A Cantillon Puzzle

You can't?

It's like saying, how can a person in Brussels enjoy a Pliny while paying fairly close to the price it can be found in Santa Rosa.

 

Yeah, what he said. Bottles at the brewery in Belgium are like 5 euro each or something stupid (and that's for 750's!). I think the "expensive" ones like Lamvinus and Lou Pepes are 8 euro. A transatlantic journey just changes that.

That said, if you get lucky you can find reasonable prices in California. I've only paid over $30 a bottle for Cantillon once, and I've bought everything from Classic Gueuze to Fou Foune.

 

What? Trading Pliny adds cost via shipping. Moving goods costs money, regardless of how you do it.

The only way it's "free" to move bottles to Belgium and back is if you check them in your one checked bag, but even that has a cost in terms of the difficulty of packing and opportunity cost of what else you can bring.

 

Uhh, the fact that both people pay shipping doesn't mean it's not there. Shipping to belgium is like $70 for a small package, even if you manage to score a 1:1 Pliny:Cantillon, you're still spending more than you would here. It might be cheaper if you go bigger, but it won't ever be even close to what you spend there. Plus there's always a chance it'll completely disappear in customs.

The only way to get some back with no extra cost is to fly it back, and even then that's not totally true because of opportunity costs and hassle.

 

And when you are coming to Belgium you can't buy Cantillon on every corner!!

 

Pretty true... With the exception of being at the actual brewery I can probably get Cantillon easier here than over there to be honest. I have heard that I huge portion of the production is sent overseas US Japan ect. I also suspect that the "typical" Belgian drinker would grab a Juplier, Maes, Westmalle, Orval, Duval, Chimay ect ect ect before a lambic. Therefore only the speciality beer stores/bars carry it.

Put it this way.The streets of Brussels are not overflowing with Cantillon.

 

The typical Belgian drinker would grab a jupiler etc ... ??

When was that ? 10 years ago ? There is such a big difference in style's etc... In Belgium that it just impossible these days to say the the " typical " belgians drink jupiler etc....
Offcorse some drink that , do al Amercians drink DL , speedway stout ? Or can i just say , well the typical Americans drink bud light !
That dosn't make sense at all ,
There are more and more people drink geuze/lambic the last 7/10 years , in the past lots and lots of peopla in Belgium drink geuze , then there was a time that it slowed down , but the last years it's booming again !
Cantillon has a small part of his production for export , but most of it stays in Belgium , and for festivals like zwanze day and for drink at the brewery !

 

That's northern California. Over the last couple years Cantillon has so rarely made an appearance in the Los Angeles/OC/SD area that the price is irrelevant. Around here, you either have to trade, buy on-line or fly to Belgium to get that Canty fix.

Although Cantillon is not available everywhere in Brussels, why go anywhere but the brewery itself? - it's within short walking distance of the Brussels South train station. Hell, with their per glass prices at about $2.25 in the brewery tasting room, I'm probably going to rent a place close by next time I'm in Belgium.

Photo taken at Cantillon last month

 

Cantillon was not hard for me to find. It was on the menu of tons of bars, in most bottle shops I went in (admittedly on the good ones), and one (the good one in Gent) had cases upon cases:



It's much easier to get Cantillon in Belgium than here.

 

Hey I could be wrong... Maybe my intell is off... I could have sworn that a large portion of Cantillon was exported. I have been to maybe 15-20 different pubs/stores in Belgium in the last 4 years and I can only remember 3-4 of them that carried Cantillon. I don't live there though and perhaps I am going to the wrong places

Cheers!

 

I'm nearly sure that this picture is taken at dranken Geers in Oostakker ( next to Gent ) , right ?

 

Yup, that has to be Geers. I love Geers. Maybe the best beer store in the WORLD!

 

Oh yes Geers!! On monday I wil go to Geers to get some nice beers!!

 

Yeah, that's the one, I couldn't remember the name off the top of my head. The owner was so nice, she gave me a lambic basket for free because we came from so far away! Awesome place, highly recommended.

 

That's simply not true, and Sophie from the brewery has told me so. 20-25% of production alone goes to the States, while Scandanavia and Italy get much more, never mind other markets such as Japan, the UK, etc.