I just came across this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/dining/03beer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 where the author talks about his experience trying a bunch of lambics in NYC. He then lists the prices for some of the bottles... $12 for 750 of Cantillon Organic Gueuze $13 for 750 3F Oude Gueuze $22 for 750 LP Kriek ('03 had in '06) Did the average prices for these really blow up THAT much? Those are apparently prices from Shelton Bros just 7 years ago...
Yes. Here in MI, 12 years back they were even cheaper. Found an empty 375 of Hansenn's Kriek from back in the day, $4.99 on sale for $3.99. Yes those went on sale to clear them out.
Cantillon here in cali is generally 30-50$ a bottle.. I bought 4 from belgium , I believe from belgium in a box for about 100$ about 3/4 of that was shipping.
That sounds about right. I think I paid about $14.99 in Chicago for my first bottle of Classic Gueuze in 2008 or 2009, right before they started disappearing off shelves everywhere.
I like Belgians’ as the next guy but the freshness to price ratio is just plain wrong. With the exception of Lambic and Gueuze brews I’m a fan of Ommegang which is brewed over in NY. Pretty sure they are a Belgian company too.
Cantillon used to be what many now refer to as shelf turds. Like others have said, they were routinely discounted because they didn't move very fast. I never really thought sours would catch on like they have. I bought them back then, but I wished I'd bought more.
They're ridiculously priced over here in the states. We just spent 3 years over there not too long ago. We were shocked at what shops were charging here for some of our favorites. Is exporting really that costly?
The example I gave for shipping was 100 euro for 20 kilo box via Dutch post. Even discounting for commercial shipping, that easily triples the price of most glass bottles brought to the US. Individuals bringing them in may pay pennies per bottle in duties and tariffs, but commercial imports pay much more. So we are now talking about what starts out as a 3 euro bottle (about $3.75-$4) already costing $10-15 to bring it in. Add distributor and retailer markup and you're already up in the stratosphere. For the larger-batch shipments--Chimay, Duvel--the shipping costs are a bit lower, which is why $10-15 is retail for those. For BMC product (e.g., Leffe-Hoegaarden-SA), the company cuts out a lot of middlemen due to its own power, so costs are lower. But for something like Cantillon, there are a lot of obstacles. English and German beers seem to suffer the same problem. The real question is why some US brewers who don't have the same shipping costs and tariffs end up charging as much as or more. Ommegang==Duvel. I don't believe they ever got into sours, but they might make a couple of wild-yeast beers. Freshness is not an issue with most Belgian ales as they were always meant to be cellared. Blondes and Wits are another matter, which is why we don't see as many of them imported.
