Leftovers from Brewer's Bah on Sale, York and Prospect liqour store

[Roger]

Ha! I'm having one right now! 

[Kyle]

I also had not one, but 2 dreams of sleeping in missing the good stuff, but I was there bright eyed and bushy tailed at 9:15! There were a few people in front of me in line, and by the time 10am rolled around, the line was at least 35 people long.

[Roger]

I should have gotten there early. But still not a bad haul!

[pliny]

It was funny, when I was there the staff in the store were saying how crazy it was when the store opened. They were scratching their heads and saying "Gosh, I guess this craft beer thing is really big." I chuckled.
Bunch of bozos.

Except for you Kyle. You're not a bozo.

[Richard]

BWahahahahahaha. ALL THE BEER. That is all.

[jamie_savoie]

I hope ANBL got the message!

[brew]

I dont understand how i can enter the store just looking for a few bottles and leave with a 140 bill? Just like Christmas this morning, big feeding frenzy... glad iwent though!

[Chris Craig]

Most of this was from the sale

[chrismccull]

Switchback IPA is really good, as well as Flying Monkey antigravity.

[Fhilo]

My haul... Glad I got a couple of the antigravity... look forward to that, hell -- I look forward to all of it!!

[chrismccull]

Where did you get the holy smoke? Jane said york didn't have any.

[Fhilo]

When we were in line, I mentioned not getting one, JQ said he thought he saw a couple. He went and came back with the last one he saw. Glad I got it though, its only the second smoked ale that's not been too smokey that I've had   
ChrisM,  I'll let you know when I'm gonna crack it, if you're interested

[Kyle]

Had one of the Crazy Canuck Pale Ales today... I need to start working on a clone: that stuff's good!

[pliny]

CRAFT BEER SALE A HIT
BY ERIC LEWIS TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF26 JUL 2013 09:48AM

A mad dash at the Vaughan Harvey Boulevard liquor store Thursday morning is further evidence that New Brunswick beer fans' taste buds are clamouring for new, different flavours, something that is not lost on the head of NB Liquor.

A variety of Canadian craft beer not normally sold in the province was made available in select liquor stores Thursday, and the lone Moncton store to feature the beers sold out of 150 cases of beer in just seven minutes.

Roughly 30 people were lined up outside the store before it opened at 10 a.m. Once they were let in, a few dozen were scrambling to grab stray bottles, six-packs and 12-packs of lagers, pale ales, IPAs, wheat beers, porters, smoked beers and much more. Anyone who planned on being choosy had to toss that idea out the window and just grab whatever they could as the two tables with hundreds of bottles quickly emptied.

"It is a good chance to try different beers," said Jim LeBlanc, an avid beer fan who stood in line at the Vaughan Harvey store with a nearly overflowing cart of beer. He estimated that he bought about 25 different kinds.

Despite having tried a few hundred beers in his lifetime, LeBlanc found a few he'd never had before.

"There's some that I really don't know," he said. "It was such a frenzy, you just grabbed what you could."

The craft beers on sale Thursday were selling for $3 for any single bottle 500 ml or less and $4 for any larger single bottle. Six-packs were $14, and 12-packs were $25.

While it wasn't a massive crowd breaking down the doors of the store, numbers from NB Liquor show the craft beer category continues to grow.

Daniel Allain, president and CEO of NB Liquor, said a similar scene took place at the other three stores in the province to benefit from leftover beers after the Brewer's Bash, a celebration of Canadian craft beer, in Fredericton two weeks ago. The other three stores to get the leftovers are located in Fredericton and Saint John, and they were all sold out of the craft beers on sale by noon Thursday.

Allain said 114 products from 35 Canadian breweries from east to west and north to south were brought into New Brunswick for the Brewer's Bash.

"We're certainly satisfied with how the beer bash went," Allain said. "I think it's initiatives like this that New Brunswickers want. I think that was highlighted in our report to cabinet last year — people want variety. We have to change their experience."

He noted that 55 per cent of NB Liquor's annual sales come from beer. While overall beer sales in the province decreased by 6.7 per cent in volume in the fiscal year April 2011 to March 2012, and again by about 4.8 per cent from April 2012 to March 2013, NB Liquor's specialty beer category (which includes craft beers) jumped 17 per cent in volume sales from January to June this year over last year.

Allain acknowledged the frustration some beer fans have expressed, that more variety needs to be found on NB Liquor shelves, specifically more craft beers. Microbreweries across North America tend to produce more variety of flavours that connoisseurs want to try.

He said NB Liquor continues to work toward that. NB Liquor's 2012 strategic review pointed to a need to increase the number of agency stores in the province, a process that has already started with eight new agency stores now open. The review also stressed a need to examine the possibility of selling liquor in grocery stores and even allow private specialty stores to sell products not available on normal liquor store shelves. Nova Scotia has a handful of specialty stores that sell beer, wine and spirits from around the world that are not available at Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation stores.

Allain said those ideas are being discussed in New Brunswick now, though he realizes they may be moving slower than some customers might like.

"We're working on it right now and I'm hoping within the next couple of months that we see some activity on that."

While Thursday's craft beer sale attracted plenty of interest, Allain said there are challenges when it comes to working with small breweries.

"You're working with small operations, right? It's tough to cross one jurisdiction and all that, the logistics of it," Allain said. "They're not as in tune as the big guys, so that's why we have to work with them. It takes a little more time."

He added that small breweries need to be dealt with on a one-on-one basis "to know how they work (and so) they get to know how we work; there's a learning process."

Some microbrews are not pasteurized either, and as a result they have a shorter shelf life than the typical beer.

Allain said NB Liquor needs to be more flexible and adaptable to work with these smaller companies to meet the needs of customers.

"When you have a great event like the beer bash and the festival in Moncton, the beer festival — any time that we have some type of event at the liquor store, people like that differentiation," he said. "We have to be more flexible and we have to be more innovative with things like this."

[brew]

Nice article - hope we see more like this...