It was $77 a case, alchemist said they wouldn't allow price gouging while the brewery is closed down, $ 17 is gouging.
They sure made it sound in their press release that they were not interested in raising prices and that with brewery sales closed they would look to keep the same supply coming to their distributors. Sounded like they wouldn't allow those individuals to profiteer over their relocation efforts. If prices sky rocket, and it's allowed then all the press he's received and the quotes I've seen will all be bullshit. His chance to back up his words, he said the $77 case price was more than fair value for his product.
Don't blame the Alchemist if some d-bag retailer adds some mark up to Heady. The vast majority of retailers have held the price line, but this the land of free choice not a police state. People who pay the $17.99 are the problem, if nobody buys it at that price, then problem goes away. My guess is that if this continues to happen, they will slowly get less and less delivered to their store or people will smarten up and not buy it there. Even at $17.99 that's $4.50 a can and cheaper that many other DIPA's in the same class IHMO, so whats the real problem here?
Your quite right of course. But going off Klimmish's own words at the closing of the brewery, is that they will keep an eye on pricing and adjust deliverers accordingly, paraphrased of course. But there's a huge jump between what the brewery WOULD charge at $13.99, and retailers selling at $17, certainly not in the spirit in which he designed and runs Alchemist, he wasn't selling to what the market would bear, but to what he felt was a fair profit for his company. So we'll see, in any event its a short season till they reopen, which will fix everything even if some profiteers manage to make a few extra bucks.
In Vermont, due to the liquor laws, once your in an account it is very difficult to stop delivery without some one looking into it. The state would not consider excessive mark up a valid reason, especially since the retailers are not making much on Heady Topper anyways. The whole point with the Kimmich's holding the price is that they wanted this beer to be afforded by the locals that have long supported them. I could really care less if someone from out of state had to pay $17.99 for a 4pak. If they are stupid enough to pay it and not look around for a better price, oh well. We all get tired of people coming and buying multiple cases to trade, not consume. It kills me when I see a post of FT: Heady Topper from a Texas or New Mexico address. I question it's freshness and how well it was taken care of between point A & point B. We love to share our great beer, but some of this over top shit gets a bit silly.
I agree, I've never traded HT, I bring a case with me to the beach every July. Guys selling it in Philly for $10 a can is BS.
Retailers probably increased the price to cover the salary of the full time operators they had to hire to answer the question : "Do you have any Heady in stock"?
