Steam Whistle Offering Expensive Home Delivery
Steam Whistle Brewing has launched a new delivery service, dropping off cases or draught kegs of their pilsner for customers around the GTA.
For a $45 delivery charge, fans of the Toronto beer can have a minimum of three 24 cases or one 30 litre keg delivered to their front door with 50 cups, ice, education on the proper pouring techniques as well as pick-up.
When I first learned about this service, I thought it was very expensive. After a quick look into beer services, I have found that the option is good if you want to order a keg...if you are going for the cases, you might want to think otherwise.
If you are looking to offer/have a variety of beer, going to a local beer store or LCBO and getting to choose from a large selection of bevies and hopping into a cab will cost far less than what they are charging. 3 bags of ice and a sleeve of cups will cost me at most $10.
Heck, if I was really desperate, I would call Dial A Bottle Toronto and pay their minimum service charge of $7. I am not sure how far in advance you need to place your order, but with iDial-A-Bottle, I only need 1 hour for delivery. But alas, they don't deliver kegs.
If you do want the keg, the costs aren't too bad. If you purchase a keg from the Beer Store, you have to make a jaunt out to a distribution centre (Brampton is the closest one - yikes!) or inquire with your local store to see if they have any on hand. I am guessing you have to drop it off as well, which is time plus cab fare (I can't image carrying the thing on the TTC). You also have to pay a $15 tap cleaning fee.
The beer education also may make it worthwhile and interesting. However, I like to think that many of us that drink beer have probably seen enough bartenders pour a pint or two.
I personally don't think this service interests me, even if I was a diehard Steam Whistle fan. If I was hosting a party, and wanted to serve some brew, I sure wouldn't just offer one type of beer and that is what I feel this service is making me do.
Cheers.
Comments (8)
Does the "beer education" mean how to pour, or is it more in depth than that? Does the bartender talk about the history or beer-making, how beer is made today, differences between ales and lagers, etc?
I can see this service being a plus for people that don't want to face the hassles of running around lugging kegs and such.
Also, if you're throwing a BIG party with more than one keg, that delivery charge starts to shrink.
I think Steam Whistle's home service feature is great! I have purchased kegs from Steam Whistle before and their 50 litre sized kegs (which I bought) weigh a whopping 150 pounds.
Last summer I bought two kegs for a house party. I took a cab from the brewery and had to haul
them both out of the taxi personally, then lug them one by one up my apartment's stairs. Not an easy task. The trek to the store, and all the hauling upstairs took me a good hour and a half. Post-party I wasn't sore from a hangover. I was aching from the workout!
Finally, I had to drag the empties in a cab BACK to the brewery to get my 2 x $50 keg deposits back. The cabs cost me $14 each way for a total of $28 bucks. When you factor that in plus the fact that they give you ice and cups, you're really only paying $5 or $10 extra dollars for the service. Believe me, having done all the work myself before it's worth it. I am surprised that's all they charge, actually. And the beer pouring lesson would be helpful. While I know how to pour a beer, setting the kegs can be fickle when it comes to having them setting up to draught systems and pumps.
My friends and I throw and annual kegger each spring and will definitely be calling the beer folks at Steam Whistle for help. We're all big Steam fans so we don't have a problem drinking one brand. As they say, they do one thing really well! :)
It's good to have a service like this for kegs, it's too bad their beer tastes like bottled old sweat. Gross!
Steamwhistle blows, literally!
It goes much deeper then just how to pour a beer. Steamwistle has alot of unique features and you have to remeber that the boom in micro and craft breweries that actaully ushered in choice in Toronto was started by this company, in one guise (SteamW) or another (.. shit I can't remember what the company that Labbat bought from them is).
If your not going to drink the standard Canadian fair then a little beer-du-cation is a nice touch.
It would be awesome if you could customize the service to 3 different levels of education.
Simple: How to pour a perfect pint.
Steam: About the brewery and the beer.
Savant: About IBU's, and beer history.
I would love to get my beer snobs together and do an entire beer history evening with cigars and vice.
SteamWhistle is an AWESOME, CLEAN & TASTY beer. Drink any North American garbage & catch a nasty hangover - why ?? Most breweries use so many CHEMICALS in their beers like head stablizers, colors, additives, etc. SWhistle ONLY puts 4 ingreidents in their BEER, .... BRAVO, just like the Bavarian Purity Law but we need not wait for it to come from Europe, SteamWhistle Beer is #1
And just another thing the author failed to mention with the home deliveries, but instead of a normal keg pump that one usually gets from buying kegs, the Steam Whistle home delivery also gives you a cool flash cooler as a rental unit for your party. So instead of an annoying keg pump, you instead have a cool modified retro cooler, with a beer line, and a line for pressurized CO2, pour ice in the cooler, and the beer will run through an iced coil, coming out of a tap on the outside of the cooler. So really, all you gotta do is pour, and you get ice cold draught.
THAT, in addition to the glasses, and pick up by Steam Whistle of all the stuff, would definitely make home delivery very attractive for me.
Did I also mention that they can provide glassware or BIODEGRADABLE plastic cups? I don't think you can buy those and ice for under $10. All in all, I think it would make for a classier event...
I agree with the first comment-er. Use Dial A bottle. They are like 8 bucks and 10%. Cheaper than a cab. Good guys too. 416-502-BEER or 2337. I use them at least once a month when I've consumed over the new .05 law....;D
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