The Bar Towel

The 2 main stores that I usually hit up in Michigan are Holiday Market and Merchant's. I generally find that Merchant's has a bit better selection, but Cloverleaf is literally 2 blocks from Holiday Market, so I can do 2 stops when I make a run. I've only been to Champagne's once, selection was good, but the hours and the distance were a bit of a turn off. With regards to the Bruery beers, they ranged from $7.99 to $20.99 (all 750ml bottles) depending. I picked up a bottle of Oude Tart last time out and I think it was $19.99.

ECBS wrote:
Raisy & SRM - you guys okay with not ordering a case of this? Obviously you're free to order it in yourself, but I'm not sure you'd have much luck offloading all the bottles.

Not a problem as there is plenty of other good beer available. Had I sampled the beer before hand and knew I enjoyed it, I would have committed to more bottles to fill out the case.

As far as cross border shopping, my wife and I usually head down river to
Wyandotte to Discount Drinks for bottle shopping and then head over to the Oak Cafe for a couple of pints. The Oak was featuring the Bruery last time we were there so needless to say I sampled a few.

Looks like I'm a week late.

dickhandsome wrote:Looks like I'm a week late.

Sorry about that, dick!

There's always next time.

Not sure if any Windsor/Essex Bartowellers have been following the thread about the distribution of draught St. Ambroise RIS across certain parts of Ontario (http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic ... 714#127714), but I've already given my two cents on the topic (see below). Do any of you share this sentiment? Do any of you have answers to these questions?

ECBS wrote:

Frere Ambroise wrote:List of 20: http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2013/11 ... t-release/

The list of participating locations is as follows:

Ottawa:
Black Tomato
Arrow and Loon

Gananoque:
The Old English Pub

Kingston:
Red House

Toronto:
The Only Café
Stout Irish Pub
C’est What?
beerbistro
Bar Hop
La Palette
Victory Café
Three Speed
Barque Smokehouse
The Hole in the Wall
3030
Bryden’s

Dundas:
Domestique-Café Cyclo Sportif

Hamilton:
Augusta’s Winking Judge

Kitchener:
The Bent Elbow

London:
Milo’s Craft Beer Emporium


Cheers,
Barry

I must say I was quite sad to see that none of the draught RIS would be making its way to the Windsor/Essex region! Believe it or not, there are a fair number of beer geeks/enthusiasts out here; perhaps not enough to warrant the 12 different participating locations that the fine City of Toronto has secured, but a fair number nonetheless. It seems most breweries and even craft beer drinkers in Ontario are of the opinion that the beer scene is non-existent west of London, or that those of us in Ontario's deep southwest are perfectly content throwing back OVs or any other lager that comes in a case with a free t-shirt. This is simply not the case (at least, for some of us...although free t-shirts are pretty great).

I was very excited when I learned that McAuslan, Beau's and other notable breweries would be making an appearance at Windsor's inaugural beer festival this past October, but was surprised by how quickly the taps ran dry (although I'm not sure whether this was a result of decisions made by various breweries to only bring a limited quantity of beer, or of some sort of rules imposed by the festival's organizers). At least some people in our area are of the opinion that the breweries in attendance simply didn't expect much interest on the part of our local, free t-shirt-donning residents.

Please forgive my little rant and allow me to get to the point of my post! I was discussing the draught RIS promotion with a local pub-owner yesterday, and he claimed McAuslan doesn't deliver to our area. Is this true? I'm good friends with the head beer man at another very popular local restaurant/pub, and I am certain he would be interested in bringing in St. Ambroise beer. As a big fan of McAuslan myself, I would certainly support this, as would the members of my Beer Society and many of the beer-loving residents of Windsor/Essex.

Could you or any other Bartowellers please shed some light on this issue? We, the beer-loving residents of Windsor/Essex, are thirsty for answers.

ECBS wrote: Do any of you have answers to these questions?

Unfortunantly you are just too far away to make the trip down there worth while for many of the breweries and distributors in this province.

I used to have to tag on Woodstock, Stratford, Ingersol, and Ilderton just to justify going to London. Adding the extra 2hrs each way, down and back the 401 just isnt worth it.

Quote:
I must say I was quite sad to see that none of the draught RIS would be making its way to the Windsor/Essex region! Believe it or not, there are a fair number of beer geeks/enthusiasts out here; perhaps not enough to warrant the 12 different participating locations that the fine City of Toronto has secured, but a fair number nonetheless. It seems most breweries and even craft beer drinkers in Ontario are of the opinion that the beer scene is non-existent west of London, or that those of us in Ontario's deep southwest are perfectly content throwing back OVs or any other lager that comes in a case with a free t-shirt. This is simply not the case (at least, for some of us...although free t-shirts are pretty great).

