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Ola Dubh 40 in the T-dot?

Discuss beer or anything else that comes to mind in here.

Moderators: Craig, Cass

viggo
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Post by viggo »

carguy wrote:I think Ontario brewers are making good beer, but are lacking either the will or means to distribute them beyond Toronto. I recall reading a lot on here about Black Oak's 10 Bitter Years, and Durhams Black Eye, but the fact that they are only sold on tap in a handful of Toronto bars makes them avaliable to an even more limited audience than the Ola Dubh will be making it to. Even if they bottled and just sold direct from the brewery, I'd be more likely to go and get some (like I do every year for the Nutcracker Porter). Durham especally frustrates me because they have some very excellent beers, but only bottle the Signature Ale and C'est What Hemp Ale. If I could buy bottles of Durham Hop Addict, I'd be a regular at the brewery for sure. I can think of lots of others. Mill Street for example makes a lot of great beer, but only bottles a handful. I would be much more likely to go to Toronto, visit four or five local breweries and pick up some bottles from each and then scuttle back to Cambridge to enjoy them at my leasiure if they bottled some of their stuff that isn't sold by the LCBO or TBS. But I'm not making a trip to Toronto to visit local breweries if they only sell what I can buy here at my local LCBO.

I suppose this sounds like the frustrated rant of "an out-of-towner", but my orginial point was that there are some world class Ontario beers, just not many of us get to drink them.
I wouldn't say there are many world class beers here. But there are a lot of good beers.

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Bobsy
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Post by Bobsy »

viggo wrote:I wouldn't say there are many world class beers here.
In a rare moment of modesty you didn't mention any biergotter beers!

viggo
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Post by viggo »

Bobsy wrote:
viggo wrote:I wouldn't say there are many world class beers here.
In a rare moment of modesty you didn't mention any biergotter beers!
I thought we were just talking about commercial stuff!

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JesseM
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Post by JesseM »

Bobsy wrote:Having said this, I have noticed that some brewers are playing around with higher priced offerings. Mill Street have their baleywine, Great Lakes with their seasonals, and Trafalgar with their fresh hopped stuff. However, the quality doesn't always satisfy as much as you would hope. Ontario guys - you can sell beer at a higher price, but it has to be worth it for the consumer.
Totally agree. Not to be negative, but I tend to view the Mill St. Barley Wine as farcical. To me it's not even worth $5 let alone 12. And I like Mill St. a lot (though as a wise man once said, "They do some things really well, and some other things...not so well").
carguy wrote:I think Ontario brewers are making good beer, but are lacking either the will or means to distribute them beyond Toronto. I recall reading a lot on here about Black Oak's 10 Bitter Years, and Durhams Black Eye, but the fact that they are only sold on tap in a handful of Toronto bars makes them avaliable to an even more limited audience than the Ola Dubh will be making it to. Even if they bottled and just sold direct from the brewery, I'd be more likely to go and get some (like I do every year for the Nutcracker Porter). Durham especally frustrates me because they have some very excellent beers, but only bottle the Signature Ale and C'est What Hemp Ale. If I could buy bottles of Durham Hop Addict, I'd be a regular at the brewery for sure. I can think of lots of others. Mill Street for example makes a lot of great beer, but only bottles a handful. I would be much more likely to go to Toronto, visit four or five local breweries and pick up some bottles from each and then scuttle back to Cambridge to enjoy them at my leasiure if they bottled some of their stuff that isn't sold by the LCBO or TBS. But I'm not making a trip to Toronto to visit local breweries if they only sell what I can buy here at my local LCBO.

I suppose this sounds like the frustrated rant of "an out-of-towner", but my orginial point was that there are some world class Ontario beers, just not many of us get to drink them.
Absolutely agree 100%. Sums up my feelings perfectly.


Speaking as someone who most likely has much less money to throw around than most others on this board (being a young student and all), I would love to have an Ontario-produced, truly world-class beer available at the LCBO, and I would pay whatever high price is asked with no complaints. BTW that is a direct message to every single OCB member who uses or just reads this site. Do some research, try different things, experiment (or at least do more than I know has already been done by some). Don't be afraid to do something crazy. The type of Ontarian who would shy away from something too 'out there' isn't going to buy your stuff anyways (as sad as that is, it's just the way it is with some people from what I've observed). There is absolutely no good reason for Ontario not to have at least ONE example of something mind-blowingly amazing.

