The hugely coveted Westvleteren 12 is in LCBO stores now—but not for long
The hugely coveted Westvleteren 12 is in LCBO stores now—but not for long
Westvleteren 12, the ultra-rare Belgian Trappist ale we told you about last month, finally appeared on LCBO shelves today, after many delays. The only problem: it’s disappearing within mere minutes, with beer geeks and bandwagon jumpers lining up to buy a case of six for $76.85. We called around to see where it’s still in stock.
- Queens Quay and Yonge: already sold out of about 110 cases
- Bayview Village: have not received their allotment of 10–15, but it could appear any time
- Avenue and Lawrence: waiting for about 10 cases
- Royal Bank Plaza: cases will appear tomorrow, although they’re “not at liberty to say” how many
- Cornwall and Trafalgar (Oakville): 30 cases will be available at 9 a.m. on Friday morning
- King and Spadina: expecting 20 cases on Thursday or Friday
- Bloor and Bay (Manulife Centre): expecting 10 cases today, which will be made available tomorrow (lineups are expected starting at around 7 a.m.)
- Carlton and Church: will put out their allotment of 12 cases when it arrives, as early as today
- Highway 401 and Weston (Crossroads): sold out
- Queen and Coxwell: expecting a shipment of 30 cases tomorrow
- Yonge and Summerhill: sold out
- Dupont and Spadina: sold out
- King and Dufferin: haven’t yet received expected shipment and not sure if it’s coming
- Bloor and Royal York: expecting shipment tomorrow
- Laird and Eglinton: expecting 50 cases tomorrow, hopefully for sale at 9 a.m.
- Spadina and Dundas: expecting a small shipment on Friday morning; all cases have now left the main LCBO warehouse
It is for posts like these that there are long lineups of folks looking to get their hands on “that ‘W’ trappist beer.”
Don’t believe the hype.
congrats to LCBO on this horrible release. Super hype, understocked, no set release date for all stores, LCBO phones ringing off the hook, waiting lists, angry LCBO employees, atrocious distribution across ontario (apparently Toronto deserves pretty much all this beer), huge lineups. Hey LCBO go buy Alberta’s dead stock! and get more stock in stores, help us have a merry christmas and a happy new year.
Johnny, I absolutely agree. How can they release a high demand product that has very limited quantities available in such a disorganized and unprepared way.
If you are going to bother selling it, at least release it from all the stores at once so that everyone has a fair chance. The stores releasing it tomorrow are prime for those who have already bought and are now looking to make some cash. If they sold it all on one day they maximize the chance that everyone gets a try, not just those with connections who know which stores are selling when.
And quite frankly, unless you’re 25, childless and self-employed (or retired), who the hell has the time to line up for a 6-pack of beer?
Abolish the LCBO so I can legally start a boutique beer store in Toronto, and make specialty imports of my own.
We’ll get our beer, the province will get the tax revenue and can build better hospitals and schools with the savings from me paying my own rent and employees instead of the LCBO’s ridiculous processes + bureaucracy
Most of the stock was pre-sold, even though head office denies it. Plus, has anyone noticed the numbers aren’t adding up? How many cases were ‘quality controlled’? But lest I appear bitter, let’s use the hype to distribute the next rare release. Lottery. Anyone can go to their local LCBO anywhere in Ontario to enter their name. Just like at the abbey, photo ID must be shown. One entry per person. Names are drawn from all the stores, the cases are distributed to the winning stores to be picked up within a week. The same photo ID must be shown. If not picked up, another name is drawn. The LCBO already has the distribution of bottles to individual customers to their local stores. This would be no different. And any manager or employee found tampering with the lottery or the beer, fired immediately and put in stocks in the town square.
Screw you and your inaccurate report on stock!!
I don’t understand why there is so much backlash to the way the Westy12 release was handled by the LCBO? Anyone who really wanted it was easily able to get it by going early and waiting in line. Seems like the people that are complaining were too lazy or too busy to get up early and wait for it like the rest of us. I thought sour grapes were for wine not beer?
Define “easily able to get it.” Apparently, people had lined up at LCBO stores as early as 1 a.m. for the release. As an earlier commenter pointed out, if you have a job and/or a family, getting your hands on a case was anything but easy.
And anyone who calls the product “Westy12” has got to be 25.
24 stores across Ontario got Westvleteren to distribute. 16 are listed above for a total of 325 cases for those saying what their allotment was. 8 stores yet to say. Guelph previously said they were getting 9. LCBO said they received 1,404 cases to distribute. So let’s see some numbers on where the cases went. Then those first in the doors can verify how many cases were available for sale. First come, first served? Not.bloody.likely.
This article has definitely misinformed people. I didn’t bother going to the Avenue & Lawrence store today on the word that they would get 10 cases only (pretty much no chance for anyone showing up after 8am), but they got 40 and had some left over after opening. This release has definitely been a major cluster-@#$%
Eg and Laird was on this morning. 7:15am and you had no problem.
Friends waited at Manulife 2 days in a row only to be told they didnt get their shipment.
Dont think Beaches is getting any.
Best chance now is RBC Friday morning…go at 6am since it’s indoors and people will be comfortable. I froze this morning!
