Hop Head IPA coming to an LCBO store near you soon!

[Derek]

As Jon mentioned, Hop Head was a trail blazer (the first west-coast IPA regularly bottled in Canada). It openned the door for Phillips Amnesiac and all the other subsequent brews. There's more than a dozen IPAs currently listed at BC Liquor, and after a decade, Hophead is still going strong. I think it'll be around for a while.

Sure some of the newer IPAs are bigger & stronger, but not everyone wants to scrape piny resin off their teeth. Hopefully it'll open the market as it did here.

This is great news for Tree, and everyone in Ontario.

Congrats!

[Ale's What Cures Ya]

So do we start a pool on how long it takes to get delisted?

Good news for the time being at least.

I'm out, but I'm sure Eeyore would be game.

My bet is one year until it's either delisted or nearly impossible to find.

[Torontoblue]

So do we start a pool on how long it takes to get delisted?

Good news for the time being at least.

I'm out, but I'm sure Eeyore would be game.

My bet is one year until it's either delisted or nearly impossible to find.

Jeez, you're a barrel of laughs! You could always do your little bit for a good Canadian IPA and buy it when it arrives.

[cratez]

Jeez, you're a barrel of laughs! You could always do your little bit for a good Canadian IPA and buy it when it arrives.

If you just had Anchor Liberty Ale, Victory Prima Pils, and DFH 60 Minute IPA simultaneously de-listed in your province, and all three of them were your go-to beers (like they were mine), you would likely share the same level of skepticism.

Regardless, this regular listing of Hop Head is fantastic news, and I'll be grabbing many sixers once it arrives. I'm sure "Ales" has the same intention.

[Ale's What Cures Ya]

Jeez, you're a barrel of laughs! You could always do your little bit for a good Canadian IPA and buy it when it arrives.

If you just had Anchor Liberty Ale, Victory Prima Pils, and DFH 60 Minute IPA simultaneously de-listed in your province, and all three of them were your go-to beers (like they were mine), you would likely share the same level of skepticism.

Regardless, this regular listing of Hop Head is fantastic news, and I'll be grabbing many sixers once it arrives. I'm sure "Ales" has the same intention.

I will also include Brooklyn Lager in that list, which is nearly impossible to find outside of the GTA these days.

[Torontoblue]

Jeez, you're a barrel of laughs! You could always do your little bit for a good Canadian IPA and buy it when it arrives.

If you just had Anchor Liberty Ale, Victory Prima Pils, and DFH 60 Minute IPA simultaneously de-listed in your province, and all three of them were your go-to beers (like they were mine), you would likely share the same level of skepticism.

Regardless, this regular listing of Hop Head is fantastic news, and I'll be grabbing many sixers once it arrives. I'm sure "Ales" has the same intention.

Anchor Liberty Ale - All I ever hear about this beer is that the serving size is too big and that a 6 pack would be preferable (which doesn't make sense to me)

DFH 60 Minute IPA - not really the LCBO's fault this delisting, is it? DFH have pulled out of several markets hence the delisting status.

Victory Prima Pils - People bemoaned the pricing which is probably why it didn't sell.

[dutchcanuck]

I'm kind of in agreement with TorontoBlue on this one. I loved the DFH and the anchor liberty. Although I rarely bought them.

What I would suggest is to try out GLB Crazy Canuck Pale Ale. In my opinion it is a great beer.

[cratez]

Anchor Liberty Ale - All I ever hear about this beer is that the serving size is too big and that a 6 pack would be preferable (which doesn't make sense to me)

Funny, I never heard this while it was here, and it constantly sold out within a few weeks (maybe a month at most) at my two local 'BOs. I think the insane value was the reason it cleared out so quickly; that, and the fact that it seemed to be one of the only hoppy beers that 'beer curious,' middle-aged dads were comfortable with purchasing.

DFH 60 Minute IPA - not really the LCBO's fault this delisting, is it? DFH have pulled out of several markets hence the delisting status.

I'm aware.

Victory Prima Pils - People bemoaned the pricing which is probably why it didn't sell.