I was very excited when I learned that McAuslan, Beau's and other notable breweries would be making an appearance at Windsor's inaugural beer festival this past October, but was surprised by how quickly the taps ran dry (although I'm not sure whether this was a result of decisions made by various breweries to only bring a limited quantity of beer, or of some sort of rules imposed by the festival's organizers). At least some people in our area are of the opinion that the breweries in attendance simply didn't expect much interest on the part of our local, free t-shirt-donning residents.

Please forgive my little rant and allow me to get to the point of my post! I was discussing the draught RIS promotion with a local pub-owner yesterday, and he claimed McAuslan doesn't deliver to our area. Is this true? I'm good friends with the head beer man at another very popular local restaurant/pub, and I am certain he would be interested in bringing in St. Ambroise beer. As a big fan of McAuslan myself, I would certainly support this, as would the members of my Beer Society and many of the beer-loving residents of Windsor/Essex.

Could you or any other Bartowellers please shed some light on this issue? We, the beer-loving residents of Windsor/Essex, are thirsty for answers.


Thanks ECBS for this! Not a rant at all - in fact it adds credibility to what I have been preaching with my industry colleagues for the past year - that Windsor is thirsty for craft beer!

Regarding the RIS list -- we only had 20 kegs. Our objective in trying a 'multi-bar' event was to celebrate this fun occasion with 20 venues that have been loyal and passionate about our brands and whose patrons would be excited about this event. Years ago, Milos in London requested we do our RIS in kegs. I truly thought this day would never happen so when we were told last month that there is only 20 RIS kegs in the universe and they are all coming to Ontario - I was blown away. I wish we had more kegs to satisfy every thirsty McAuslan fan -- across the entire country and beyond. Hence - the reason for the surplus of Toronto venues is correlated to the partnerships we've developed when we first set foot in Ontario to grow our brand awareness.

Regarding Windsor - last year I was a guest speaker at Craft Beer Dinner at the RyeGate. The chef did an outstanding job with the menu - I have never seen or tasted a wild boar with a chocolate - oatmeal stout sauce. It was fantastic! I had some great conversations with the group that night about the Windsor thirst for craft beer.

One of the folks that night is a BT'er on here - Jay Lecocq who used to work at the Tilbury TBS. I think he is in the Bleinhiem store now. That tiny Tilbury TBS store has some of the finest craft beers offered at TBS!

The Windsor Craft Beer Festival was a huuuuge success! For a first time event, the organizers did their best to predict what we should bring since we had no historical data to draw from. We were blown away! I think part of the reason for taps running dry was that only 10 of us brewers actually made the trek. (FYI - First time events within the industry have a high risk factor - I've been to a first time beerfest where there were more reps than attendees - so we ended up sitting around and drinking each other's tapped kegs.) At Windsor - we pretty much went through what was predicted -- we even brought some backup kegs too - just not enough of the Pumpkin and Apricot. Mind blowing and we will definitely be back next year!

What was really nice about the inaugural event is that I got to meet some great bar and restaurant owners. Billy's in Essex starting pouring our Apricot and Pumpkin for the past couple of months. They like the fact that we deliver to Windsor every week. Every. Week. The guys at BarrelHouse in Sandwich recently added our Oatmeal Stout and Pale Ale - purely as a result of us being at the Craft Beer Festival. You definitely need to stop by as our Stout on draught is delicious! I hope more loyal places in Windsor can pour our brands and that we develop some more McAuslan fans - which make it an easy conversation to bring our speciality brands to the area! By all means - help spread the good beer gospel of St. Ambroise that we deliver every week. You can send me a PM and I will forward you my info for those bars to contact me.

ECBS - I hope this sheds some light on this Windsor situation - it is not like a "middle child" syndrome where we forget about you - it is more like a "kid with new puppy at Xmas" -- we are excited about getting craft beer to you, you are excited about having it! Does this make sense?

Cheers,
Barry

Barry,

Thank you for the quick and gratifying reply! You've truly made my day.

I'm so glad to hear that you've been doing your best to get your beer to Windsor/Essex, and now that I know you ARE in fact delivering here, and every week at that, I will definitely make sure word gets around to our area's other finest pubs! Call me selfish or greedy, but I need St. Ambroise at my local watering hole.

