Ballast Point Sculpin in CT

I'm seeing them around Boston for $12.99-$13.69

 

I recognize that the bomber price / oz is a bigger rip off almost 100% of the time, but that's a completely separate issue. Charging $16.99 for a 7% IPA is unusual, and there is definitely something wrong there.

 

Same date as mine from Norwalk... Drinking it now

 

Pretty good. The girlfriend REALLY liked it. Took a sip and said "yummmm"

 

While I understand you completely, I fail to see how the bomber pricing is "a completely separate issue" when the beer in both cases is identical.

If we're going to get upset about something, it should be the fact that there are so many beers like this 7% IPA being sold for $6+/bomber, not that there's one isolated example of a a $17 sixpack. The logic in your post would suggest that as long as ripoffs are commonplace, they're ok, when I feel it is precisely the commonplace ripoff that deserves greater outcry.

 

I guess what I'm getting at is that bombers being sold at stupid price points is a much wider reaching issue that can't be dealt with by simply complaining to Coastal Wine, while the $16.99 Big Eye is.

 

Certainly, complaining about the sixpack to Coastal is a much more winnable issue. However, you also decided to complain about that sixpack on BeerAdvocate. Doing the latter clearly isn't going to get any particular price lowered at any particular store, but it can help to educate others and raise awareness about pricing problems that we all face as beer consumers.

The $16.99 sixpack (which we both agree is outrageously expensive) at Coastal is a very minor problem in the scheme of things, and therefore doesn't require much attention on a beer forum.

The $5.99 bomber of the exact same beer at the exact same store offends me much more, both because it is even more expensive and, much more importantly, because nobody seems to feel that it merits attention - and it is this complacency about high bomber prices that lets them persist.

Before someone on BA pointed out to me just what a racket the bomber market was, I was one of those complacent bomber consumers who saw $7 as a fair price for Ruination, while a $18 sixpack of the same beer struck me as an unconscionable ripoff...even though the bomber is actually 27% more expensive per ounce for precisely the same contents. Why do people react this way to beer pricing? I'm guessing it's a combination of sticker shock (e.g., $18>$7, so the latter must be the better deal) and making comparisons based on similar containers instead of similar beers (a $7 bomber is right in line with average bomber prices, but an $18 sixpack is way more than most, so...).

Only when we enough consumers start thinking about what they're actually paying is there any hope of bomber prices coming down into a reasonable realm.

 

It is for this reason the only bombers you will see in my fridge are ones where that is the only way the beer is packaged. I will only get Sculpin when I see it in fresh 6 pack form across the border in NY.

 

Maybe time to write to Ballast Point directly, there is a huge stink of price gouging going on here in CT. How is the price almost $7.00 higher in CT? Ridiculous!!

 

Are we even sure this is mispriced? The last time I saw Big Eye in CT I think it was $14/sixpack at the Wine Thief, and that was over a year ago. Coastal isn't exactly known for rock-bottom pricing, either, so combine a price increase from the brewery with a proportional increase in the distributor's cut, and $17 isn't hard to comprehend.

Again, a $17 sixpack is the equivalent of $5.19 bomber, or a $11.33 fourpack. Neither of those prices sounds terribly outlandish for a 7% IPA, now does it? How many people complain as much about $12 fourpacks of Green Flash WCIPA? Who complains about $6 bombers of countless similar (and even identical!) beers?

If you want a value IPA, pick up some fresh Sea Hag at NEBCO - the last time I was in there they were selling sixers for $8 ($2.44/bomber equivalent). If you really must have Big Eye, though, even a $17 sixpack is a better value than a $6 bomber. Just saying.

 

Yes unless no one in MA is making any money on it:

Edit** BTW the Hag is always in my fridge

 

And another post about MA prices pegged it between $13 and $14; it seems just as likely that the $10 was a pricing error as the $17.

And good call on the Hag.

 

Could be right... Just weird that Big Eye would be pricier than Sculpin in a six pack format.

 

Why? Both are 7%, both are hoppy; I've always thought of them as basically identical beers except for the hop profiles, which - while radically different - wouldn't seem to merit radically different pricing. Maybe Sculpin uses a ton more hops than Big Eye, but I always thought the higher price it commanded in CT was due to its bomber-only format and its hype, not the material costs.

I'd be curious to hear from someone who's seen the wholesale prices of both beers in sixpacks in the same market.

 

Bomber mark up is huge if that place in Norwalk is selling them for $7.49 per bottle, so I can only imagine the sixers are several dollars more as well from wholesale price.

 

Picked up a bomber at Coastal in Branford yesterday.....$9.99

I def. remember paying $8.99 there the last time Sculpin came around,like a year ago?

I had this brew in the can recently,lovely.Wish we could see them here.

Cheers All......

 

I also remember payiing $12.99++ @Coastal last time I bought Big Eye there too.

Not sure whats going on w/the current price now.