The Bar Towel

Picked up the Samual Smith's at the Spadina/Dupont store today ... they were just unpacking them. They have the Historic Scottish, Hobgoblin, SS, Interbrew/Macro packs but no Orval or La Trappe. Questions about the Orval giftpack obviously caused me to grow an extra head, at least from the looks I got.

They also didn't have the bottle of retsina I was looking for, but I doubt anyone cares about that.

Not that it makes much difference but there is no "La Trappe" gift box this year...it's a Koningshoeven Gift Box.

Yes, I know. I just couldn't remember how to spell that.

I think, given that it is only called Koningshoeven in North America and that is only due to copyright reasons anyway, that it is entirely reasonable for consumers to still call them La Trappe even if La Trappe cannot.

Also, I love the blurb on the back of the gift set, which states that this is "Holland's only Koningshoeven beer". Hmm, well that may be true, but it is a bit nonsensical - after all, how many Koeningshoeven abbeys are there likely to be in a Country? Do you think that a quick search-and-replace for "trappist" went a bit wrong at that point?

Actually it's not reasonable to call them La Trappe in the context we were discussing which was asking LCBO personel about their availability...there are no La Trappe gift boxes available so one should not use that name when asking about them.

On 2003-11-05 04:22, borderline_alcoholic wrote:

Also, I love the blurb on the back of the gift set, which states that this is "Holland's only Koningshoeven beer". Hmm, well that may be true

Even that is untrue, given where it is produced.

On 2003-11-05 09:18, esprit wrote:
Actually it's not reasonable to call them La Trappe in the context we were discussing which was asking LCBO personel about their availability...

Ah, you have a point. I really just meant within the confines of this board.

On 2003-11-05 11:03, Josh Oakes wrote:

Even that is untrue, given where it is produced.

Where are the La Trappe beers produced nowadays, just out of interest?

Don't understand your comment Josh...the La Trappe/Koningshoeven Trappist beers are produced at the abbey as they have always been...the brewery today is operated by Bavaria S.A. who also use the facilities to produce some of their own beers. It is this commercial relationship with Bavaria which led to them being asked to leave the Authentic Trappist association, however, the beers continue to be brewed in a Trappist monastery according to the same recipes. The name change for North America has to do with the La Trappe name being owned by a North American Trappist order which decided to ask them to stop using the name La Trappe in North America. They have the rights to the name for the rest of the world.

On 2003-11-05 14:48, esprit wrote:
the brewery today is operated by Bavaria S.A. who also use the facilities to produce some of their own beers.

Aha, so then there are other Koningshoeven beers out there. I am now off to investigate prosecuting the LCBO for selling misleading products.

Or not.

Well, Peter I was both wrong and right. I will concede the physical location of the brewery but if Bavaria is brewing other products there, then La Trappe still can't be the only Koningshoeven beers...and they've still fallen off a cliff in terms of quality since Bavaria took over.