The New Brunswick Liquor Corp., a provincial Crown corporation, is giving away liquor during October.

Customers who buy a 12-pack of NB Liquor's brand of beer, Selection Light, will get a free 200-millilitre bottle of Seagram's 5-Star Canadian Whisky.

But not all customers are sold on the idea.

"I don't know much about that beer," said retired civil servant Roger Harley. "I've never had it."

As for the whisky?

"'Aged in white oak casks' — doesn't tell you how long," he said, clearly unimpressed as he read from the label of one of the whisky bottles.

NB Liquor will give customers who buy a 12-pack of its in-house beer, Selection Light, a free 200-millilitre bottle of Seagram's 5-Star Canadian Whisky during the month of October. (CBC) Selection sales have sagged since the discount product's successful launch in March.

But the promotion has nothing to do with boosting Selection, says NB Liquor spokeswoman Nora Lacey.

"It has far exceeded our expectations," she said.

"No, this is literally just an opportunity to test our new software, see if this is the kind of promotion that is of interest to New Brunswickers."

The new software allows NB Liquor to "bundle" different inventory items in a single price, said Lacey.

She declined to comment on the quality of Five Star Whisky, saying only that it's popular among Selection customers.

NB Liquor introduced Selection Light and Selection Lager to keep people from heading across the border in pursuit of cheaper suds. Officials estimated they were losing about $12 million in sales annually, primarily to Quebec.

It was a controversial move that infuriated local brewers.

NB Liquor had almost $380 million in sales during the last fiscal year.