The haphazard release is unfortunate. I was lucky enough to get some by lining up at Bayview Village by 7 – I think they got about 35 boxes. Anyone there after about 7:30 was out of luck. But I called Avenue Road and Lawrence last night and was told it wasn’t in yet – then it turns out it went out this morning. A lottery or at least a simultaneous release would have been more fair.
That said, the LCBO staff at Bayview did a good job. They distributed tickets just after 8 so we could go have breakfast and the unlucky ones could leave. But it would have been nice to have a sense of how many bricks were available ahead of time. The wait was a bit tense until the tickets were given out as various rumors circulated about how many they had.
Replying to Westy12’s comment..”Anyone who really wanted it was easily able to get it by going early and waiting in line. Seems like the people that are complaining were too lazy or too busy to get up early and wait for it like the rest of us”…I have no problem lining up but somehow I think my employer would fire me if I said I didn’t come into work because I was waiting in line at the liquor store! I start at 7 a.m. The person who made the most sense was the posting that it should be a lottery. Fair to all. Guess we stay with Single Malts!
Be careful not to confuse “cases” with “giftpacks”. A case contains 4 of the gift packs. This morning at bayview village they said they were getting in 10-15 cases, which translated into them having 53 giftpacks available this morning.
Guys, there were 4 boxes in a case, which explains the stock number confusion. Not that hard to figure out, really.
Why is everyone complaining about how the boxes were released? Make a decision based on your needs. If you work or have family and cannot wait in line, too bad. Thats life…You can either fly out to the monks themselves and get it there or buy it off the grey market..
With that being said, yes the above #s are right for each LCBO store. 4 boxes are in each case and the reason why the delivery time varies is because it goes buy the regular delivery schedule for the specific LCBO store. NO ONE waited at 1am…earliest times I have heard was for 7-8am. The Queens Quay location was very underrated, but had the longestest line up. There was rumours about certain bars/lounge owners lining up with their employees to get a hold of the cases, but is to be expected.
And yes, a few cases were not sold by the LCBO and are in stock for “special occasions”. Im sure you and I both know what that means…. and the reason why I say all this is because I do work at LCBO HQ. And its not up to the LCBO on whether to do the lottery or not…thats up to the supplier when signing the distribution deal.
Time to privatize the sale of booze in this province. Tired of watching specials like this get zero consideration to being sold in Northern ON. Could not even use a vacation day to get this since we could not get a firm date for it going on sale. Release was like a monkey @#$#ing a football from the perspective of Northerners.Thanks LCBO boneheads!
Actually for the purpose of this article “gift pack” is synonymous with “cases”.
QQ had 110 gift packs – not 440!
Laird 56
Etc
Etc
Bayview was a surprise
Manulife is expecting 10 packs
Coxwell 36
Don’t see how we get 1400 counting this way.
Does anyone know if RBC got their shipment tonight? I didn’t realize they close at 8pm and they were closed by the time I called.
Yes, they did. No idea how many.
ok guys, I’m living in Belgium, I can send you some if you wish ;-)
Time to end the LCBO monopoly.
Get rid of the LCBO, and you won’t be getting beer like this at a corner store-the beer’s so esoteric and foreign, that it wouldn’t be considered profitable to sell by most corner stores (most corner stores would just sell stuff like Labatt’s 50 and Budweiser). Unless you want to make your own beer (and also be deluged by a shitload of bum wine and malt liquor, I think that we’d better stick with the LCBO for now.
I know someone who did that. It was gone in 5 minutes for people that even showed up early.
Oh look. The expert is here. You have no clue about beer sales. Not “considered profitable”? Considered? It’s actually simple math. Again, go get some education in this.
The LCBO is a complete farce.
The farce is you, Rico-I’m not saying anything any worse that what others have said similarly. I just don’t trust the corner store or commercial booze retailers to give a shit about getting good wine, beer, and spirits out to the wider populace like the LCBO does. Most likely, if the LCBO went, and there were no good regulation, any kind of shit (like Thunderbird and MD [Mad Dog] 20/20) and most malt liquors would be sold. At least the LCBO keeps booze out of the hands of the most obvious drunks, and kids (most of the time) I’d just as soon give up the LCBO as I’d give up my right to vote.
Hahaha. Go review your comments. It seems your medication is half what it should be. You have absolutely no experience in this industry, nor any insight whatsoever. The LCBO does absolutely nothing. I have worked for them, and run my own manufacturing plant here in Ontario.
People like you shouldn’t vote in the first place. Your choice of support for the LCBO shows how much you really know to begin with.
I’m not on any meds, Rico-I just don’t believe getting rid of the LCBO is that important right now, and especially because you and a few people here couldn’t get the really special beer that you wanted. If you wanted it so badly, you should have found a way to be there at an LCBO store to get it.
Actually, Michael, the beer world is a little more sophisticated than Toronto Life. People that are looking for this aren’t hanging onto “posts”.
No you can’t. Try to get some yourself. You’re limited even if you live next door.
Please realize that restaurants also got some of this stock. Castro’s in the Beach, The Burger Bar in Kensington. I believe both still have stock as of tonight.
I waited in line for 6 hours and got my gift pack. Now I’d like to sell it. Any takers?