Monday, March 03, 2008

In search of Reschs' Pilsener

I fear that this post will mean little except to very regular readers and especially Bob Q. Bob does not understand my liking for the beer, but will understand the point.

Since Woolworth's Eastlakes stopped supplying Reschs' Pilsener on the grounds of slow sales - only a few old fogies like me appear to still buy it - I have stopped buying any form of beer there and have gone instead to my local bottleshop.

Tonight was a minor disaster I went to the bottleshop, no Reschs! To the astonishment of the owners, this is no longer a high selling beer, someone came in and purchased their entire stock. Ah me, what could I do? I have to wait until Thursday when the next supplies will arrive.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jim,

A tragedy indeed, at least from your POV. Worse, it indicates a number of things:

1. Your bottleshop doesn't sell much in the way of the old Silver Bullet either if one customer can buy out the whole stock.

2. Such one-off mega purchases are not the answer - it doesn't encourage regularity of supply.

3. [snark] Most people agree with me on the taste of this beer. [/snark].

"But what can I do, Bob?" I hear you cry, your anguished tones echoing even in my farflung corner of the former Empire?

One of four things leaps to mind:

1. Drink locally, act locally. Talk to the bottleshop owner and literally ask that s/he conitnue to stock your brew of choice, ecplaining that you will in future eschew the evil that is Woolies' shelf stocking policy in favour of his her establishment. Problem if the bottleshop is a chain. BIG problem if it is BWS, owned by ...

2. Drink locally, act even more locally. As a South Australian, I have been very pleased to see the comeback made by various Coopers beers. They went through a period of being a niche product and one result was that you can still buy beer making kits which produce a relatively OK facsimile of the real thing. Maybe Reschs' does the same, or one of the standard pilsener kits would result in a tasty brew. It's cheap and costs about four hours (two x two hour slots) and makes an absorbing hobby. Homebrews actually mature and improve in the bottle. I know however that time is not your friend - never has been, that I recall.

3. Patience is a virtue. Wait for resupply. If it's hot at the moment, I'd recommend a bottle or two of Clare Valley Riesling to see you through. If the weather is cooling off, move to support your local winemakers with a Hunter Valley red.

4. If at first you don't succeed, hide the evidence that you ever tried. Switch brands again. Surrender to the power. Ugly, but an option. Moving to Coopers might see you safe as it is a family concern which fought off a takeover recently. Shareholders refused to take quite a generous offer.