And yet the malt-forward, ho-hum Rogue Dead Guy is roughly the same price ($15.55), and it collects dust on the shelves at virtually every LCBO I go to, but it hasn't been de-listed. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but you can't blame Ontario hop heads for wondering why it's always the hoppy beers that get de-listed, and never any of the three hundred or so brands of malty slop that nobody buys.

That being said, I'm not concerned with the assumed reasons for each of these de-listings (though the DFH situation is well known). I was simply pointing out that beer geeks have a right to be skeptical about the staying power of almost any hoppy beer and/or IPA at the Board, because these types of beers often get de-listed quickly and, from what I can tell, regardless of how well they sell. You seem to have much more faith in our system than I do, so you'll likely tell me that my cynicism is unwarranted and all of the recent de-listings are simply a matter of economics.

Whether or not hoppy regular listing beers are doomed from the get-go in this market, I think we can all agree that we should buy the shit out of Hop Head while it's here in the hope that it might actually stick around for a long time.

What I would suggest is to try out GLB Crazy Canuck Pale Ale. In my opinion it is a great beer.

Recall from the Crazy Canuck thread that I'm the guy who bought 15 cans on the first day it was available for sale.

[mintjellie]

Anchor Liberty Ale - All I ever hear about this beer is that the serving size is too big and that a 6 pack would be preferable (which doesn't make sense to me)

You're joking right? 500mL and 6% ABV? The serving is too big?



Funniest post of the week.

[Torontoblue]

Anchor Liberty Ale - All I ever hear about this beer is that the serving size is too big and that a 6 pack would be preferable (which doesn't make sense to me)

You're joking right? 500mL and 6% ABV? The serving is too big?



Funniest post of the week.

I'm not joking. Go back and search and you'll see people complaining and that they'd prefer a regular 330ml in the 6 pack format over the offered 500ml (or was it 650ml? I can't remember now) bottle.

The larger bottle was a perfect serving size for the beer.

[Jon Walker]

I don't think I complained about the 650ml bottle but I did point out that they may have de-listed it and looked at stocking the 6 packs because they would sell better. The GP generally don't buy large format beers the way we might. Did someone directly suggest that the 650ml bottles were bad?

[mintjellie]

I thought they were 500mL bottles?

[Torontoblue]

I thought they were 500mL bottles?

Think they were 650ml, as my arguement against 6 packs was that 3 of the 650mls would cost less than a 6 pack for a negligible amount of beer. And if a Province the size of Ontario couldn't support a cheaply priced 650ml, then it certainly wouldn't support a 6 pack priced around $13 to $15. Though I now see the Anchor Steam is priced well at $11.90.

[Jon Walker]

Think they were 650ml, as my arguement against 6 packs was that 3 of the 650mls would cost less than a 6 pack for a negligible amount of beer. And if a Province the size of Ontario couldn't support a cheaply priced 650ml, then it certainly wouldn't support a 6 pack priced around $13 to $15. Though I now see the Anchor Steam is priced well at $11.90.

My experience with U.S. beers available here in both a 6 pack and in 650ml bombers is that the bombers usually work out to be the inferior deal price wise. Here in B.C. you can get a bomber of Indica IPA or Lagunitas IPA for about $17 a 6 but the bombers are around $6-7 each. The price difference is steeper when you look at Belgians. Gulden Draak is about $4 for 33cl but the 65cl bottles run for closer to $10. The 1.5L are $25 or $27. Maybe it's the other way at the LCBO?

Regardless, I'd suggest that a wider cross section of people generally prefer the format of 330, 341 or 355ml rather than 650ml. I don't see a lot of people, even craft drinkers, at parties or BBQ's carrying around 650ml bottles or proper pint glasses, they all have smaller bottles or 12oz glasses.

It's all a moot point since I don't think Liberty has been confirmed as returning to the LCBO in the smaller format, it might have just been de-listed altogether.

[rejtable]

I prefer smaller bottles overall. I like the big ones for longer sessions on the weekend, but during the week, 12oz or so is ideal for me.

I like to think of it that I drink beer often, but I don't drink a lot of beer.