Why?

Well, if I’m traveling in Europe, I want to be independent and not feel I must waste hours going out of my way seeking one beer. ANY beer. The alternative cost then of any Belgian beer found over here is pretty reasonable, compared to what lost hours on a trip may potentially cost – I’m talking not only dollars, but potential experiences.

This is not to say I will never travel where the beer AND the experience is good! That would make me a liar.

But it’s something entirely worthy to enjoy the exotic taste of a rarely-found Belgian beer right here, at a local bar, with friends at home, or curled up on one’s sofa. The sights aromas and tastes can seem to sweep one away to another place, as a break from the usual Toronto work week. For a minute you can feel like you are in Belgium, or Bavaria, or Prague, or Brooklyn NYC. A whole experience is right there.

Expensive beer is then perhaps just a very well-bottled form of the experience one gets in travel.

And while it IS bloody hard not to steal the glass, the experience is the real keepsake.

From Tuscany?

at a rough cost of $15-16 per 750 Ml for the restaurant they would be in that class of costly brews ?

Glenn

And to be fair to relative value, I happily pay as much for 1970s Doctor Who DVDs… though I can hit the button for a replay in that case.

As far as retail goes, I think the most I’ve spent for a beer of a comparable size is the $18 or so I dropped for a bottle of Westy 12 when it was briefly available at Premier Gourmet in Buffalo a few years ago. I think it was around US$12 at a time when the exchange rate sucked, and it was amongst a bunch of other beer that got us pinged for duty. But I felt that it was well worth it at the time. I will likely take a pass, however, on the $45 that is rumored as being the price in at least one Toronto bar that has got some of the grey market Westy 12 that has recently entered the city…

Stephen: Yes, I definitely feel that I got my moneys worth. It’s a beautiful beer (as I expected from Cantillon), it fit the moment perfectly, and it didn’t leave me with even a smidgen of buyer’s remorse.

But it also made me ask myself: Would I have bought it if it were $30? Or $40? Or $50? (See Westy 12 comment above.) Again: How much is too much? It probably depends on the beer, and the time, and the place, and how flush I happen to be at the moment – a ultimately, how much enjoyment I expect I’ll get out of it.

Flavius: You raise good points/questions. I ask myself the same thing sometimes, especially if I’m not sure what I want and I’m scanning the menu for options. In this case, I knew exactly what I was going in for, and didn’t do any calculations about what else I could’ve gotten for the money – but sometimes, it makes sense to do that.

Frank: Dunno if I completely agree with your math there – weren’t there other things you saw and did and drank and ate in Montreal that should come out of that $600 as well? But yeah, samples at festivals – especially those that you travel to – always have a fairly high unit cost attached to them. In those scenarios, I try not to think about it too much, and just enjoy.

Vanessa: Yup, ’nuff said.