Just my 2 cents.

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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

Bobsy wrote:
viggo wrote:I wouldn't say there are many world class beers here.
In a rare moment of modesty you didn't mention any biergotter beers!
What you all forget is there are so many province-class beers in Ontario. This is undeniably true, case in point the Barley Days Cherry Porter. I just drank a whole BOTTLE of the Harvest Gold Pale, no drain-pouring or gagging or anything. I drank it ALL, and I feel perfectly fine!!
In Beerum Veritas

tuqueboy
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Post by tuqueboy »

Back on topic for a second. Yesterday's summerhill 240 bottles of the ola dubh 40 weren't a mirage -- they jumped the gun and ordered before they were supposed to (and sold every single one). however, the good news is the LCBO's ordering 100 more 12-bottle cases of the ola dubh 40, to arrive in 9 weeks or so,.

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Post by kinguy »

Good news about more of the 40 coming.

I was at the Atrium on Bay around noon today and asked about it. The staffer knew about it and said she didn't have to look to see if it was in stock because she had just recently checked for another customer. Someone fron here, perchance?

My wife was at Cooper St today and overheard a couple of employees complaining about the screwup at the warehouse, shipping that much of the 40 to Summerhill where it sold out in less than a day. With nine cases allegedly at Cooper, that sounds like most if not all of the other stores that were supposed to get it will be SOL. She did manage to talk her way into getting me a bottle, so I'm happy.

I've got a colleague scoping out the Kingston store so I'll report back on any news I hear.

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Bobsy
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Post by Bobsy »

tuqueboy wrote:Back on topic for a second. Yesterday's summerhill 240 bottles of the ola dubh 40 weren't a mirage -- they jumped the gun and ordered before they were supposed to (and sold every single one). however, the good news is the LCBO's ordering 100 more 12-bottle cases of the ola dubh 40, to arrive in 9 weeks or so,.
My math is bad, but I reckon that to be 1,200 more bottles. Hopefully it gets a slightly wider distribution for those folks who don't live 5 minutes from Summerhill (its a tough life guys, but someone has to do it).

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GregClow
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Post by GregClow »

kinguy wrote:My wife was at Cooper St today and overheard a couple of employees complaining about the screwup at the warehouse, shipping that much of the 40 to Summerhill where it sold out in less than a day. With nine cases allegedly at Cooper, that sounds like most if not all of the other stores that were supposed to get it will be SOL. She did manage to talk her way into getting me a bottle, so I'm happy.
Your wife must be very persuasive - due to the Summerhill screw-up, Queen's Quay got only ONE of the nine cases they were expecting. The remaining cases have presumably been rationed out to other stores that had previously been allocated some.

Honestly, I think this situation might've been the best thing that could've happened. It meant that very little of the original shipment ended up being held back for licensees, since Summerhill put most or all of the 20 cases on the floor. And the instant sell-out has obviously made the LCBO sit up and quickly take notice, as evidenced by the immediate order of 100 more cases. Hopefully, they'll also take this as inspiration to bring in other rare and ultra-premium beers in the future.

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Post by Fashionelle »

BEFORE YOU CONTINUE TO READ THIS.. Just to forewarn you- be prepared for a long 1st post from me. Go grab a beer and chillax because this is a long one :o :

Hey there guys&gals,

I'm a newbie- but I've been lurking here for the past 2.5 weeks.

Alright here's a partial low-down about the OD40:

On Dec 8, I called LCBOHQ - according to them " the shipment was still in the warehouse, all 364" cases/bottles for the OD40... they weren't clear on it.. so who knows.

However, certain stores already had the OD12's... but those are the 12's.

They gave me a number to the company who were bringing these OD's in. The OD's were still in the warehouse in Durham. I called the given number to Premium Beer and one of the reps there chuckled ( why?..was it because a "female newbody" called about this beer? who knows) and said he'll pass my contact info through and someone will get back to me shortly. The rep who handled the ON shipment for the OD's got back to me a day later and sent me some info about the 40's + certain lcbo locations that will carry it/ quantity. His take: " It's been shipped out, it should be at the listed*/participating LCBO by the end of the week".

