Is the Von Bugle experiment over?

It's all fun and games until your TV show gets canceled. Then
it's all "well, WTF happens now?" The word from the Evans
Avenue Von Bugle brewery in Etobicoke is that the brewery
has ceased production of the fledgling Munich Lager. Ooops!

I didn't think twice when my store got an email saying to yank our remaining Von Bugle Munich Lager stock and send it back with our Steam Whistle bottle returns.

Truthfully, it happens all the time. Breweries review their sales at each individual store and tend to yank their lowest-selling product. Why? Because individual shelf space costs them money, both where I work, as well as at the LCBO. So they yank the bottom performers and replace them with another beer or a brand new sku in the hopes that it will perform a little better sales-wise.

With Steam Whistle Pilsner being our largest selling craft beer (by a humongous margin) and the Steam Whistle Session Lager selling fairly well, Von Bugle, owned by Steam Whistle, was bound to have a, well, limited shelf life, so to speak. And that's why I wasn't the least bit surprised when I went into the cooler to grab the last of the Von Bugle for return.

Seeing this Jessie Milns photo of Von Bugle, taken for BlogTO, reminded me that
I've never actually visited the brewery. I was kinda, "So THAT'S what it looks
like!" That's odd because I'm in and around the area all the time, stopping at
places like Great Lakes Brewing and Black Oak Brewing. Now I HAVE to go
just to see what happens with this sign. And that car. Now a collector's item???

However, it didn't take long for me to hear that no, this wasn't simply a shift out of my store. It was a full movement out of all the stores and the LCBOs. In fact, according to a couple of folks inside the Etobicoke plant, they haven't brewed or canned Von Bugle since the beginning of the Summer. Geez, where will I get my Munich Lagers now, I cried??? This is seriously the kind of thing that keeps me up all night. Okay, call it indigestion if you wanna get all technical and medical about it.

Cecil!!!! I haven't seen this guy in probably six years when I was at a different
Beer Store in Oakville. Back then, he was filling in for someone on maternity
leave. This time, when he popped into my store in May, he was filling in for
someone... on maternity leave. But it's funny. When we first met, I was still
a clean-cut fellow (okay, certainly less hairy, sloth-like and disheveled) and
he had maybe four-inch dreads. Now I'm a hippie and he piles his foot-long
dreads into his cap. "What happened to us?" I laughed when we met again.
"We used to be so cut-clean and respectable!" Granted, Cecil still is. It's me.

So if Von Bugle has been discontinued (no official statement issued yet), does that mean its namesake brewery on Evans Avenue in Etobicoke is shutting down?

Well, no, it can't. You see, in that world that existed pre-plague (remember that - it was called 2018 and whoever thought we'd look back at that craptastic year with any sense of nostalgic joy?), the folks at Steam Whistle shifted most of their brewing equipment out of the historic Roundhouse and into the Evans Avenue facility. And why would they do that? I mean, that's the OG brewery. What's the dealio?

I apologize for the kaiser as everyone knows I much prefer
my super-famous roast beef and Swiss cheese sandwiches
on an onion bun. However, Metro was out, letting down
not just me but society itself. Anyhow, this past Summer,
Steam Whistle, under contract with New Belgium Brewing
out of Colorado, finally started brewing Voodoo Ranger
IPA. The malt level is under dispute within the Brew Crew.

Well, when founders Greg Taylor, Cam Heaps and Greg Cromwell all left the brewery (Cromwell quite early in the run though I believe Taylor is now back in the fold), the brewery became run by a Board of Directors. In the shrewd financial wisdom of a board filled with business minds, they realized they were sitting on - or rather, in - a cash cow. The Steam Whistle Roundhouse. Given its historical significance in Toronto and desirable on-the-lake location beside whatever the Sky Dome is called now, it seemed it was a preferred location for things such as wedding receptions and smallish business conventions. That's some Big Cheddar right there. Kahhh-ching!

So a couple years back, they shifted almost all brewing equipment to Evan Avenue, leaving just enough in the Roundhouse to fill kegs... for all those Toronto and area restaurants that are about to be shut down tight for the second time this year. The equipment shift opened up tons of new floor space and I think they now have four separate banquet spaces there... for all those weddings that aren't happening this year.

This would be Bryan serving me up a New
Belgian Fat Tire Amber Ale at The Golden
Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas back in
September 2019. The on-tap version was
so metallic, I had to return it instantly. But
Bryan graciously replaced it with a Stone
IPA (which tasted as fantastic as always...)

