Officials from Labatt Breweries have announced that they’ve uncovered how a handful of Stella Artois bottles were filled with ethanol instead of beer and ended up in the hands of drinkers at several Canadian bars earlier this year.Working in collaboration with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and bar owners across the country, the brewery found the affected bottles were meant for display purposes and were filled with concentrated alcohol as a replacement liquid; they were never meant to be consumed.

However, a handful of bars from Kamloops and Toronto accidentally placed the potent bottles in beer fridges and sold them to unsuspecting boozers. Patrons who drank from the bottles wound up vomiting and spitting out the pure alcohol.

Neil Sweeney, vice-president of corporate affairs for Labatt, said Canadian bar owners worked in collaboration with the brewery to inspect every bottle of Stella Artois being served across the country to ensure they were in fact filled with beer.

Labatt imports Stella Artois from Europe and distributes the brand across Canada. A press release from the brewery said new control procedures have been put in place to prevent a similar incident in the future.

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