01.01.2013 08:44 PM

Why can’t I get this sweet nectar back home?

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21 Comments

  1. kit says:

    Import/Export provincial laws that Harper said he’d get rid of…………….

  2. Campbell says:

    Because in Ontario, we don’t let private enterprises sell beer (except for The Beer Store or local breweries), which means that there is no way for, say, an ambitious businessman who sees a niche market to open up a specialty beer store to cater to your needs.

    The only private businesses (i.e., not LCBO) that are allowed to sell beer in Ontario must also be brewers. If we started allowing private businesses (that weren’t brewers) to sell beer, the business owners would be able to respond to true market demands instead of simply pushing their own products.

    • Jon Adams says:

      Which is why we can’t get it in Saskatchewan, which is also publicly owed. Oh wait, it’s the most readily available brew in the province.

    • VC says:

      False. In addition to The Beer Store (which is where a great deal of beer is sold and is privately owned), we allow ambitious business owners to sell beer privately in their own establishments. These entrepreneurial opportunities are called, most generally, “bars.” If you’re ever in one, you’ll often find that the selection of beer was the choice of the business owner, not the government. And these aren’t new to Ontario. Indeed, I
      can’t recall the last time I was in a state-owned bar, if ever at all.

  3. Christian says:

    Pilsner is owned by Molson’s. Who also have part ownership in Brewers Retailers (aka The Beer Store). If they really wanted to bring it in they could. After all Big Rock, who do not have any ownership stake in the Beer Store, sells its beer (except the best beer of all time – McNally’s Irish Ale) here in both the Beer Store and LCBO. So, in short harrass Molson until they fold like a cheap plastic chair and bring it in.

  4. James Smith says:

    um, dude?
    Ever since PIL was sold to Molson
    It’s been just Miller Coors industrial suds.
    Just cause it has hippty-hoppy bunnies on the label don’t mean it’s worth drinking!
    It’s GMO Corn swill with MALT&HOP LIKE FLAVOUR tm

    Count the bunnies before you hit the sack!

  5. Craig McKie says:

    Hmmm… striated fingernails. This can never be a good sign for the new year.

  6. frmr disgruntled Con now Happy Lib says:

    Oh the humanity!….a much more palatable cheap suds would be Pacific Western Brewing’s Cariboo Lager…..but you’ll nae see that in Ontario either…..

  7. Cynical says:

    But still, a pale imitation of Fritz Sick’s original western pilsner, brewed in Lethbridge at the end of the trestle bridge. My dad worked there during his demob leave from the RCAF in 1945.
    It’s an OK beer but if you have any taste memory of the original, it just doesn’t work.
    ‘Course you have to be over 60 for that. It could be the reason that some of us expat prairie types have developed a tasted for those overhopped Oregon IPAs.

    Happy New Year.

  8. Liam Young says:

    Buy Iron Spike instead!
    Seriously, as your readers point out, it’s Molson’s (aka Coors) that’s holding things back. For people that are quick to jump on the LCBO as the culprit, remember that the Beer Store is essentially the closest thing we’ve got to privatized alcohol distribution and it’s a glimpse of the future we’d have with the LCBO as a private entity: two sellers bringing us Duff Wine Light, Duff Wine Medium and Duff Wine Dark all from the same tap.

  9. John Kingma says:

    I drank a lot of that beer at a salmon fishing lodge a few years ago. I rather enjoyed it.

  10. Josh says:

    Actually, Rolling Rock is owned by Anheuser-Busch, which is part of InBev, one of the huge beer companies that also owns Labbatt, which was one of the original Beer Store owners, so it’s readily available here. If you think Old Style is good, you’re missing out. There are SO MANY amazing American beers that we simply cannot get here. Stone Brewing Company is my favourite and whenever I go to the States, I stock up. It’s absurd that the government gives this monopoly to what are now three foreign corporations at the expense not only of independent Ontario craft brewers but of potential entrepreneurs who would open specialty beer shops, specializing good beer. Why should we be forced to settle for Molson and Bud when there’s so much amazing beer out there.

  11. patchouli says:

    That’s the official brew of Saskatchewan, Warren, so you will have to come out here and drink some with us. People here like to count the rabbits on the label. When we are in Ontario, they tell us to buy Molson Export, supposed to be nearly the same. And finally, just a few years ago, I was able to start buying Moosehead here in SK for a normal price instead of as an “import.”

    Happy New Year!

  12. dave says:

    I remember wandering about in Yorkville in 1960’s, hearing people talking various strains of weed, and thinking it sounded like good old boys differentiating between alcohols or wheels.

    We are such discerning consumers.

  13. Justin says:

    It explains it here, http://gruesomeviews.com/tag/where-to-buy-old-style-pilsner-in-ontario/

    Apparently they tried to introduce in 92/93 but it wasn’t a big seller here.

  14. roger says:

    Really Warren? I was hoping your tenure in the west would have refined your taste in beers, not killed it.

  15. Greg from Calgary says:

    My good eastern neighbours call it Vitamin P.

  16. reformatory says:

    because your Ontario liberal gov’t runs the LCBO as a cartel and stifles competition. The free market is not allowed to prevail.

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