Beer of the Week – Harviestoun Ola Dubh 40

Last summer, I wrote a blog post entitled "How Much Is Too Much?" that raised the question of whether or not the $25 I had spent on a single 375 ml bottle of beer at beerbistro was a reasonable price. I ended up concluding that it was, partly due to the scarcity (it was Zwanze 2008, a very rare beer from the renowned Belgian lambic brewery Cantillon), and partly due to it being a relative bargain compared to how much a similarly rare bottle of wine would cost, but mainly due to the fact that I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Of course, if you've ever been to beerbistro, you'll know that $25 is far from the highest price to be found on their bottle list. The folks there scour the globe for rare and classic beers, many of which are unavailable elsewhere in Toronto, or sometimes even Canada or North America, and paying a premium for such treats is expected. Similarly, the shelves of specialty beer stores in Buffalo and other American cities are stocked with a number of rare and limited beers with prices of $15, $20 or more.

One place where beer drinkers don't usually have to worry about their budget, however, is the LCBO. The buying power of the massive agency combined with the generally conservative choices of beer that's carried has meant that a bottle - even a 650 ml "bomber" style one - breaking the $10 mark has been a rare sight indeed. So when word started to circulate last fall that the LCBO would be bringing in a beer costing almost $20 for a 330 ml bottle, there was a great deal of speculation (including some from yours truly) that it would be a tough sell in a market where retail beer shoppers simply aren't used to such hefty price tags.

Oh, how wrong we were.

The beer in question is Harviestoun Ola Dubh 40, a beer that has some initial similarities to the popular Innis & Gunn brand in that it comes from Scotland, and is aged in whisky casks before bottling. But it's also quite different from I&G in several important ways: the base beer, a stronger version of their Old Engine Oil, is dark and rich, bordering on being an Imperial Stout; the quantity is much more limited; and most notably, unlike the mystery surrounding what casks are used for aging most of the I&G brands, the full series of Ola Dubh beers are aged exclusively in Highland Park casks, with the appended number (12, 16, 18, 30 or 40) indicating the age of the whisky that came out of the casks before the beer went in.

My only previous experience with Ola Dubh (a name which means "Black Oil", by the way) was during a Rare Beer Festival last January at Cole's, a renowned beer bar in Buffalo, where I sampled the 12, 18 and 30 year editions. However, it was so late in what was an infamously drunken evening that I didn't appreciate them nearly as much as I should have. So I was happy to hear that the LCBO would be taking the risk on such a pricey product as the Ola Dubh 40 (LCBO 143610 - $18.40/330 mL), as well as the more wallet-friendly Ola Dubh 12 (LCBO 107672 - $5.45/330 mL), but I really didn't think that enough other people would feel the same way to make it a success.

The LCBO played it smart, though, and treated it like one of the rare wines or spirits that they bring in for Vintages. Only 30 cases of 12 bottles each were ordered, and the plan was to ration them amongst a handful of key stores in major centres where they'd be more likely to find a market. An early review in the Toronto Star got some buzz going, as did some discussion on the Bar Towel, and a lot of people were excited about getting their hands on a bottle or two.

But then things went a bit pear-shaped when a distribution glitch meant that 20 of the 30 cases got sent to the Summerhill LCBO, where they sold out in a matter of hours. The remaining 10 cases got out to a few more stores where they didn't last much longer (it was only through the kindness of a particular LCBO employee and a bit of subterfuge that I was able to acquire the bottle being reviewed here), and while the wider distribution and larger numbers of the Ola Dubh 12 meant that it had a slightly longer shelf life, the reflected glow of its rarer and dearer sibling meant that it had all but disappeared by end of the holidays.

So was it worth the hype, the hassle, and most importantly, the price? Yes to all three, at least as far as I'm concerned. Pouring a jet black with a thin and creamy mocha head, it immediately gives off a robust and complex aroma that contains everything from charred malt and cocoa to coffee and oak, with swirling wisps of vanilla and anise, some hints of dark fruit, and sharp notes of wood and peat and smoke from its time in the barrel. The flavour is a virtual replica of the aroma, with all of the same elements coming out at various points, although with a bit more subtlety than suggested by the aroma. (As a point of comparison, while the Ola Dubh 12 has a mellower and less complex aroma than the 40, they have somewhat similar flavour profiles.) Quite simply, it's one of the best beers the LCBO has ever stocked, and it's a shame that more people weren't able to get their hands on it when it was here.

Or rather, it would've been a shame, except that the powers-that-be at the LCBO were so impressed by the sudden sell-out that they ordered a further 100 cases almost immediately, and they should be arriving sometime in February. So consider this a warning to keep an eye on the shelves and online inventory, and hope that there's not quite the same level of feeding frenzy when the restock arrives, as this is a brew that every lover of good beer deserves to try at least once, hefty price tag or not.