The Bar Towel

Cass wrote:

pootz wrote: Speaking of Barley wines, has anyone heard of Mill street is making one this year?? I see they pulled their listing from the BO???

Mill Street has a 2007 Barley Wine, it is out right now and selling from the brewpub. It's packaged in a ceramic-style swingtop bottle.

Hi Cass. Any idea of the bottle size and price?

PRMason wrote:Thomas Hardy is an excellent example of how good the LCBO prices sometimes are. This beer retails for 3.28 British Pounds for a 250 ml bottle. This works out to $6.72. If the LCBO is going to sell it for $4.00, its a real bargoon.

I was on the phone to my dad in England, and he was shocked that we could get it at such a cheap price, so I'm picking up a few bottles to pass on to him. Apparently he's been getting a few bottles every year he sees it, and his oldest batch is a 1976!

Bobsy wrote:

Cass wrote:

pootz wrote: Speaking of Barley wines, has anyone heard of Mill street is making one this year?

Mill Street has a 2007 Barley Wine, it is out right now and selling from the brewpub. It's packaged in a ceramic-style swingtop bottle.

Hi Cass. Any idea of the bottle size and price?

Sandy at the Mill Street Brewpub Store (in the Corktown area Distillery District) tells me it is a full 500 ml this time, and costs $9.95.

Decent value - pricing reflects greater volume, and no doubt a fairly expensive container. For long-term aging ceramic is great. Go MS.

Belgian wrote:

Bobsy wrote:

Cass wrote: Mill Street has a 2007 Barley Wine, it is out right now and selling from the brewpub. It's packaged in a ceramic-style swingtop bottle.

Hi Cass. Any idea of the bottle size and price?

Sandy at the Mill Street Brewpub Store (in the Corktown area Distillery District) tells me it is a full 500 ml this time, and costs $9.95.

Decent value - pricing reflects greater volume, and no doubt a fairly expensive container. For long-term aging ceramic is great. Go MS.

Well, to be fair, it used to be in a standard size stubby for $5. Now its twice the price and less than twice the volume, so its a pretty substantial increase.

But kudos to Mill St for actually making a barleywine!

I liked their Barley wine,,,just finished my last bottle of the first release this fall....did they say what volumes this was made in...is it vintage dated and have serial numbers?

A wrote:

Belgian wrote:
Decent value - pricing reflects greater volume, and no doubt a fairly expensive container. For long-term aging ceramic is great. Go MS.

Well, to be fair, it used to be in a standard size stubby for $5. Now its twice the price and less than twice the volume, so its a pretty substantial increase.

It also used to be in a gift tube for 8.95-9.95, and had coasters and a paper-wrapped tumbler glass. I prefer the lightproof ceramic bottle to all those bulky items.

Essentially I think it's gotta be hard for anyone to sell the general public a very expensive beer without fancy packaging - witness the St. Ambroise and Fullers and Innis & Gunn Limited - all are highly packaged to overcome sales resistance. A regular little 4.99 bottle of Barley Wine actually might have zero Gift Appeal and not sell as well so I think the half-liter size and ceramic bottle are a smart idea all round. They may also be hand-filled. no? I don't care if the ceramic and the extra labour do cost me 2-3 bucks over a standard bottle, it's not a standard product IMO.

Belgian wrote:For long-term aging ceramic is great. Go MS.

i don't entirely agree with that. ceramic itself is good for keeping out light and such, but if it's actually a swingtop then it isn't good for long-term aging since the rubber seals tend to dry out and crack. not a huge problem over the span of a couple years, but that's not what i'd call "long-term".

now if they've done what rogue and some others do and they've got an actual cap on top of the ceramic and the swingtop is just decorative, it's win-win.

What if the neck were dipped in wax? That protects the seal no?

Belgian wrote:What if the neck were dipped in wax? That protects the seal no?

maybe if the wax formed an air-tight seal, but in my experience they usually don't.

The release list in the first post of this thread has been updated based on some info I've received from the LCBO Infoline and the website inventory:

A few of the beers are now marked as 'available' (although in some cases, they're only in one or two stores).

XO Beer has been added to the release.

LCBO #s have been added to a couple more items. Only the John By Imp Stout is still pending confirmation.

Prices on a few upcoming items are now '$TBC'.

GregClow wrote:The release list in the first post of this thread has been updated based on some info I've received from the LCBO Infoline and the website inventory:

A few of the beers are now marked as 'available' (although in some cases, they're only in one or two stores).

XO Beer has been added to the release.

LCBO #s have been added to a couple more items. Only the John By Imp Stout is still pending confirmation.

Prices on a few upcoming items are now '$TBC'.

Oh man, don't tell me that they're thinking of changing the price of the Thomas Hardy's. It's now TBC? Please tell me it'll stay at $4.

I just found this on the L.C.B.O website anybody have any idea if we will actually see it?

WESTMALLE TRIPEL*
Belgium | B Export
LCBO 676577 | 330 mL | $ 3.10

irishkyle21 wrote:I just found this on the L.C.B.O website anybody have any idea if we will actually see it?

WESTMALLE TRIPEL*
Belgium | B Export
LCBO 676577 | 330 mL | $ 3.10

Still there from last year no doubt...how did Westie get past the beer censor? Was the font on the Label the right size?

grub wrote:

Belgian wrote:What if the neck were dipped in wax? That protects the seal no?

maybe if the wax formed an air-tight seal, but in my experience they usually don't.

Had trouble with swing tops leaking before...if you have a small pot melt some bostik in it and multi dip the top...it will seal well.

Raptor2023 wrote:

GregClow wrote:The release list in the first post of this thread has been updated based on some info I've received from the LCBO Infoline and the website inventory:

A few of the beers are now marked as 'available' (although in some cases, they're only in one or two stores).

XO Beer has been added to the release.

LCBO #s have been added to a couple more items. Only the John By Imp Stout is still pending confirmation.

Prices on a few upcoming items are now '$TBC'.

Oh man, don't tell me that they're thinking of changing the price of the


Thomas Hardy's. It's now TBC? Please tell me it'll stay at $4.

It seems that the price correction was inevitable considering currency and transportation fluctuations which occurred since the application for THA was submitted over a year ago. However, the price will be in the mid $4 range. This is still the best deal around for this superb product. We hope this slight increase will not cause too much disappointment.

Regards,