The Bar Towel

Welcome to BarTowel Rosko.

The opinions seem divided - some people like only the Fullers Honey, some just the Blueberry, but rarely both! I can't vouch for the Bellhaven but the Fullers is surprisingly pleasant and balanced to me.

And I'm happy for anybody who can like the beers I don't enjoy.

Since we Ontarians are the test market for the Blueberry, email the LCBO if you think it is unworthy!!!

Rosko wrote: Do they not taste the beer they sell?

What can you expect from a place that seems to have bent over backwards to bring in at least one pilsener from each of the former Soviet Republics, but which won't even bring in craft beers from B.C. or the U.S.A.

My rant is done. I am going to drink a real beer.

Preach on Rosko.
I was blown away when I saw Dogfish Head 90 min IPA sitting on their shelves.
Apparently everyone else in the GTA was too, because it was gone in matter of weeks......never to return
Doesn't that say anything to the folks at the L.C.B.O.??

wxbrewer wrote:Apparently everyone else in the GTA was too, because it was gone in matter of weeks......never to return

"Never to return" is probably a bit of an exaggeration. We see Dogfish Head beers pretty regularly (once or twice a year) in the seasonal releases, so there's no reason to think we won't get the 60 Minute (in the same minute quantities) again next summer.

-Josh

The only summer release I've tried so far has been the Liefman's Frambozenbier and it was all right.

None of the other summer beers interest me.

detritus wrote: "Never to return" is probably a bit of an exaggeration. We see Dogfish Head beers pretty regularly (once or twice a year) in the seasonal releases, so there's no reason to think we won't get the 60 Minute (in the same minute quantities) again next summer.

-Josh

Well, never to return this summer anyway.

I missed the Dogfish IPA, but have had many opportunities to load up on Warka, Baltika, Okocim, Zyweic, Zubr, Zlatrog (sp?) among others.

We kid ourselves if we think the LCBO will listen.

True, things are a lot better than they used to be, but when I go into my local LCBO (one of the biggest in the city) and I see Heineken in 4 different configurations and can't find Scotch Irish IPA, it pisses me off.

It's a bottom line business which is fine, but it's run by government workers. The type of people who think putting an extra half-teaspoon of sugar in their coffee is being adventurous.

Going into the LCBO or Beer Store is pretty much a pointless exercise these days.

I'd rather just save up and take a trip to Buffalo, where "choice" actually means "choice".

Stocking 100 kinds of crappy Euro lager isn't choice.

I wonder if importing and consequently selling out of the Dogfish 60 Min was worthwhile for them, monetarily speaking.

Personally, I think they sold it too cheap. I would have easily paid three bucks or more for a bottle of this liquid gold.

I have a friend who works for the LCBO corporate sector. He says it's a horrible bureaucracy. I believe him.

wxbrewer wrote: saw Dogfish Head 90 min IPA sitting on their shelves.
Apparently everyone else in the GTA was too, because it was gone in matter of weeks......:

60 minute IPA actually (which is the time it took to sell in some locations. )

It was hard to find because of 1) slow, delayed & unpredictable distribution (one thread here was almost a weblog on "where to find it, today!!") and 2) when it DID show up, you could bet that some beer geek or beer restaurant had already scooped it. And some stores were REFUSING to put it on hold if you called about it in advance, I have NEVER heard of that Wild West policy before (Spadina store did hold a case a few hours for me, props to them.)

Since we're off on this tangent... I will say that on a few occasions LC staff have set aside desirable or high-demand items* in the back room shelves for their OWN option to buy later. So, if it's on the website inventory, but not on the shelf, ask if they can check if it's back there! Usually the nice staffer will look around, and come back all mystified handing you the item you want.

(*St Bernardus, Ch. Bellevue La Foret Fronton.)

A lot of staff are quite ingenuous and want to help, so be nice & give them a chance.

Back to topic, I am sure the LCBO will order at least a thousand cases of DFH 60 next summer, if 400 sold mostly inside a week! Bet it will cost.... $2.50 a bottle! (No more getting a few cases for a hundred bucks, sigh...)

DFH 60 was a Spring release, not a Summer release. We've pitched it again for Spring 2007 but there was also a General List call for "North American" micros so we also pitched it for a permanent lising. We should hear something in the next month or so but the term "North American" obviously means it's open to domestic micros so who knows what will come out of this (actually, I guess it's open to Mexcan micros as well!). I have to admit, I bought 40 cases for various restaurants so I alone took 10% of the total order, and frankly, if I could have, I would have bought 20%! Having said all that, there's no guarantee that it will be re-purchased as this has happened to us before.

esprit wrote:Having said all that, there's no guarantee that it will be re-purchased as this has happened to us before.

360 cases selling out within days of hitting the shelves has happened before?

-Josh

Zithal wrote:So many fruity beers, so few pansy-ass friends.

Don't you like to drink with girls?
Oh, wait a minute, all my female friends like big ales (I have excluded the rest from my circle)

Rosko wrote:I missed the Dogfish IPA, but have had many opportunities to load up on Warka, Baltika, Okocim, Zyweic, Zubr, Zlatrog (sp?) among others.

We kid ourselves if we think the LCBO will listen.

I know plenty of people who buy Saku (it may be my nationality, but don't take this as an endorsement to drink it!) out of residual national pride for the homeland. I suspect the other East European products tap the same market.
The business the LCBO has chosen might be to serve multiculturalism, not good beer.

esprit wrote:DFH 60 was a Spring release, not a Summer release.

Well it was HALFway to summer when we finally got it.

The Belhaven blueberry is synthetic with a lame weakly malted pilsner base and it sucks for the sale price ...the honey dew is quality ale and one of the best malted ales ( despite detractions form alpha oil addicts) I have tasted. You may have a different opinion on taste but that does not detract from the fact the fuller's price is justified by ingedients and the Belhaven is not. What Belhaven did with this blueberry beer was akin to a steelback trick of using a sub quality weak pilsner beer as a base and flavoring it with artificial flavor adjuncts.

DFH is a new extreme beer and great within it's own category... dripping with both hop oils and malts but well balanced though slightly hop biased, but it certainly cannot be compared to the mild malty golden session ales of the UK....freight train vs mini van equivilency.

All these beers have to be judged by what they are...not by what they are NOT ( rant mode off)

All the same, you wonder why an extreme beer like DFH with all the cost of its ample ingredients is marketed for $2.00 while the belhaven muck was 3.10 and the fuller's honey Dew was $3.50. Although the Fuller's is a good beer and popular in the UK, what makes LCBO mavens think I'll pay 3.50 for it?...or that a popular US Micro that sells out is only worth $2.00??

LCBO value system and pricing remains one of the world's greatest mysteries.