Buying bottles at a bar

It may very well be absurd but nobody says you have to buy it [and at that price, I wouldn't either]. But if they're pricing it there, someone must be willing to pay that price.

 

Yeah, but the cynical me says you should still check seasonals as well to make sure they weren't last years'. Doesn't apply in the case of breweries that put the year on the bottle, like SN Celebration.

 

I don't doubt that someone is buying it, though I'd have to imagine those purchases are few and far between. My main question though was this, what is the general % range of markup? I can understand a place putting 20-30% on a bottled beer, which is high but not awful. Anything above that seems greedy.

 

I'd think forget that.

 

So, I guess "beer is not the new wine" - since when served wine in a retail setting, the un-opened bottle is first shown the host (to verify it's the correct wine and vintage), the cork then removed and shown to the buyer, and then a sample given to the host to try the wine before accepting it.

Yet it's a "dick move" to ask about the freshness of a bottle of beer before purchase?

 

If they don't sell many, they don't need to stock many. And they may only have it on hand to say "we have {name your beer}" as bragging rights.

But greedy? Perhaps. It depends on the location, the type of place and the expectations of the customer. I see it all the time with stores - why do the prices vary $1 - $3 a 4pk or 6pk in stores less than 5 miles apart?

The answer - it's capitalism. You charge what the market will bear. Profits before people. If you haven't realized it as yet, get used to it.

 

A local craft beer bar her lowered the prices of its big Bottles late last year. They said big bottle sales were just 1% of there sales and they wanted to move it up. It is now 7-8% becuase they lowered the margin on them.

 

Its not at all uncommon up here for restaurants / bars to charge $7 for a can of Heady (twice what you'd pay in a store)...and people buy it. Certainly nothing I would buy, but I can understand those that do, especially if the draft options are not quite as good and cost a similar price.

 

In FL, I've seen Bois around $45-$55 in the bars...

 

yep all it takes is some drunk with the cash to ruin the prices for us all.....

 

I'll drink a bottle beer but prefer draft...there are a lot of old beers sitting in those coolers...buyer beware.

 

To be fair that is a 30 dollar bottle retail - maybe more in certain places. I know NJ liquor prices are somewhat lower than other states. So a twenty to thirty dollar markup is not all that outrageous. If it was a bottle of wine the markup would be more than double the cost.

How is this mindset acceptable with beer? Its a fair question to ask about freshness and a good server would be happy to find that information out for you. Make the customer happy; they drink more beer, if its really fresh, maybe a lot more beer, they get drunk, run up a big tab, and the server makes more money from the tip. If the beer isn't fresh than they order something else and the server doesn't waste time opening and throwing away an out of date bottle, instead the restaurant can send it back to the distributor for credit. Really everyone wins here.

Its not like your asking what region of Iowa they get their organic celery from...

 

Just to be clear on wine markup, "double" would be, double the price you'd see on a shelf. They usually shoot for 4x their wholesale cost. Wine by the glass price is ~usually~ the wholesale bottle cost.

Within reason, it's ok by me for a restaurant to charge the earlier mentioned $22 for sucaba. They earned a case by pouring/serving FW all year, and this let's your guy who might have been out of town pay ~$7 to get a second chance at it.

 

Lol. So, if you are in the grocery store and for some reason there isn't a date on the milk, or eggs, or cut of steak you're buying, you think it would be stupid to ask? WTF?! If I am going to spend my hard earned money on something, you're sure as shit right I'm going to make sure it is fresh.

 

This is otherwise know as economics 102. FYI - 101 is supply and demand.

 

I try not to buy bottles are bars because there is a high markup and I can get bottles at home, when I'm out I want beer on tap!

 

I've sent bad food back in several situations... I mean when it was embarrassingly bad... but has anyone sent a beer back? I will never order a bottle from a menu, I simply can't justify an $8 dollar bottle (even excellent craft), will only take draft. That said, I've never been given a skunk. I feel like 95% of people drink Coors and Miller Light and wouldn't remotely understand if I demanded they take my bottle back (unless I'm at a craft pub etc). One, is this acceptable? And two, does anyone have some funny stories about this? I just really feel like most people would tell me to go you know where "this beer is tainted, bring me something palatable!"

 

I probably should've explained my initial comment a little better. It really depends on the situation, but the comparison to a grocery store is way off the mark. Asking a hourly waged grocery store clerk to do a little digging to find out when some milk came in is one thing, asking a server to take time away from other tables (thus losing money) to figure out when your bottle of Sam Adams came in is another, especially if the bottle is not dated.
If I am in a dive bar where 99% of the people around me are drinking PBR, and the only craft they have in the cooler is Sierra Nevada, its a safe bet that Sierra Nevada has been in there a while, so I'm not going to ask the server to go check the date because common sense has already answered my question. Many craft beers don't have dates on the bottle, as you probably know, so what then? Would you ask the server to ask the bar manager when the beer was received? If the manager is off that night, maybe call them at home to find out before you decide to order the brew? Its your hard earned money man, wake that guy up!
If its a craft beer bar, its probably a safe bet the beer is properly rotated and someone on the staff gives a shit, so I'm not going to bother asking. If you get it, and its skunked, then BY ALL MEANS send it back, just like you would send out food that was cooked incorrectly or whatever.

 

I almost always work from the tap list at bars because bottle freshness is a constant problem even at good beer bars.

Asking to see a date before the bottle gets opened is NOT bad form at all, particularly if it is an expensive beer. If you are refused, then you likely have your answer.

 

When I order IPAs at a bar, I tend to order draft only, for the simple reason that I can't envision a discussion with a server regarding Julian dating, etc. that doesn't result in me looking like a huge douchebag. As others mentioned, seasonals are a good bet if you're aware of their release schedule, and there are a few beer bars that I trust will only stock fresh bottles and I feel comfortable ordering anything from them in that format.

In the end, this is an actual issue to some degree, and I've been burned before (a year-old Flower Power with gross sediment floating in it springs to mind). However, I don't think it's worth making a low-paid worker squint at yellow, smeared ink on the side of a bottle and coming across as a huge horse's ass. I'd rather suck it up and drink the occasional malt-bomb, even if I grumble a little to myself...