…Or, A Man and his Ale: A Love Story.
About four years ago, I found a wonderful beer while I was at, of all places, Disney World. The beer is Trois Pistoles. It’s a strong dark ale, rich but not bitter. It was love at first taste but, like many love stories, tragedy followed soon after. I returned to my home and found that it was not available in Arizona (It’s brewed in Quebec). Despite the crushing blow of my disappointment, I managed to carry on. I found the beer a couple more times (my search for it in Montreal is a story in itself) but whenever I asked for it locally there was no joy in beerville.
Then about a year ago, my father told me that he’d gotten a set of interesting beers as a gift and wanted to know if I was interested in sharing. When he told me the beers, I nearly fell out of my chair. Trois Pistoles was one of them! (It was sort of funny. He asked if I’d ever heard of them). I also found that they’d been bought at AJ’s (a local fine foods store). Oh joy! Oh Rapture! Oh bugger - there’s a hitch. It turns out that although they carry the beers, they only carry them in a 750 ML size. And this beer is potent - about 9% alcohol. So 750 ML just won’t work for everyday use.
So my search for a source of 12 oz bottles continued. I found that it could be ordered by the case, but the cost would be fatal (as my wife would kill me for spending that much on a case of beer). But I continued to inquire.
And then I talked to one of the liquor managers at Cost Plus. He told me that they normally only get it in 750s (they started carrying it a couple of months ago) but that he could special order a case. Just out of idle curiosity, I asked the price and was astonished when he quoted me a little less than half of what others had.
I didn’t quite squeak when I told him to go ahead and order it.
My beer arrived, but when I spoke to the manager he told me that he had misquoted the price. It was, in fact, about twice as much… but then he informed me that they were willing to honor the quoted price!
I’m sitting here now, happily sipping. My only question is what I’m going to do when this case is gone. But for now, I’m in my happy beer place. Mmmmmmmmm.