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schomberger wrote:I was thinking craft product that has reached, say 75% (or less ...50%?) of its shelf life be put on sale to try and move it, especially when there is several trays of it sitting there unrefrigerated, aging, with too few buyers.
When a product goes bad they send it back to the brewer, at the brewers expense. If they are part of the LCBO system then it goes back to the warehouse to be destroyed, and a credit is given to the LCBO. If they are not part of the LCBO system, like us, then we have to pick it up and destroy it, and give the LCBO a credit and/or replace the product. So there is no insensitive for the LCBO to put it on sale, as it doesn't cost them anything when it expires.
As for the LCBO selling expired product, although it is technically their job to pull the expired product off the shelf, I often do it for them in my territory, as the last thing I want is someone buying our product without looking at the expiry date. Although people could/should look at the LCBO as being at fault (as I do when I unwittingly buy something past it's expiry date at a grocery store) I think brewers need to also take responsibility for their products.
Case in point: I once had a licensee who was selling our beer 6 months past it's expiry date, and I walked right in and took all our beer back, without issuing them a refund. When they called me and asked if I was going to replace it, I said they wouldn't sell expired meat, nor ask the butcher for a refund, so why should they with beer. They were representing our brand poorly after many attempts on my part to do promotions, etc. with the bar, which they rejected. At the end of the day, we, as craft brewers, need to take control of our own product and make sure people are always getting the best representation of what we make.
That's great Matthew - another feel good story...
A couple of years ago, I had a GLB DPA that tasted very "tinny" and I sent an email to the guys at GLB just so they were aware and had a heads up. The person who responded to my email (might have been Troy) went there to my local LC that week to replace all the cans with fresh ones.
"What can you say about Pabst Blue Ribbon that Dennis Hopper hasn’t screamed in the middle of an ether binge?" - Jordan St. John
MatttthewGeorge wrote:As for the LCBO selling expired product, although it is technically their job to pull the expired product off the shelf, I often do it for them in my territory, as the last thing I want is someone buying our product without looking at the expiry date. Although people could/should look at the LCBO as being at fault (as I do when I unwittingly buy something past it's expiry date at a grocery store) I think brewers need to also take responsibility for their products.
That's good. I really didn't enjoy the 'wet cardboard' flavor of a six pack of King Dark I once bought from the Coxwell-O'Connor store. Although I knew from my experience that this beer should normally have been better, and that craft beer doesn't normally suck, this type of blunder could really hurt the lifetime craft beer sales to a regular consumer who just didn't know it was oxidation from poorly-handled, unrefrigerated and expired stock.
In this way such carelessness can hurt ALL craft brewers when the LCBO and (forgive me, King) the brewery don't clear out the old dead stock and replace it with fresh.
MatttthewGeorge wrote:When a product goes bad they send it back to the brewer, at the brewers expense. If they are part of the LCBO system then it goes back to the warehouse to be destroyed, and a credit is given to the LCBO. If they are not part of the LCBO system, like us, then we have to pick it up and destroy it, and give the LCBO a credit and/or replace the product. So there is no insensitive for the LCBO to put it on sale, as it doesn't cost them anything when it expires.
As for the LCBO selling expired product, although it is technically their job to pull the expired product off the shelf, I often do it for them in my territory, as the last thing I want is someone buying our product without looking at the expiry date. Although people could/should look at the LCBO as being at fault (as I do when I unwittingly buy something past it's expiry date at a grocery store) I think brewers need to also take responsibility for their products.
Case in point: I once had a licensee who was selling our beer 6 months past it's expiry date, and I walked right in and took all our beer back, without issuing them a refund. When they called me and asked if I was going to replace it, I said they wouldn't sell expired meat, nor ask the butcher for a refund, so why should they with beer. They were representing our brand poorly after many attempts on my part to do promotions, etc. with the bar, which they rejected. At the end of the day, we, as craft brewers, need to take control of our own product and make sure people are always getting the best representation of what we make.
Much appreciated and very wise, IMO. This might be one competitive advantage our local brewers would have -- at least their reps can be vigilant on freshness, as opposed to the American and other IPAs/PAs coming into the system.
Highway 27 Woodbridge LCBO: about 36 cans of Crazy Canuck dated (packed) H1712.....so that would be August 17, 2012.....mmm about 9.5 months old....this is the same batch as they have at Rutherford/Bathurst.
Does Great Lakes not have a 6 month expiry like most/all low abv craft beer?
And where can i find some 2013 canuck in west central York Region?
