Effective price

The effective price is the valid sale price when a sale applies, otherwise the regular price. A sale applies only when its price is positive, lower than the regular price when one exists, and its end date is absent or on or after the observation date. An ended sale, or a sale price at or above the regular price, gives no discount.

Deposits stay out of the price. The app excludes refundable container deposits from the effective price and from each unit value. The app shows a supplied deposit beside the price and leaves it out of comparisons.

Value calculations

The app converts each listing to its package total before comparison. It judges a 6 × 355 ml pack and a 24 × 341 ml case by total volume.

The app calculates values in dollars and keeps full precision for ranking. It rounds a value for display. Two products can both show $1.75 per beer and rank by unrounded values; name and id break ties.

Standard drink

The catalogue uses the Canadian standard drink definition of 17.05 ml of pure alcohol. The calculation is:

standard drinks = total volume (ml) × ABV (%) ÷ 100 ÷ 17.05

A 341 ml bottle at 5% ABV holds about 1.0 standard drink. A 473 ml can at 5% ABV holds about 1.4. A product missing ABV or volume shows Not available for drink-based values. You can browse and open it.

Price history

The app defines an observation as one retailer listing on one date. It sets the recent window to the trailing 30 days that end at the dataset capture date. The window ignores the visitor's clock. The largest recent decrease is the largest percentage drop between consecutive effective-price observations with the later observation inside that window. The app uses the dollar drop as the tie-breaker.

The catalogue price cell shows the historical low: the lowest effective price in the product's observed series. With one observation, the low equals the current price and the change line shows 0.0% and $0.00. The compare matrix uses Tracking started plus the date for a one-observation product in its Change row. For a one-observation sale, the app uses the regular price from the same observation as the comparator for the percentage difference.

Stability is (highest − lowest) ÷ lowest over the reliable effective-price history. The app needs observations on at least two distinct dates. With one observation, the app makes no trend claim. The app uses observed effective prices only.

A product with a single observation still shows its Historical low and its 0.0% / $0.00 change line against that low.

Missing and unverified data

The app renders missing or unreliable values as Not available or Not verified. It does not render zero for a missing value. The app keeps a product with an unknown volume, ABV, or price in the catalogue. You can search and inspect it. The app excludes it from best-value statistics and from the top of value sorts. The app sorts null values last in both ascending and descending sorts.

A listing is stale when its newest observation is more than 30 days older than the dataset capture date (45 days for Costco). Stale listings keep their history and stay searchable, but the app treats them as not verified. They are excluded from value leaders and the On sale filter, and the price cell shows the date they were last seen.

The summary strip counts each product in the filtered result set. The two lowest-value statistics and the largest-drop statistic include verified products with a computable value. An empty set shows a dash and a short explanation. The app does not invent an eligible product.

Filtering and ranking

The app matches search across product name, brand, brewery, and style without regard to accents or case. The app combines multiple filters with AND. Choices inside a categorical facet combine with OR. Numeric ranges include the end values. An impossible range shows an inline error; the app does not swap the bounds.

Products below 1% ABV are excluded by default. The switch beside the ABV slider title brings them back, and it unchecks itself whenever the ABV floor drops below 1%. On sale keeps products with a valid sale. The preferred value metric changes the emphasis in each row and leaves the active sort alone. You choose the sort. The app writes each control to the URL, so you get the same view after a reload or browser back/forward.

Comparing products

You can compare two to four products. The app gives each retailer listing its own column. It does not match listings across retailers by name similarity. The app keeps an LCBO listing separate from a similar Beer Store listing.

The app marks Best for the lowest value on four normalized cost rows: price per beer, price per 100 ml, price per standard drink, and price per litre of pure alcohol. The app shows sticker price and price per container in the matrix and gives them no Best mark; they do not normalize for package or container size.

• The app gives ABV, retailer, container type, pack size, and total volume no value judgment.
• Ties share Best.
• The app gives a product with no comparable value or a Not verified flag no Best.

Sources

Dataset captured 11 Nov 2026. Provenance: retailer-collection. You can trace each LCBO and Beer Store observation to its source URL and observation date. The compare matrix shows both. The catalogue links to the current source. Costco rows carry no source link.

• LCBO https://www.lcbo.com/en/products/beer
• The Beer Store https://www.thebeerstore.ca/beers/
• Costco https://www.costco.ca/

BeerPlease has no affiliation with LCBO, The Beer Store, or Costco. Product and retailer names identify the observed listings. The app implies no endorsement.