Skeleton Key Variants

I think the price point is why it all is still available. Price hike might have gone over better in early December. But still BOYD is a better brew and cheaper (when it released).

 

I think bellwoods is testing out the market and price point that they can get away with. I don't think they need every beer they make to sell out in 2 hours so they will put the price at a level where the special releases will last around 1 week. Then if they have any leftover after the week they will save them for Christmas and have a special sale where they charge even more to have a second chance at them.

 

It was brewed at Hafis, and there was a lot of it which I think speaks to the lingering stock as much as the price point.

 

There were only 2000 bottles of each variant, which, is not a lot. In line with almost all of their other limited releases over the years. I think people that would have normally bought 4 bottles of a special release probably only bought 2 of each. Then, there is that guy from Quebec who bought like 12 cases of each......lol.

I also believe the market is getting saturated. Bellwoods has increased the number of different beers they put out, more and more breweries opening, and they releasing more barrel-aged expensive beers. It's getting hard to keep up with all these releases. Plus, some decent stuff in the 'BO recently.......I'm sure many people spent their rent money on CBS...........not to mention buying cases of 3F, Cascade, etc.

 

^^Yup, I definitely picked up fewer of these variants (due to the $17 price) than I typically would. 2x coconut and 4x coffee (although 4 was the limit per variant anyway, but could have brought someone with me to grab the extras if I felt it was worth it). Honestly wasn't blown away by the OG or the variants at this point anyway. BOYD is/was awesome though.

 

........and that Barn Owl 10 at 9000 bottles..........that's gonna be there until the Summer.......lol.

 

^^lol yeah the $14 per for a 9000 bottle brett IPA seemed steep to me too. it's tasty, but the price seems off. as someone else said above though, they're probably just testing the waters as to what they can get away with.

 

Agreed. I believe they have four of those foedres........so there should be 3 more releases of 9000 bottles coming out in the near future I presume.
27,000 bottles on top of all their other releases...........need new markets I think.

 

Barn Owl #11 is a Barrel Aged Farmhouse Ale with Rosewood Estates Lavender and Wildflower Honey. 2639 bottles. That one will sell faster due to the smaller bottle count but we'll see how it's priced compared to other recent releases.

 

That explains why we saw it here in Alberta, and its turding up the shelves here at $19 per bottle, I think in Calgary there is probably 200+ bottles still on the shelf

 

to be fair...i've found that lots of beer turds up Calgary shelves. seems like anything that's not cheap and cheerful or crushable lingers.
And i have no clue how Cascade sells there at close to $50/bottle

 

I don't know about anything not cheap, at least not now.. maybe times have changed recently or maybe its just the lambic effect but Cantillon never makes it on to shelves at $40, it all sells behind the scenes. Tilquin fruited lasts a day at $25 per 375, 3F 750s sell out instantly as well even gueuze. The Cascades definitely dont sell but if your paying $50 per your going to the wrong stores also.. most places its $30-35.

Having had Barn Owl 10 sent to me, I don't think Barn Owl 10 is worth $19. This is all the NDP's fault anyways, taxing anyone from outside the province to allow for a plethora of breweries to open here and survive producing the standard Red Ale, Brown Ale, White Ale, IPA, 5% Stout and Lager.

 

oh, how i miss that time when i was buying Iris at clearance from Willow Park. lol. that and Pannepot.

 

Iv

I've heard stories of LPF blowing out at $10 per bottle at Willow aha

 

i remember my wife giving me shit for wanting to buy it all. my sister lives in calgary and i cellared the bottles there for a year. think i did 2 Iris and 2...regular gueuze? and i remember it being $15-18/bottle.
i first went to Cantillon and Struise in 2011, so i'm guessing this happened in 2012. how times change...

 

The lambic hipster.

Yeah times have definitely changed aha now it won't ever make it on to the shelves, sells out over the phone before the beer is ever in hand aha. Comes in April if you can talk your sister into getting some.

 

Just popped into the Ossington location. Roughly 50 cases of the Coconut and half that of the Coffee left. Original is out of stock.

 

i've had the fortune of going to belgium 3 times in the past 13 months. i've sucked from the Cantillon teat well enough that I have zero complaints and am not a greedy man. brought back 3 st lam grand cru last month that should keep me nice and warm for a bit.

 

Did lateral of coconut and coffee. Coffee was this big creamy thing that's becoming too much used all over. Coconut was nicely done coconut that balanced with the other spiciness.

 

I’m headed up to Toronto later this week for a couple of days from Atlanta, GA and am planning to hit Ossington on Friday. Hoping these variants hang out a bit so I can pick up a couple bottles of each!

Random question- is Bellwoods cool with you bringing in a bomber/can or two of interesting, out of distro beers to share while you’re at the brewery? Some places down here are ok with it, but others aren’t. Was thinking about bringing something from GA to let you folks sample during my visit but don’t want to bother if they’re going to shoot it down