Here's the list:

ITEM STORE Quantity
143610 217 9 QUEENS QUAY & YONGE. 2 COOPER STREET
143610 38 4 Ottawa
143610 10 4 (uhhuh)YONGE & SUMMERHILL. 10 SCRIVENER SQUARE
143610 35 1 Peterborough
143610 243 1 Ottawa
143610 495 1 Guelph
143610 355 1 BAYVIEW & SHEPPARD (BAYVIEW VILLAGE).
143610 115 1 Waterloo
143610 15 1 DUPONT & SPADINA. 232 DUPONT STREET
143610 5 1 QUEEN & COXWELL (THE BEACH).1654 QUEEN STREET EAST
143610 164 1 LAIRD & EGLINTON (LEASIDE)
143610 40 1 kingston
143610 528 1 BAY & BLOOR (MANULIFE CENTRE). 55 BLOOR STREET WEST
143610 19 1 ST CLAIR & KEELE (THE STOCKYARDS). 2151 ST. CLAIR AVE. W
143610 602 1 Thunder Bay


Dec 9: I called to my 3 LCBO's and asked again about the OD40. They have not received it yet. By this time, the lcbo# (143610) for the OD40 was mentally tattooed in my temporal lobe.

Dec 10, my hubby called to the Cooper St LCBO and asked if they could reserve a few bottles for us. The LCBO rep who was "in charge" with the OD orders agreed to hold a few and he* APPARENTLY jotted my hubby's name down. LCBO rep's name is Bill.

Friday Dec 11: The hubby & I went to our local LCBO midtown (diff location) to purchase some more of the S.R 12's. By that time, they were all out of the 12's too. We decided to try our luck again and asked about the 40's . Karen ( one of the LCBO reps) was pretty helpful... but at the end - she said that the OD40's was still in "BOND" - best bet that the earliest they'll receive this shipment was next week Tuesday or Wednesday ( which is today or tomorrow).

Sat - nothing... Most LCBO's were restocking the OD12's from Friday night's shipment.

Sunday Dec 13: at 10 am, I checked the lcbo.com website.. and my golly the product itself was listed online! However, no location was found yet for availability. The hubby decided to call to Cooper.St and SPECIFICALLY asked about the OD40's. The LCBO rep said " sure, yup - we had new shipment came in last night so there's quite a few here. We're open at 11 this morning".

We drove down there and we waited in the car for a bit ( odd that certain customers who were already there told us that the store opens at 12 noon... 2 couples left, but the hubby and I waited in the car for a couple of minutes and bam... it was open at 11am : S ).

I walked in, asked about the Ola Dubh 40's -seems like not many lcbo reps knew about it at the time ( which was odd). Hubby wondered around the beer area and found the 12's. We saw one rep who was also in the beer area unloading a different stock, so we asked about the 40's.

Rep: "Nope, it's not in yet.

Myself: My husband called earlier, and a rep from this location said the 40's were in stock, it was shipped in last night.

Rep: Do you remember who you spoke to?

Myself: Hun, do you remember who it was?

Husband: umm... ( scratched his head)

Rep: Was it Bill?

Husband: Yup it must've been Bill. I remember speaking to him a few days ago too.

Rep: Bill's been handling the orders for the Ola Dubhs.

Myself: Are we able to reserve some still?

Rep: Well, to my knowledge there's about 4 pages of names already for the 40's. If you want, I can put you down for some.

Husband: I called in a few days ago and Bill took my name down and reserved some already.

Myself: Well hun, Let's recheck and see if your rep named BILL physically wrote anything down on the list because apparently your same guy gave us wrong info this morning. If at all, we'll just ask the current rep to hold reserve some for us."

The rep came back with the 4 pages of 6X8in LCBO list and looked through. Our name was nowhere to be found. At this point, Bill deserved a char-coaled star. Way to go FF.

We looked through the list, some of the reservations only wanted 2 or 4 or even 1 bottle of the OD 40's. While there were some others who wanted 10x12's ( they wanted 10 Cases, not bottles) or 12x12's. Our current rep however did jot our name down but he also said: I can't promise you anything.. most likely everyone on this list will only get 2 bottles. This is Bill's list so he'll call you when it gets in.

We smiled and thanked him and walked away.. Sorry, but at this point - I didn't trust Bill and from the looks of this current rep and I wouldn't bet on him either.