Just as Monty Python warned us that "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!!" neither did we expect a massive global pandemic of this magnitude. (Anyone else suffering from Covid Fatigue because I sure am and I don't even think we're halfway through yet.)

So what happens with Von Bugle now? Well, we know the building stays put as it is a necessity to Steam Whistle. Actually, it pretty much is Steam Whistle minus the Roundhouse. The Munich Lager seems done but that doesn't preclude a new brew (Von Bugle Porter, anyone?) in the future. And Steam Whistle's licensing deal with Colorado's New Belgium Brewing likely means many more beers on top of Fat Tire Amber Ale and Voodoo Ranger IPA. (If I can suggest the Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA? I've heard tell those hazy beers are popular up here. Outside the IPA genre, that Fat Tire Belgian White Ale would be cool and I think more than a few of my friends would enjoy their 8.5% Trippel Belgian Style Ale.)

But let's look back a bit at the release of the Fat Tire Amber Ale up here. Amidst much hoopla, Steam Whistle released the beer with a special party on May 7, 2019. Being super familiar with it through my Las Vegas trips, I was thrilled. It's my favourite American Red Ale. My morning routine down there is "coffee, a little breakie to pad the gut, a Fat Tire for a smooth transition into the drinking portion of the inevitable shit-show and then come the IPAs!"

This happy chap is noted Toronto Beer Historian Gary
Gillman. I got to meet Gary and his wife, Libby, in an
Oakville parking lot back in early June so that they
could give me some cans of a collaboration beer that
Gary did with Amsterdam Brewing. The result, using
a historic recipe, was the English Bitter 1870 AK . It
was brewed with all British ingredients. Lots of fun to
 try a beer from a 150 year old recipe. Old school cool.

Within a week or two, the Fat Tire landed in my store - six-pack bottles, identical to the ones used in America. Naturally, I was thrilled and dove in head-first. And in fact, I was so impressed with the Steam Whistle Fat Tire that I declared on Twitter that it might actually be superior to the one brewed in Colorado.

"Uhh, not so fast there, cowboy," said noted Toronto Beer Historian Gary Gillman (quote is not even remotely accurate), who's exceptionally well-travelled and incredibly knowledgeable about beer and other beverages. Food, too, now that I think of it, Basically, he's a Renaissance Man. Turns out Gary had the Fat Tire on tap at a Toronto pub and having enjoyed the American version many times, he wasn't wowed. A little acrid, I believe he said. I suggested that perhaps the lines weren't clean and that he should try the bottles. Eventually he did and while the bottles were a significant step-up in the direction of the original, he still preferred the American version.

Well, since I only take carry-ons when I go to Vegas, meaning no liquids, I decided when I returned to my favourite vacation destination, I would have to sample yet more Fat Tire to decide which version was better in my mind.

The only thing cooler than enjoying a New Belgium Fat Tire Amber
Ale on a slot machine in Las Vegas would be me actually being in
Las Vegas, like, right now!! Damn you Covid. You are stealing my
most simple joy!!! That said, I think Gary's right. The Colorado
version of Fat Tire might just have a wee step up on our version.

So I did. When I returned in September 2019, I landed at The Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas on Fremont Street. Like many casinos, they happened to have Fat Tire on tap so on Night One, I ordered it.

My bartender, Bryan, who two days into my trip just started calling me "Canada" (as in "Hey, Canada, what's up?"), poured me a pint of the Fat Tire. Man, I wish it was just a little acrid. It was flat-out metallic. Nothing like it is in the bottle you see to the left. I quickly returned it and Bryan replaced it with a Stone IPA which was flat-out perfect. So, in conclusion there, both Gary and myself were 0-for-2 on the tap version.

Simple enough, mind you. On Day Two, I had it from the bottle and it was perfect. Better than our version?

When I arrived at the Downtown Grand just off Fremont Street in Downtown
Las Vegas for Birthday Week in mid-February 2020, the young fellow at the
check-in desk asked if I wanted a room fridge. I simply replied, "Mmmm K."
Whereas my friends Mark from London and Laura from El Paso need room
fridges for their diabetes medicine, I was left wondering what medicine I
could put in my fridge. Found a couple of high-ABV IPAs that could cure me.

Well now, I'm not gonna say Gary was right and I was wrong. But I will say this. Gary was right and I was wrong. But I was only marginally wrong. The Canadian version, I still maintain, is top-notch. But the American version is a little deeper and richer in flavour. Perhaps my often-stated love for Red Ales made me root for the home team a little more.

Anyways, that's all the latest Steam Whistle, New Belgium and Von Bugle news I have. So, Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...