Earlier today Steam Whistle Brewing announced a partnership with Grocery Gateway, a division of Longos that handles home grocery delivery. The partnership means that if you're ordering groceries for home delivery, you can add a few Steam Whistles to your order as well.

The service, which naturally comes at a premium means you'll be able to order 12 packs of bottles, 6 packs of cans, ($1.50 fee) or even single tallboys of pilsner ($0.50 fee) to your grocery order (the press release even boasts that they'll be delivered chilled!).

Unfortunately, if you're thirsty right now, you'll still need to put on pants and leave the house for beer (or call someone else). The press release was devoid of one important piece of information, namely "How fast can you bring me the beer?!" so I called Grocery Gateway's customer service line and confirmed that the fastest delivery possible is next day — specifically, if you order beer or groceries today before 7pm, you can expect your order to show up sometime tomorrow between 6am and 7am (but, hey, what a great wake up call!).

While it's only Steam Whistle for now, and only when ordered from a grocery delivery service, this partnership might just be just the first step toward Toronto's craft brewers finding innovative ways to sell their products in a province that often makes it hard for them to do so, and that could be good for everyone.

Is this a step in the right direction?

Photo from Steam Whistle's Facebook page