, like setting up a lab, to deal with this issue.

That said, it would appear that the direct approach might not have fixed the problem either. I for one will likely never buy another Heritage/Scotch Irish beer again--too risky.

[SteelbackGuy]

If you buy wine or beer...and it is spoiled...You do a disservice to all of us if you just drain pour it and say...oh well.

LMAO! Lenny, you're a dear friend, but this is one of the most hyperbolic and outrageous statements I've seen on here in my short time as a member! To say that the customer is at fault for an incompetent brewer putting a shit product on the shelves of a government retail monopoly that refuses to bring in better year-round porters - which would give consumers actual options - is ridiculous.

Hey Mikey!

That's not really what I was getting at. It certainly isn't the consumers fault if the product is bad. That is the fault of the brewer. I do vote with my dollars just as you do, but I ALSO return bad product to make sure the LCBO and the brewery actually know about this.

I submit that out of 1000's of off bottles that Trafalgar has put on LCBO shelves, perhaps less than 1% of people drinking those bad beers has actually filed a complaint. It's absolutely bizzare to me that people would not complain. I feel that it is an absolute disservice that people do not do just this.

So, all I am saying is keep on voting with your dollars by not supporting breweries with consistency issues, but if you do happen to come accross an off bottle, please return it as well. You're going to the LCBO anyway, so put a little piece of foil over the top of the bottle and put it somewhere and forget about it. Next time you're in, bring it with you for a refund.

[cratez]

you're going back to the LCBO eventually, so return your infected beer when you do

Look, I'm fine with returning sour or infected beer if and when I encounter it in future, if only for the purpose of getting my money back. But I don't think returning it has any impact on whether the LCBO will continue to carry it. If it did, we would not see Trafalgar products on the shelves. Also, the odds of me purchasing a tainted beer from the 'BO are now slim to none since I don't plan on buying anything from Scotch Irish or Heritage ever again.

So, all I am saying is keep on voting with your dollars by not supporting breweries with consistency issues, but if you do happen to come accross an off bottle, please return it as well.

Okay, I see where you're coming from now, and I obviously misconstrued what you were saying. I'll happily take your advice here, but again, I probably won't need to return anything since I won't be supporting SI/Heritage anymore.

[Belgian]

Try everything, return everything bad.

Or the LCBO won't ever care.

[Rob Creighton]

Or the LCBO won't ever care.

Once again sounding like a missed point

[Belgian]

Alright. What are your thoughts, more to point? You think the LC have product tasters that monitor bad batches, and fouled infected products? Because if they cared, I suggest they might do that. Any bar owner that cares does that.

Consumer feedback is vital since it appears the only QC mechanism.

[SteelbackGuy]

Alright. What are your thoughts, more to point? You think the LC have product tasters that monitor bad batches, and fouled infected products? Because if they cared, I suggest they might do that. Any bar owner that cares does that.

Consumer feedback is vital since it appears the only QC mechanism.

This is true. The LCBO doesn't have people tasting every batch of every product, so it is ever important to return poor product.

And it doesn't have to be off either. We have an option in our complaint list for "didn't like".

[SteelbackGuy]

By the way, we've also brought in more OCB SKUs so we now have the largest selection of Ontario Craft Beer in the city, including SGT MAJORS IPA, BLACK PORTER, HOPTICAL ILLUSION, 666, AMSTERDAM FRAMBOISE, AMSTERDAM LAGER, DEAD ELEPHANT, IRONSPIKE BLONDE, GREAT LAKES PUMPKIN, all the MILL STREET, HOCKLEY STOUT and DARK, and many many more. Come check us out!

[mintjellie]

so basically, if the customer buys a single bottle of something and it's infected, they are supposed to drive back to the store with a single open container of beers.

isn't that kind of ridiculous?