The Bar Towel

Was originally 17.95....I've seen these packs pop up at quite a few LCBOs recently....must have had some extra stock.

I just scored a St. Ambroise Vintage Ale three pack/vertical pack at an LC in Brampton. Kinda lucky since I never had one when they came out. It was $14.95... anyone remember how much it was when it came out? It isn't listed on either site now. I feel like it was the exact same price.

Ahhhhhh -- the agony. This was a scenario where we "sold out" early and had customers and stores begging for them only to find out the LCBO Warehouse "lost" 300 of them. When they found them two days before Xmas, instead of shipping them all over the province, they decided to "force" them to seven stores in Toronto. Those seven stores would say "Barry, I already sold 50 of these to those local customers who wanted it." So, the LCBO decided to drop the price on us a month after Xmas because the overstocked stores weren't moving the 45 units at each store fast enough. Oh - and they also dropped it from their website so no one could search for it -- no one internally knew the answer to that. Uggh. I loaded up the van a couple times -- transferred a bunch to KW, London, Collingwood and Windsor in February. Another trip was to Ottawa before Father's Day.

There is only a handful left -- I use the drinkvine link to keep a tab on them -- http://www.drinkvine.com/drinkdetail.ph ... ctID=66027

We had a couple bars interested in having them as a "vintage vertical" with a neat cheese & meat plate. Nothing confirmed yet - so get them before they are gone.

Cheers,
Barry

Frere Ambroise wrote:...we "sold out" early and had customers and stores begging for them only to find out the LCBO Warehouse "lost" 300 of them. When they found them two days before Xmas, instead of shipping them all over the province, they decided to "force" them to seven stores in Toronto. - and they also dropped it from their website so no one could search for it -

Sheer excellence on the part of our Liquor Monotony.

Well here is my opinion. I drank the '11 that came in the box. There was a ton of sediment and the drink was overall fine. The next day I drank the '12 that I had aged on my own. No sediment at all, and it was far superior in every way to the '11 I drank from the vertical box. I will perhaps drink the vertical '12 this weekend to see how that one is, but it may be a better idea to save that for another year.

Another case of how random and personally preferential aging/cellaring can be, and sort of why I'm starting to move away from it. I figured that because I'm not really aging all that much according to how you're supposed to, at least temperature wise, that the ones in the box set would have been superior to mine. Alas, it didn't seem to be.

I haven't had any from '13 yet, but going from memory of what the '12 was like fresh, the '12 with almost two years was far superior to both the fresh '12 and the '11. A wonderful sipper it was this past Sunday afternoon.


Maybe different kinds of beer react differently to different temps while aging, but I have yet to drink an Imperial stout that I've aged for more than two years that was anything but a disapointment. The night I drank the '11 vintage ale, I also drank an '11 (possible a '12, i'll check later) St. Ambroise RIS. It was not as nice as fresh, or as nice as when I drank one with one years age on it.

Frere Ambroise - are the st ambroise RIS and vintage ale both coming back to the lcbo this winter?

Frere Ambroise wrote:

I just scored a St. Ambroise Vintage Ale three pack/vertical pack at an LC in Brampton. Kinda lucky since I never had one when they came out. It was $14.95... anyone remember how much it was when it came out? It isn't listed on either site now. I feel like it was the exact same price.

Ahhhhhh -- the agony. This was a scenario where we "sold out" early and had customers and stores begging for them only to find out the LCBO Warehouse "lost" 300 of them. When they found them two days before Xmas, instead of shipping them all over the province, they decided to "force" them to seven stores in Toronto. Those seven stores would say "Barry, I already sold 50 of these to those local customers who wanted it." So, the LCBO decided to drop the price on us a month after Xmas because the overstocked stores weren't moving the 45 units at each store fast enough. Oh - and they also dropped it from their website so no one could search for it -- no one internally knew the answer to that. Uggh. I loaded up the van a couple times -- transferred a bunch to KW, London, Collingwood and Windsor in February. Another trip was to Ottawa before Father's Day.

There is only a handful left -- I use the drinkvine link to keep a tab on them -- http://www.drinkvine.com/drinkdetail.ph ... ctID=66027

We had a couple bars interested in having them as a "vintage vertical" with a neat cheese & meat plate. Nothing confirmed yet - so get them before they are gone.

Cheers,
Barry

spinrsx wrote: Frere Ambroise - are the st ambroise RIS and vintage ale both coming back to the lcbo this winter?

Yeah I want to hear this from the horse's mouth because word is (on untappd) that NEITHER is coming this year.

spinrsx wrote:Frere Ambroise - are the st ambroise RIS and vintage ale both coming back to the lcbo this winter?

And if so, what will the price be? I'm considering getting the 12-pack @ $69.95 + tax + deposit.

Would assume the RIS would be same as last year (and the year before) $5.95

12-pack gets you 2 free glasses/coasters at brouehaha though

Ceecee wrote:

spinrsx wrote:Frere Ambroise - are the st ambroise RIS and vintage ale both coming back to the lcbo this winter?

And if so, what will the price be? I'm considering getting the 12-pack @ $69.95 + tax + deposit.

Yep - for no real reason the LCBO has decided to have neither RIS or Vintage this year.

I recently discussed this with my boss about the doing a one-time "private order" here on Bar Towel and to the licensees.

Would you folks be up for that? If so - let me know and I'll get the ball rolling on this just so I can tell the brewery how many cases to allocate to Ontario.

Cheers,
B

I would take a case, 100%

I would be interested in a couple bottles of the Vintage.

stupid lcbo.

Frere Ambroise wrote:Yep - for no real reason the LCBO has decided to have neither RIS or Vintage this year.

I recently discussed this with my boss about the doing a one-time "private order" here on Bar Towel and to the licensees.

Would you folks be up for that? If so - let me know and I'll get the ball rolling on this just so I can tell the brewery how many cases to allocate to Ontario.

Cheers,
B

Frere Ambroise wrote:Yep - for no real reason the LCBO has decided to have neither RIS or Vintage this year.

Welp, that's decided then. For those interested and able to get to QC, here's the link...

http://mcauslan.com/en/store-locator/st ... tout-2014/

Frere Ambroise wrote:Yep - for no real reason the LCBO has decided to have neither RIS or Vintage this year.

I recently discussed this with my boss about the doing a one-time "private order" here on Bar Towel and to the licensees.

Would you folks be up for that? If so - let me know and I'll get the ball rolling on this just so I can tell the brewery how many cases to allocate to Ontario.

Cheers,
B

For the RIS - sure!

Frere Ambroise wrote:Yep - for no real reason the LCBO has decided to have neither RIS or Vintage this year.

I recently discussed this with my boss about the doing a one-time "private order" here on Bar Towel and to the licensees.

Would you folks be up for that? If so - let me know and I'll get the ball rolling on this just so I can tell the brewery how many cases to allocate to Ontario.

Cheers,
B

I'd take a "mixed sixer" - three of each RIS & Vintage.