After that, we scrolled around and over to the aisles of wines from France which was close to the "Customer Service" area. We bumped into one of the older gentleman/rep who saw us spoke to the last rep and asked if the item we were looking for was found yet. I told him about the OD40 Beer and he said:" you best bet is to try the beer store which is just down the street". My husband and I chuckled and said " we don't think this specific beer will be at the beer store, it's limited edition and special reserved., it's $18.40 per bottle of 330ml". He was surprised and asked for the name so he could check it for us. I gave him the lcbo# just to make everyone's life easier lol.

This older rep checked it and said the same thing like most."It's currently in BOND - perhaps it's still stuck at the border waiting to get through; but let me get your name and number down and once it's in all personally give you a call or better yet, I'll try to order a case for you - you're not obligated to take the whole case, but once it's here then you can decide on how many bottles you want".

The hubby told him about the Bill mishap & also said: "we've been in search for this beer since last week. From what I know there's only 9 cases of 12's coming to this location but please do give us a call once it's here, thank you so much".

Another rep named Heather overheard our conversation and mentioned that they're not going to take anymore names after us because there's too many people versus the qty of beers they're going to receive. However, our older rep sounded sincere enough ( or so we believe) that he'll personally call us and put it on hold for the day of, once it's here. That was 11:30am on Sunday.

Monday Dec 14: OD40 was available online - but no specified locations. This time, I figured Monday night had shipment..or something. anywhere, ... it HAS to be available somewhere in Toronto very soon.

Tuesday Dec 15: - Checked online/hr.. and then- 11:40 am: LCBO Summerhill ( 10 SCRIVENER SQUARE) apparently had 240 in stock ( is that not 20 cases?). Odd that they had that many bottles in stock... especially when the list only said they were only getting 4 cases of 12's. o_O

Hubby called in by noon, they were down to 180 bottles. I got there by 12:15 and grabbed a case. There were still 12 unopened boxed cases of OD40's + 1 and 1/2 open case. A little over 160 bottles of Ola Dubh 40's left.

We went back to Summerhill by 5pm to buy some Baileys ( + the fact that I forgot to use the Air Miles card for the purchase earlier that day. All because the hubs forgot to give it to me ( it was in his wallet :( ). As of then- only 2 Bottles of OD 40's remaining at the end of the aisle..

Why did it took me so long to post this? Because registration almost took a week long :(.. However, Cass finally approved my registration as of today.. so yay!

Well guys and gals: here's a pic of what you'll be expecting:

Image

Happy Beer hunting y'all

P.S: before some of you go bizerk* because I purchased a whole case of OD40s - this was purchased as xmas gifts for some of our family and friends who are beer loving extremists. :P

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northyorksammy
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Post by northyorksammy »

i have spoken to someone in the LCBO who said they spoke to the rep who orders this in, and there is virtually no chance they can bring in any more 40

tuqueboy
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Post by tuqueboy »

Fashionelle wrote: long meandering novel
Hey there.
Glad you got what you were looking for. One thing I will say though. Bill George (at Cooper Street) is one of the best friends beer lovers in this province have at the LCBO. And he's a genuinely nice, hard-working guy, too. I'm not sure exactly what happened with your place on the ``list,'' but I can assure you Bill was as frustrated as anyone else with how the Ola Dubh 40 situation developed. In particular, he was pretty frustrated that the Cooper St. store only got a single case. You can fault a lot of people for how this happened, but Bill's not one of them.

mintjellie
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Post by mintjellie »

This whole situation is bloody ridiculous. I was looking forward to this beer, and was upset to find out just how limited the distribution would be, but now I just don't care. I wouldn't even buy this stuff if the next shipment received wider distribution and ended up in Barrie. I'd walk right past it without a second look.

I want to support interesting products when the LCBO brings them in, but this entire farce has put me off of this beer.

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SteelbackGuy
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Post by SteelbackGuy »

I'm not even sure why they brought this beer in if there is no chance in hell of getting it.
If you`re reading this, there`s a 15% chance you`ve got a significant drinking problem. Get it fixed, get recovered!

mintjellie
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Post by mintjellie »

To make the already frustrating LCBO customer experience worse.

It's like we already live in hell and government employees are Lucifers minions. We bartowelers are the glutton who can't reach the fruit hanging above him, except instead of fruit we're tortured with unreachable bottles of barrel aged beer.
SteelbackGuy wrote:I'm not even sure why they brought this beer in if there is no chance in hell of getting it.

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