I was on the phone with Cass Enright back on December 24th and he mentioned he had heard some terrific news from the LCBO earlier in the day - Garrison IPA, a beer Enright represents here in Ontario as he represents the Garrison Brewery, was accepted for the 2010 Autumn release.Back in October Enright and Brian Titus (Garrison Brewing Co. owner) agreed to submit the beer for consideration and it was tasted in November. You see, the LCBO sends out a pdf. file by the name "Product Needs" to breweries and importers for various intake periods and this particular one (Autumn) was calling for single serving format preferred (500 mL), which is exactly how the IPA is sold.
The file also had the terms "proven track record in other markets” and “award winning”, and if you know your beer, you'll know that the IPA was named the Canadian Beer of the Year in 2007 and 2008 at the Canadian Brewing Awards. That's a pretty easy sell. The LCBO would also have had to look at the two private orders Enright put together, which sold out very fast (in fact the first one soldout in 4 days).
Enright and Titus put together the required paperwork and sent it off, and that email Enright received from the LCBO on Christmas Eve was a nice early gift. The price hasn't been set as of yet, but if it comes in under $4.00 a bottle, which could be the case, it should be very popular with the hopheads.
What's really great about this news is how it's come to be. Yes, the beer is fantastic and having it be available at LCBO retail stores, even for a short period, is great. But all this happened because of Enright's drive to document the process for bringing a beer, even if it's from another province, into Ontario for consumer consumption with his Free Our Beer site. What started out as curiosity turned into a small business venture with Ontario beer drinkers reaping the rewards.
Head over to Enright's Free Our Beer site to read his latest post on the acceptance.
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