With the great news from the LCBO that IIPA was accepted into the fall release, came the great unknown. What was next?  I assumed paperwork, and I was correct. Shortly after I received acceptance from the LCBO, I was informed of the paperwork that needed to be completed.  There were three primary forms: the “Request for Label […]

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For those that don’t know, the LCBO makes their decisions for what beers come out in stores quite a long time in advance.  It is released publicly what they are looking for – the LCBO calls them “Product Needs” (PDF) and issues to the trade what beers they would like to release basically a year […]

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OK, it’s been a few months since my last post about the Garrison private order, when I explained the letterhead issue and how that needed to be resolved to keep the process going.  But what happened after that?  As you’ve seen from the recent posts the beer did in fact make it to Ontario and […]

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It’s been a little while since the last posting but there has certainly been a lot going on.  This week our private order of Garrison beers were released to consumers.  The LCBO has been e-mailing everyone who ordered with instruction that they can now pick up their Garrison at the LCBO warehouse in downtown Toronto […]

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Since the LCBO is a Crown Agency, the salaries of employees that make over $100,000 per year are disclosed as part of Ontario’s Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act.  This act exists to make the public sector “more open and accountable to taxpayers.” If you’re interested, you can see here how much LCBO employees make to […]

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Here’s a funny story about what I needed to do to ensure that the Garrison private order met with the LCBO’s paperwork policies. After I submitted the order paperwork, all 104 pages of it, I was contacted by the LCBO’s private ordering department about Garrison’s address.  For background, about three years ago Garrison moved locations […]

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Nova Scotia has a provincial liquor commission that operates retail stores similar to Ontario, called the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, or NSLC.  Their stores do a fine job of providing a range of wine, spirits and beer to consumers.  For a province of about 1 million, there isn’t a huge market for specialty products, or […]

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News broke last week by Dean Beeby of The Canadian Press that the recent minimum price that beer can be sold in Ontario by the case, up to $25.60 from $24.00, was implemented by the LCBO on the recommendation of the Ministry of Finance.  This has sparked some discussion on Bar Towel and quite a few news […]

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We discussed in November about the LCBO’s e-commerce web site, LCBOgifts.com.  Now Vintages, the LCBO’s premium wine and spirits division has launched an e-commerce web site of its own. Called Vintages Online Exclusives, the site “offers an additional portfolio of premium fine wines and spirits”, presumably products that aren’t regularly available in stores. The site […]

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The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has an extensive online archive of TV and radio clips from their broadcasting history.  One of the topic areas that’s available is entitled “Selling Suds: The Beer Industry in Canada” that covers clips from 1961-2005.  It’s very interesting to see some of changes to the industry over the years.  Something […]

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