The Bar Towel

Just picked up my case of 20 Welternburger K;oster Asam Bock for a cool $59. Might pick up a second if the mood strikes; the LCBO I picked it up at had 7 unopened cases left.

Now, I want that phone call that says my case of the Dogfish Head 60 is in.

LCBO Head Office has no idea why the Spring Beers have not hit GTA stores. Last week they once again "forced" cases to the participating stores and are keeping their fingers crossed that something will happen. This is habitual problem with the seasonal releases and no one seems to do anything about it. I am trying to arrange a meeting with the new Product Manager to discuss this and other issues.
As for Dogfish, week before last I was told there were some "lab problems" but no one has told me specifically what they are. I'm afraid that it'll probably be alcohol content and that we might have to re-label the entire order.

Maybe the scientists have discovered how it contains too much of factor GT (ie good taste) and will disrupt the balance between bad and banal carefully developed by the LCBO through decades of careful monitoring.

I'm curious as to what percentage of alcohol variance the LCBO will allow as opposed to what is on the label. Peter, do you have any idea? A tenth, three tenths? Unless it is wildly off, what is the big deal?

I can't remember ever seeing a label with the alcohol displayed to one-hundredths of a percent, so I'm going to guess that it's at least one tenth. But then, who knows? It'd just be a lot easier if we calculated our alcohol percentages the same way the Americans do (or vice-versa), then we wouldn't have a problem then, would we?

esprit wrote:As for Dogfish, week before last I was told there were some "lab problems" but no one has told me specifically what they are. I'm afraid that it'll probably be alcohol content and that we might have to re-label the entire order.

Oh NO! That sucks... I've been using the LCBO web search daily for 2 weeks now waiting to see the 60 Minute show up...

I couldn't wait, so I had a pint of 60 minute at Cole's in Buffalo yesterday .

The "Lab Problem" - the main warehouse has been taken over by 117 chocolate Labrador Retrievers militiant over us having access to beer that doesn't resemble dog piss.

Life's a bitch.

Oh, and my Spidey Senses WERE telling me it was a good idea to order the Great Divide IPA... I mean how many weeks will it take them to control all those Labs, who can say...

The Goudenband is showing up on the LCBO website now - but no locations as of yet.

Also, it's $4.95/375ml. Ouch. Rodenbach was what, $2.50?

-Josh

detritus wrote: Also, it's (the Goudenband) $4.95/375ml. Ouch.

In Quebec, the Liefman lineup was going for $6-7/bottle at the Depanneurs. So, still cheaper than over there.

Our friends at McAuslan who now represent Liefmans must be getting greedy. Last time we offerred Goudenband it was at $3.95 with a significantly higher EURO.

As for the question about alcohol content, up to about 8.5% the variance allowed is +/- 0.3% by volume. Over that it's +/- 1.0%. This is a real problem for U.S. micros who rarely test their alcohol content or, if they do, they're not using sophisticated equipment to do so. The LCBO uses a gas chromatograph whereas most breweries use a simple hygrometer which is not terribly accurate.

Foget about Liefmans....buy more Weltenburger, Dogfish, Mort Subite Gueuze...not too partisan, am I?

After all that I forgot to mention that Dogfish Head 60 Minute has cleared lab and been priced and should start hitting stores next week...hopefully.

esprit wrote:After all that I forgot to mention that Dogfish Head 60 Minute has cleared lab and been priced and should start hitting stores next week...hopefully.

Yay!!!

esprit wrote:Foget about Liefmans....buy more Weltenburger, Dogfish, Mort Subite Gueuze...

...but not J Gingembre. Liefman's is a fire-sale bargain compared to that.