I also understand much better now why the kegs went where they went (this event is more celebratory than promotional!).

Yes, Windsor is certainly home to some great bar and restaurant owners/entrepreneurs who are just as excited and passionate about beer as I am. And the beer scene is certainly growing. I know for a fact that the turn-out at next year's beer festival will be much greater yet, and I'm happy to hear you'll be coming out again!

Thanks again for the info, Barry! I greatly appreciate it.

Mike

P.S. - I do happen to be the middle child in my family; must have shown in the way I was ranting!

Mike,

Good news - Billy's in Essex is also pouring our Oatmeal Stout! Please continue to support the venues who are truly "craft beer ambassadors" who are educating patrons with every pint!

Cheers,
Barry

Anyone here heard of, planning on going to, or involved with The Windsor Beer Exchange?

Some of you might have heard talk this past summer about a new bar which was to open in Windsor in or around July of 2013, in a stock exchange format where draught prices would fluctuate based on sales (http://windsorite.ca/2013/07/opening-so ... n-windsor/).

According to a post on their Facebook page today (https://www.facebook.com/TheWindsorBeerExchange), their doors are "finally open", "after a long, rough process"!

I'm curious to know what their beer selection will be like, especially since the article above mentions that the bar will be "more than anything for supporting and showcasing the art scene" in Windsor. I have to assume it'll be rather limited, at least until they can get the ball rolling.

If anyone happens to check it out before I do, or has anything more on this place, please share your thoughts!

I'm in Windsor this week, and will likely be down here off and on over the winter months...

Let me know if anyone wants to meet for a pint somewhere, if there is a somewhere for craft in Windsor?

And at least you guys have a fairly well stocked LCBO! And the special releases actually seem to stick around on the shelves for a while rather than selling out immediately like the GTA stores...

ECBS wrote:Anyone here heard of, planning on going to, or involved with The Windsor Beer Exchange?

The Kalamazoo Beer Exchange was awesome though I'm not sure I even looked at my bill by the time it was over

Hey fellers,
Took me awhile to get my BT access, but now I am here and excited to see and hear from local guys into craft beer.
For the longest time I thought I might have been the only one.
Then I nearly got shut out of the new Flying Monkeys Chocolate Manifesto as there are other hoarders in the city gobbling up the goodies.

I go to MI on a somewhat frequent basis and usually hit Holiday and Cloverleaf. If I go to Kuhnhenn (and I do quite a bit) I may pop in at Champagne's as well.

I was planning to go to 4Elf at Dark Horse this weekend but family obligations are nixing that idea. Maybe the 21st I'll hit up the Winter Solstice at Kuhnhenn.

I'd definitely be up for ordering cases into Windsor, trading, bottle sharing...

I also hear rumors that there may be a second beer festival in our area in 2014. This one will be a summer event and will not take place downtown. I think the organizers may have thoughts of another Erie Shores Wine Fest but for craft beer which is also a big hit for county folk.

Cheers!

FEUO wrote:
I'd definitely be up for ordering cases into Windsor, trading, bottle sharing...

I also hear rumors that there may be a second beer festival in our area in 2014. This one will be a summer event and will not take place downtown. I think the organizers may have thoughts of another Erie Shores Wine Fest but for craft beer which is also a big hit for county folk.

Cheers!

Awesome! Glad to have you on board! By all means please post to this thread (or PM me!) whenever there's anything cool going on in the Michigan beer scene, or even if you're just heading over there to stock up and wanting to split the spoils! Believe it or not, I've never had any of the Kuhnhenn stuff myself, but I'd love to get my hands on some.

Never heard those rumours about a summer beer festival, but I'll certainly be in attendance if the rumours are true!

RE: Westvleteren 12

I've been in touch with Peter Lopaty (Esprit Agencies) about getting some Westy 12 shipped to the Windsor area. Unfortunately, it can only be purchased by the case (24 bottles x 330mL). Prices vary slightly with each order but I'm told the last order rang in at $375.60 per case (ouch!). Not sure how this stuff is normally priced in North America, but I was originally planning on grabbing a bottle in Madrid, Spain this summer for around $20 CDN. At $375.60 per case, we're looking at $15.65 per bottle.

I run a Beer Society out of Leamington, so I'd definitely be interested in going in on a case (I'd probably take anywhere from 6 to 12 bottles). Any of you guys have any interest in a bottle, or 6, or 12?

Peter has said that the Westy 12 order is "on the way", so we'll probably have to make the call fairly soon. Lemme know!